CREEK REVOLUTIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 18979, 29 June 1925, Page 6

CREEK REVOLUTIONS.

The latest revolution in Greece is described as the seventh which has t;ikcu place there in the last twenty-six years. It is nut clear why the recorder should have thought it necessary to go back so far. Most of these revolutions and attempted revolutions—since the word is used obviously in the widest sense—have been since the latter years of the Great War. For political changes made by violence during that lime it seems doubtful if any Lutin-American State has been in the same running with Greece. In November, 1922, following the debacle of the Turkish War, a military revolution deposed King Constantine for tho second time and set his son George upon the Throne. That coup dc main was accompanied by an unusual piece of savagery which has not been repealed since. Five c-x-Ministers and a Commander-in-Chiuf whoso policy and strategy had been unsuccessful were tried hurriedly, before a revolutionary tribunal, on charges of treason, and shot. In 1923 General Paugnlos, who is now again to (be fore as a destroyer of Governments, made an attempt to establish himself as a Republican dictator and failed. Early last year the Constituent Assembly declared in favor of a Republican Government, the vote being confirmed later by a’ plebiscite, and King George left tho country. On March 25, which was the 104th anniversary of Greek independence, the. Republic was officially proclaimed. But it docs not seem to havo brought Greece any more happiness. When its first anniversary passed, nil her than was commemorated, a few months ago, an Athens journal, hostile to I lie Government, gave the record of a year as follows Greece has been entirely isolated, Serbia broke the alliance, the Lausanne Treaty was Hie worst deal Greece could get, the Patriarch wans expelled, the Dodecanese was annexed to Italy, North Epirus was lost, fourteen villages were given over to Albania. Internally the army is entirely demoralised and exists in a chaotic slate. Banditry reigns in tho open country. The waste of public money is unprecedented. The cost of living lias risen enormously.” Faction, tho great curse, of modern as of ancient. Greece, rages as strongly, evidently, as it lias always done. Monarchists complain that there has never been any proper ratification of the Republic through an untrammelled popular vote. Even the Premier, M. Mihalacoupoulos, who was tho seventh to hold that office since tho revolution of September, 1922, and who has now been displaced, bad to confess recently: ‘’From the point of view of our internal policy wo have not reached our desired aim, which is the ratification of tho now Constitution and the return to normal political conditions, which will bo accomplished only through a free General Election. Wo‘must hurry the ratification of thb new Constitution. This is what tho healthy opinion of tho country unanimously demands. We cannot command the confidence of our friends abroad as long as we delay tho return oi the country to normal political conditions. In short, if wo remain prudent we may hope that the year 1926 will find tho country in a much bettor condition internationally and internally than it is now.” Many signs suggested that the Government, which was formed by Vcnizelists, though M. Venizelos himself takes no part now in Greek affairs, amounted to no more than a military despotism, and now another section of the military lias overthrown it. Ex-King George will form no hopes for his return from that subversion, since General Pangalos, who is now dictator, is one of the strongest Republicans. Fortunately the latest revolution has been almost entirely bloodless. It only needs a few more examples to be afforded in the future for revolutions to be accepted by the outside world as the normal means of changing a Government in Greece. It says something for the innate practicality o£ tho people of that countiy that, de-spite their political troubles, tbe greatest task which they havo had in tho last few years, in the settlement and first absorption of a vast influx of refugees, has been performed, by all accounts, with astonishing success.