THE POSITION IN GREECE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15998, 17 August 1915, Page 6

THE POSITION IN GREECE.

Great interest attaches to the meeting of the Greek Parliament, news of which may be to hand any day. The Gounaris Government, which was defeated at the elections in June, had, according to the Consti-. tut ion, a maximum of forty days in which to resign or face Parliament. The illness of King Constantine enabled them to extend the limit, 1 but the King's health has now greatly improved and the Athena correspondent of a Berlin newspaper regards both the resignation of the Government and the assembling of Parliament as imminent. Other significant items of news from Athens are that the 1915 class of recruits has been called to the colours and that M. Venizelos, the champion of Greek intervention on the side of the Allies and leader of the Parliamentary majority, has had a lengthy audience with the King. We can dismiss as a groundless German invention the statement of the Berliner Tageblatt that the King will ask M. Venizelos to form a Cabinet on the principle, of the strictest neutrality. M. Venizelos won the elections on the principle of intervention, and since the results were known he has check-mated German fictions by authorising the publication of a statement that he continues firm in his conviction . that Greece's place is with the Allies and that any departure from this policy would mean disaster and isolation for Greece. During the» contest Baron von Schenk, Krupp's agent at Athens, actively interested himself in electioneering, and was accused of supporting t.h> Gounaris party with unlimited German funds. In spite of this M. Venizelos carried a large majority of the seats, and would have swept the country but for the Macedonian vote which was influenced by the fear that the understanding with Bulgaria advocated by M. Venizelos would result in a portion of Greek Macedonia being transferred to Bulgarian control. Thus the Greek people are behind M. Venizelos, whose attitude is unmistakable. There is little doubt that the German correspondent is right to the extent that M. Venizelos will be asked to form a Cabinet, but it is equally certain that if he takes control of Greek affairs his Ministry will not be the neutral body Germany hopes for, but a Cabinet that will set itself to make the best terms it can for Greece on the basis of achievements in the field winning the right to govern the Greek population resident in Asia Minor. The substitution of M. Venizelos for M. Gounaris as Prime Minister of Greece may easily alter the whole situation in the Balkans*