WIFE OF VENIZELOS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 29 March 1935, Page 8

WIFE OF VENIZELOS

AMBITIONS CRUSHED. WOMAN OF GREAT WEALTH. LONDON, March 16. j A tragic figure in the ■Greek revolution is the millionaire sexagenarian Madame Venizelos, the English-born wife of the veteran insurgent ex-Pre-mier, states the “Daily Mail.”

A woman of soaring ambition, Madame Venizelos has been devoted to her husband since their marriage in 1921, by which she fulfilled a., long-held desire to do the utmost for the man she regarded as Greece’s greatest son. She was Helena Sdehilizzi, daughter and co-heir of a Greek who made £2,000,000 in business in England. A popular member of the Greek colony in London, Helena was most interested in Venizelos’ activities btfore the war. Helena gave thousands of pounds’ worth of comforts to the Venizelos funds in war time, and beI came friendly with him when he visited Paris in connection with peace arrangements. She spent £12,000 buying premises in Grosvenor Square for the Greek Legation, to indicate her admiration for the Venizelos Premiership. When they were married in Loudon she was approaching 50. It was not a love match, hut she was never able to do sufficient for her hero, although she had a rude awakening. Venizelos was surrounded by rugged Cretans and Republican politicians belonging to a class that his wife did riot understand and disliked, as the older families with which she hitherto had been associated were Royalists. Moreover, she found the glamour with which she had surrounded her husband non-existent in Athens. Nevertheless, Madame Venizelos’ loyalty never wavered, and. she spent a fortune in an attempt to consolidate her husband’s position. She built a magnificent mansion which the Government has new taken over, transforming it into a museum, and gave magnificently to charities, only to see her hopes finally extinguished by the revolt, into which her friends believe she was dragged against her will.