The Dominion SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1916. A KING'S DILEMMA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2669, 15 January 1916, Page 4

The Dominion SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1916. A KING'S DILEMMA

"A reconciliation between King Constantine and M. Venizelos would be the happiest consummation, if it were; possible." This is the opinion which Mr. G. Ward Price, a well-known English journalist, has formed as the result of several interviews with M. Venizelos about the policy of Grcece in regard to the war. What stands in the way of a -reconciliation between the King of Greece and the greatest Greek statesman of tbe present day 1 To all appearances the chief obstacle is. the .Queen op Greece. She bars the way to the realisation of the pro-Britisn aspirations of M. Venizelos. It is generally believed that from the beginning of the war she has fought to prevent the King from throwing in his lot with the Entente Powers. She is a whole-souled admirer of her brother, the German Emperor, and looks upon him as a supreme prophet and an infallible guide. Her mind is cast in a' similar mould to that of the.Kaiser. 'She likes what he likes and hates what be hates. His friends, are her friends and his enemies are her enemies. She was an enthusiastic champion of the Kaiser in his fainqus dispute i with Bismarck, which terminated in the "dropping of the pilot." The Princess Sophia, as she then was," never doubted that her brother was the greater man of the two, and that he was quite able to steer the ship of State without the assistance, of the Iron Chancellor. When the present war broke out she a.t once took the German side, and Her unt wavering loyalty to the ICaiser has proved a tower of strength to Germany in the ' Balkans. Queen Sophia is said to be a capable woman, with cleaivcut ideas of her own, and possessed of great force of character. She has a dominating hold upon her husband, and through him she seems to have secured a-'grip upon the foreign and domestic poljcyof Greece. t Tho Queen dislikes and distrusts M. Venizelos.\ and she stands between him and the King. She may be expected 60/ do all in her power to prevent a reconciliation between the two men. The King does not take kindly to diplomacy, nor is he an adept in the_ devious _ ways of statecraft: His "incliscyetions" are said to be a source of anxiety to his more skilful hclpmato, whose gre'at fear is said to be that he may come under the sway of the intellect of M. Venizelos. In a,recent character sketch of the Queen of Greece the statement is made that the King may go where he pleitses with the courtly Zaimas; he is permitted to play billiards with M. Theotokis (who was Greek Minister in Berlin find learned there to understand the genius of Emperor William) ; M. Gounaris ( ia a safe companion, fpr he is an admirer of Kant, Goethe, and Treitschke; but M. Venizelos is barred. The Queen has no faith in him or his policy. He is no courtier. "He looks too much like a church deacon in England in his simple black coat and his blunt speech." A reconciliation between the King and M. Venizelos would undoubtedly he a happy consummation from tho British point of view, but it is not likely to be brought about while Queen Sophia has the King's ear. The influence of M, Venizelos may still be "great, enormous, and magnetic," but as far as King Constantine 'is iconccrned the influence of tho Queen is probably even greater and more magnetic, and it shows no sigu of waning. M. Venizelos is the idol of the people, but the Greeks are also very proud .of their King, while the Queen as well has a very strong party of her own in the land, it may seem illogical, but it is nevertheless a fact that the Queen and M. Venizelos are both vcrv popular) and bo is tho King. The pubHe would certainly 'favour the re-

establishment d£ harmonious relationships between their monarch and their favourite statesman, but wc shall probably have to wait for a big Allied victory in the Balkans to waken up Greece to the realities of the situation. M. Venizelos, though he has failed to convince the King of the wisdom of coming out openly ancl decisively on the side of the Entente, has been able in a large measure to counter-bal-ance the pro-German efforts of the Queen, and the perplexed King has been left in a dilemma-, halting betwixt two opinions. Mr. Price hints that M. Venizelos still has some strong cards to play when the right moment arrives. M. Venizelos himself stated recently that he is not isolated, nor has the people abandoned him; but there is no longer liberty of public dem'onstration. He is still "unshakably convinced of the final victory of the Allies owing to the slow-, but fatal exhaustion of the Central Empires," ancl he is more than ever convinced that Greece's_ welfare lies in union with the Allies, who dominate the sea, on which Greece's future depends. But. the Queen has the King's ear, and the people are divided.