THE GREEK ELECTIONS.

Southland Times, Issue 18985, 20 November 1920, Page 4

THE GREEK ELECTIONS.

The result of the Greek elections was altogether unexpected, and must have caused no little perturbation in Paris and London. M. Vcnizelos was a very good friend of the Allies. Not only that, but he was the best friend of Greece, really the only statesman in the country who had vision enough to see where the interest as well as the justice lay in the war and to map out a sound and comprehensive foreign policy. M. Venizelos stood for democratic government on constitutional lines, with a monarchy after the British pattern. As the result of the war vindicated his judgment and extended the territory and influence of Greece, it might have been expected that the hold of M- Venizelos upon the people would have been strengthened, but the elections have given the majority to M. Gounaris, who during the war was the friend of Bulgaria and Germany and the right hand man of King Constantine,

brother-in-law to the Kaiser. The question of the next occupant of the throne was one of the Issues of the election, and it was supposed that if the opponents of Venizclos v. r on Constantine would be recalled. They have won, attd Constantine plainly expects to be invited to Athens as king of the Hellenes. As a judicious preliminary he now explains that he has always been proBritish and Gounaris may make the same claim. It is useless, however, for cither Constantine or Gounaris to ignore the past. The Allies understand both men thoroughly. If Constantine was trustworthy why did the Allies depose him in 1917? The king and M. Gounaris may be quite prepared to be pro-British now, since Germany is beaten and the Kaiser is a private individual in exile in Holand, but at the same time, with Constantine on the throne and Gounaris in office, the Allies would be disturbed by the possibility of adverse developments in the Balkans and Near East, and so would Rumania and Serbia. What would happen, for instance, in Asia Minor, where a Greek army is at present holding up a Turkish movement that aims at stirring up the Mohammedan world? The outlook is by no means comforting, for the defeat of Vcnizelos deprives the Allies of a very staunch friend and opens the possibility of fresh trouble in a region (hat has always been a storm centre in Europe.