THE RIVAL FACTIONS

Evening Post, Issue 20, 23 July 1935, Page 9

THE RIVAL FACTIONS

Two months ago it was reported that ex-King George of Greece, then on his way back to England after a hunting trip in India, was to meet a secret Greek "Parliament" in Paris and be offered the throne. One member of the secret conclave was reported in the "Daily Mail" as saying that there "was not the slightest doubt that the King would reign again in six months." On his arrival in London the King denied the story that he had been offered the throne, and said that he was prepared to await an invitation from the whole of his people. Commenting on the report, General Kondylis, the Vice-Premier of Greece, said that there was to be a plebiscite on the subject of restoration as soon as affairs settled down in the country after the ineffective revolt. This revolt was begun by Venezelist officers, who feared a restoration of the monarchy, and it was subdued by M. Tsaldaris, the Premier, with many denials that the pledges he had given to support the republic had even been in danger. There are three opportunist political blocs in the country, the Libeifalist Republicans, the Populist Republicans, and the' Royalists. There is no real difference between them in social principles save on the issue of restoration of the King. All are reactionary, the Liberalist Republicans (Venezelists) with a show of progressivism. It was in order to displace this party that Tsaldaris, after years of stout royalisrn, promised to uphold the Republic in 1932. The leader of the Royalists, General Metaxas, has a stroi^ streak of Fascism in his programme. The Venezelists maintain their twenty-year-old abhorrence of Royalism instilled in them by their fugitive leader. The new movement towards monarchy is considered as a logical outcome of the anti-Venezelist tendencies of the last three years, the Populists appearing to regard restoration of the monarchy as a reasonable antithesis to the long absolutism of Venezelos.