Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1935. VENIZELOS AND GREECE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 129, 13 March 1935, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1935. VENIZELOS AND GREECE.

The revolt in Greece, now collapsing, is said to have failed largely because Venizelos was forced to act prematurely in order to forestall another plotter to whom he declined to play second fiddle. The position of the reputed leader of the uprising is a striking commentary on the changes of fortune that may attend men in countries where social and political stability is lacking. Some years ago Venizelos was hailed as the greatest statesman on the European Continent, and at a time when outstanding figures were more numerous than they are today, death having claimed most of the strong men of the war period. Venizelos was born at Mournies, in the Island of Crete, in 1864, his father being a merchant of Canea, who was exiled two years after the birth of his son for participation in the Cretan revolt against Turkish rule. Venizelos studied ior the law, and entering the politicai arena as a young man, became one of the most celebrated figures that Greek politics has produced in modern times. Having been Prime Minister since 1911 he attempted to bring Greece into the Great War in partnership with the Allies, but his plans were defeated by the action of King Constantine, who refused to sanction any active opposition to the Central Powers. This led to his resignation in 1915, but he was Recalled two years later. After the Armistice of 1918, and the assembling of the Peace Conference at Paris, Venizelos took up the diplomatic struggle for the rights of Greece. Between November, 1918, and August, 1920, he and colleagues of the Greek delegation were almost continuously absent in Paris or London. Never before had a Greek statesman achieved such magnificent results for his country. Yet, no sooner was his triumph complete, than an attempt was made upon his life by a couple of young Greek naval officers; and three months later the Greek election gave a crushing majority to his political opponents. Greek history is indeed full of such acts of popular Jngratitude to public men. Then in 1928 Venizelos was again entrusted with the premiership, which he held until March, 1932. Since then he has not been much m the public eye. Greece has not, like so many of its neighbours, succumbed to a dictatorship. It was described recently as one of the few European States in which the parliamentary system is held in respect, and, though the revolt suggests a contradiction in terms, it is noteworthy that both IVL Tsaldaris and M. Venizelos conducted their feud generally on more or less constitutional lines, with occasional resort to machinations involving violence. M. Tsaldaris replied to the armed rising by the abolition of the Senate, which is said to have been sympathetic to Venizelos, and by suspending certain articles of the Constitution, and it is possible he will not so quickly discard the methods which he employed to strengthen his political standing. But if Greece is accustomed to parliamentary government, she has also been so habituated in the present century to other forms of administration that restraint ot personal liberty may be accepted with some measure of philosophy.