Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1923. “EUROPE’S GREATEST STATESMAN.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 904, 28 December 1923, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1923. “EUROPE’S GREATEST STATESMAN.”

M. Venizelos, the great Greek statesman, who is now returning to Athens after an enforced exile in Paris for over throe years, lias been described as “Europe’s greatest statesman.” Writing of him in 1915, following his retirement from the premiership as the result of the conflict between the King of Greece and himself, a )vell-known English journalist described M. Venizelos as “one of the most remarkable personalities in the political history of Europe,” although his public career had then extended over only five years, but during that time he had “been compared to Cavour, to Gambetta, to Bismarck.” At a time when the lamentable condition of public allairs had reduced the country to despair, and the corrupt practices of its officials had made its Government a system of “Rotativist” plunder, and Greece was crying out for a man to lay the foundations of a now and better Greece, M. Venizelos was called from Crete, whore he had successfully led his people in the revolt first against Turkish tyranny and then against the despotic rule of Prince George of Greece, to take up the premiership under the father of the Prince whoso autocratic rule ho had so successfully resisted. He was, at that time, the President of the Cretan National Assembly and, “in the confusion of 1909 when the throne of Greece was trembling and the very nation seemed in dissolution, the democracy of Greece appealed to the man who had saved. Crete to come and be its saviour also. And the late King George, pocketing the outrage that had been put upon his son by Venizelos, wisely joined in the appeal.” Greece hailed him as its deliverer, and “he came to be regarded as the saviour, the regenerator, not of Greece only, but of the Hellenic idea. He found the country a by-word for the squalor of its public life, and for the vulgar Chauvinism of its politicians,” but “in two short years ho redeemed its administration, ennobled its spirit, doubled its area, . . gave it a new and stable constitution, set the throne on its feet, reformed the army and navy, swept 1 away the iniquitous taxation of the poor, redressed the miserable lot of the peasantry and gave the Greeks a larger and nobler vision of their relations to their neighbours.” It was due to his genius that there came to birth the Balkan League which, wrought the overthrow of the Turk, and seemed to have cleared the clouds from South Eastern Europe for ever. The collapse of that league and its miserable after consequences vyere the work of the Bulgarian King Ferdinand and Daneff, his Prime Minister, both of whom held to the Prussian idea and so conspired to join in the war against Serbia and the Allies, when the Great War burst upon Europe. Following the assess l ination of King George I. at Salonika In 1913, Ring Constantino came to the throne, and then began the struggle between the monarch and the statesman, which resulted in M. Venizelos’s retirement in March, 1915. ■ Three years yarlier Venizelos had been confirmed in office with a majority of 147 —a majority never previously accorded to any Greek statesman—but although Constantino owed his throne to the Greek statesman, he owed him a

gl'Udge ftlsb, for tUrhiilg Ills brother George out of Crete, and the grudge g'oviug more powerful than the new iug’s sense of gratitude, Constantine set to work to make the position impossible for Yenizelos, and twice dissolved Pfli'lihltiollfc tb show his pfetsonal disagreement will the Vcnizefist polthus thwarting the'will of the people who, at that tilite, supported it, s venizelos And Constantine.

DisiiiisSefl from Office in Match, 1915, M. Vcliteeios obtained a sleeping victory in the Cheek gelietal election in the following June, the Chamber passing a vote of confidence in him, following tile invitation lib had given to France and Britain to littld trodps at Salonika, Four months later Venizelos was again dismissed by Constantine, arid, in November, the Greek Parliament was dissolved, neither M. Zaimis nor M. Skouloudis, Who formed Ministries in succession to M. Venizelos, being able to carry on. The Venizelists abstained from voting at the elections Which followed, a lid M. Oounaris obtained-a majority. In September, 1016, M. Venizelos left Athens to head the Natiohal Movement arid established a Provisional Government at Salonika, a nominal and subservient ministry of King Constantino’s remaining in control of Thessaly, while the rest of Greece looked to Venizelos and accepted his Government. The King s pro-Ger-man sympathies and his overt action against the Allied Fleet led to his practical deposition, the Crown prince being banished With him, and his second son Alexandras being made King in his stead. With the disappearance of Constantino M. 1 Venizelos again became Premier brit, in 1920, following the death of Alexandres, he was defeated at the polls and, as the result of a plebiscite on December sth, 1920, Constantine was recalled to the throne and Venizelos left Greece to its fate. With his departure the country again entered Upori a troubled existence, which was accentuated by the disastrous war against the Turks in Asia Minor, which resulted in King Constantine abdicating for the second time, although he was not responsible for the expeditionary campaign across the sea. Greece had been in Asia Minor since May, 1919, and Constantine had to accept the responsibility for continuing the war. Thrace had been annexed and Constantinople was to have been occupied by Greek troops. The Greek occupation of Smyrna and the attempt to pursue their successes further proved fatal, and the Revolutionary Committee, which took charge of affairs at Athens, made wholesale arrests of former Ministers, many of whom were executed and their estates confiscated. King George 11. succeeded Constantine, but his hold upon the throne has never been very secure, and the recent elections have so unmistakeably revealed the Republican tendencies of the people that the King’s departure for Bucharest has probably saved him from a, more ignominous fate, tinder the revolutionary regime M. Venizelos, although remaining in exile, was called upon to represent Greece at the Lausanne Conference, and it was duo to his diplomacy and skill that Greece obtained more favourable terms than at first seemed possible, the Turks having advanced claims which probably no other man could have successfully resisted on behalf of Greece. M. Venizelos is not, however, a Republican. While standing as a stalwart champion of democracy, he is also an upholder of the constitutional monarchy. “Greece is not ready for a Republic,” he is reported to have said in 1915, “and may not be ready for centuries. I have never believed a Republic suitable as a Government for Greece at this epoch of her history. I have frequently' told the King that Greece will need his family a hundred, perhaps two hundred years longer. . . . If there were to be a Republic I should be chosen President; but there would be no one in the Liberal Party to succeed ipo, Greece would bo in the position of Mexico under Porfiro Diaz. That Was bad for Mexico and it would be even worse for Greece.”