GREEK MONARCHY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18900, 30 December 1935, Page 3

GREEK MONARCHY

PROSPECTS OF STABILITY IT AI JAN INFLUENCE LONDON, Nov. 16. Ring George of the Hellenes, who said his farewells to London friends this week, has taken with him the goodwill of the British people. All hope that his restoration to the monarchy will he a factor of internal stability and concord in a country which has known little ot either since the proclamation ot tile Republic. Sim'e the quarre. between King Constantine and M. Venizelos and its sequel, the cruel execution of Royalist leaders by the Republicans in 1922. a great, rift has divided the Greek people. None of their statesmen could close it. To a tired and shaken people, it has been said this week. King Georges constitutional monarchy may well bring an overwhelming sense of relief. Yet the task before King George remains a diliicull one. To some observers, everything depends upon whether he is capable of reducing the army to a proper subjection to the civil power. For it i'< from the Army or the Navy that movements against the regime emanate. To others, the designs of. the masterful intriguer, General Knndylis. are the kev to the situation. He is suspected ot dicta torial aims—with himself as a sort ol Signor Mussolini and King George as his King Vidor Emmanuel. Many believe that Republicanism, although driven underground since the attempted revolution of last March, will show its head again on the first favorable occasion. There are foreign complications. The struggle in Greece lias not been merely a domestic affair between Royalists and Republicans. Pro-.llalian and anti-Italian policies have ployed a large part in I In 1 troubles. After (he failure of the March revolution, M. Venip.elos and other Re

publican leaders tied to Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, group of islands, which arc controlled by Italy. Shortly afterwards, M. Venizelos gave a famous interview, in which he is rej ported to have said : "I should like to J kill the idea that I was ever in league | with either Italy or Bulgaria. Italy let me down.” Roth Italy and the Greek • I Republicans are hostile to the Balkan I Fact, which they desire to replace by an alliance between Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria. The other members of the Balkan Fact—Yugoslavia, Rumania, and Turkey—therefore prefer a Royalist Government in Greece. The question became of tirst importance to them when Signor Mussolini’s designs on Abyssinia forced him to attempt to threaten Greece into neutrality in ease of League action. During August and September, Italian gunboats, destroyers, and torpedo boats pul. in at Greek' ports without permission, and an Italian seaplane arrived at Corfu. At, the same time, Italy was concentrating men and war material in the Dodecanese group, ignoring Greek protests in Rome. The prospect of Greece remaining neutral was too much for the other Balkan Fact countries. Whatever the faults of a Royalist Government, it could at least be relied ;upon to he anliItulian. Some observers therefore consider that the Konavlis "putsch” was an answer to representations from Greece’s Balkan allies. From the British point of view, significant events in relation to Greece have been the marriage of the Duke of Kent; to Princess Marina of Greece, the vi.-d of M. Tsaldaris, then Prime Minister, to Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, at Bled, when the Duke and Duchess of Kent were on holiday there, and the free passage granted by the Greek Government to British aircraft recently, on its way to Egypt.