STRAY LEAVES

Southland Times, Issue 19658, 7 October 1922, Page 9 (Supplement)

STRAY LEAVES

A KING IN EXILE. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TINO. (By “Quaesitor”). One of the most striking and least to be regretted consequences of the boil-over in the Near East is the disappearance of that strange character King Constantine, who has been so powerful a contributor to the unrest of that troubled quarter of the globe since the first Balkan War. He played many parts on the stage he set for himself, some worthy and heroic, others utterly foreign to an heroic or ordinarily honest character. Constantine for the second time deposed and banished, Greece has now finally rid herself of a most persistent and ambitious ruler, but it is not likely that the world has heard the last of so restless and intriguing a spirit. A product of the Prussian school, Constantine possessed military genius of a high order. He won successes on the field that raised him to the highest place in the estimation of his people, and again suffered crushing reverses that made him the object of their distrust and fear, while in the ignoble arts of kingcraft he was guilty of deceit and double dealing that at times excited the resentment of a people not commonly credited with excessive punctiliousness about the rectitude of their rulers. When Constantine returned from Prussia, Greece, as a military nation, was of poor repute. He was given the command of the army—he had not yet become king—and he set about its rehabilitation with the thoroughness he had imbibed in the most thorough war school the world had known. Nevertheless it. was a poor army he commanded at the outset of the Balkap War, deficient in numbers, in training, and in materiel. Greece was unprepared. The campaign, in consequence, was not in its earl/ stages calculated to raise the military ardour of the populace. But before the close of hostilities Constantine, working with dauntless resolution in the lines and behind them, had evolved an astonishing transformation. His army performed wonders in the face of what were considered 'almost insuperable difficulties, and with the final victory at Yanina. Greece emerged from the war with the highest military reputation among the three allies, and Constantine’s eminence as a leader and strategist were universally acknowledged. Constantine had ascended the throne when the second Balkan War broke out. He again led his army in the field to successes not less striking than in the first. Military prowess is a short cut to the good will of the mercurial Levantine peoples, and to those of colder climes, too, for that matter, and so Constantine found. The warriorking was popular. When the Great War broke out Constantine exhibited,another phase of his character, also no doubt fostered and perfected in his Prussian school. The ruler of the Greeks showed himself to be as crafty and treacherous in his dealings with nations as he had formerly been brave and resourceful in battle. A pretence of friendly neutrality iowards the Allies screened his real and active sympathy with the Central Powers, for the short time, that is, that pretence on the matter remained possible. With the zealous aid of his Hohenzollern wife, the indefatigable labours of Bazon ven Schenk and his agents, who were given the full run of Greece, a general staff with German leanings, and during a great part of the war a cabinet of a similar complexion, Constantine strove to further the ends of Germany and her confederates in the Mediterranean. He succeeded in adding immeasurably to the difficulties and misfortunes of the Allies in that theatre. He did not study the interests of his own country 7, but used them as counters in the game he was playing for her real enemies, and by compelling the Allies to adopt stringent restrictive measures the King’s double-dealing brought exceedingly unfortunate consequences upon Greece. In 1917 the position had become impossible of continuance, and when Constantine failed to meet proposals to place the relations of Greece and the Allies on an assured basis—proposals that would have resulted advantageously to Greece—his abdication was forced and he was constrained to leave the country. It had been better for Greece and for the whole of Europe had he been prevented from returning. He did not accept his banishment as the end of his dreams, but plotted and intrigued industriously for restoration to the throne. His opportunity came when his successor, his second son Alexander, died as the result, it was stated, of blood poisoning supervening on the bite of a pet monkey. Constantine was most unfortunately permitted to return to Greece and resume the throne, and it will be a fortunate thing if this international blunder is not indirectly the occasion of another devastating conflict, as has during recent weeks seemed not unlikely. Constantine returned to face the passive opposition, not the acclamations, of his people, and sought means of re-establishing his lost popularity. Military adventure had served him well before, and to military adventure he turned now. The Treaty of Sevres had given Smyrna and its hinterland to Greece, and Constantine went to take it from the Turks in possession. His operations prospered at. first, and Greek elation rose correspondingly. The King’s projects broadened with each success, and he at length contemplatedfar greater conquests than he had set out to encompass. Then vaulting ambition o’erleaped itself, and arrogance met its due reward. The Turks developed unexpected powers of resistance, and the Greek morale crumpled. They had pushed out from Smyrna triumphant, but they straggled back a broken rabble. The Turk has been inspired by this reversal of fortune to the contemplation of the possibility of again entering upon his former glories, and the end is not yet. Constantine for his part has paid the penalty of failure and disaster, and for the second time has quitted Greece under sentence of deposition and exile, leaving the country of which he has been so ill a servant far the worse for his second reign. His departure gives the stable elements in Greek politics the opportunity to take charge of the affairs of government and enter upon a prudent policy of recuperation, and it will be well for Greece and the security of the peace of the world if they are allowed to prosecute it secure from the distractions that have beset them in recent years.