GREEK ELECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 251, 22 October 1926, Page 7

GREEK ELECTIONS.

DAWN OF A NEW REGIME. END OF DICTATORSHIP. ASPIRATIONS OF GENERAL KONDYLIS. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) ATHENS, October 21. The election excitement is intense, and the Yellow Press is treating the situation sensationally.

A Communist gathering fired on the police, provoking a volley of firing in reprisal. One person was killed and three wounded, including a gendarme. A panic followed. The working class arc indignant. KONDYLIS INTERVIEWED.

Interviewed at Athens on September 30 by t'ae special representative of the "Auckland Star" and the North American Newspaper Alliance, General Kondylis gave a very frank picture of affairs in Greece. General Kondylis admits that his predecessor (General Pangalos) assumed power with the help of the army. The abuses of the regime of General Pangalos, however, very soon turned the army from liim and the military leaders were glad of an opportunity of bringing about a change of Government.

The correspondent states: —

General Kondylis, who brought to an end the Dictatorship of General Pangalos and restored Admiral Coundouriotis to his rightful office as Provisional President of Greece, received mc in his room at the Ministry of War.

In reply to a request from mc for a statement on the present situation in Greece and on the political future of the country, the General said:

"I imagine that as soon as the news became known abroad that a new revolution had broken out in Greece a great many people concluded that the army was again meddling in politics. As a matter of fact, the new situation carried with it neither a dictatorship nor a policy of militarism. All that the movement aimed at was that Greece should rid herself of a calamity which had already cost her a very great (Leal and which, if prolonged, might ■ have been fatal to the country. In justice to the officers who helped General Pangalos to assume power, I must say that these men believed in good faith t'naE Greece would find salvation under a dictatorship; but those very men ■were the first to co-operate in bringing to an end a system which they felt had become a mere tyranny. The present situation gives us good ground not only for hoping but for being convinced that tae political life of the country has returned to its regular course with which for a time it had. lost touch.

"The principal point to be borne in mind in connection with these elections is t'ne recognition of the rights of national; sovereignty, the appeal to a sdvereigrtv.pebpi'e- and a guarantee that the expression of the people's will shall be entirely unfettered. ' I promised that this, doctrine- should be respected from the' mcimeUt ;I assumed power; and I shall unfalteringly maintain this policy with the faith, of r a man who firmly believes that the parliamentary system is the only means of governing a nation and who considers that all the sufferings and misfortunes of Greece in recent years were due to the fact that the parliamentary system was badly applied, and also to the fact that essential principals of government, which long experience had proved to be the. right ones had been forgotten. I should have been happy if the elections could have been held sooner, but anyhow the people will be called upon, on the date already fixed, to exercise their rights and to choose with complete freedom those to whom they wish to commit the government of the country.

"All the parties will vote under conditions of absolute equality. It will be a happy day for mc when the Greeks will once more be able to record their suffrages in absolute freedom; because, after all, what can a man desire more than to be in a position to release a people from tyranny and J make certain for it the right of controlling its own country and freely choosing its own government."— (Copyright.)