THE GREAT GREEK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2625, 22 November 1915, Page 6

THE GREAT GREEK

A PERSONAL IMPRESSION OF M. VENIZELOS (By Harold Spender, in the "Daily No we.") The first time I met M. .Venizelos 1 was frankly at, a loss to explain his great famo and achievement. In his sombre suit ol : customary black, beepectaclcd and bearded, M Venizelos seemed more like a professor t'han a Prime Minister. His social manner is mild and kindly. As he conversed I passed bis dazzling record through my mind, and 1 was amazed. Was this gentle, soft-speaking man the hero who liad lougbt in ihe Cretan hills, and driven a lioyal Prince into the sea? Was this the cnosen and aaored of that most "elcctric" people in the world, the Athenians? Was this the saviour of a peopled i But ono day, as we wore talking, the whole inner spirit of the man flashed out on me. It was before the second Balkan war, and we were speaking of the ominous movements on the part of the Bulgarian troops. His whole figure straightened, and his eyes flashed iiro. "Never, if I can help it-, shall one Balkan nation shed the blood of its brother I" AVell, he failed. But there 1 bad come across the real centre of passion and power. It was his enthusiasm for unity—unity in his own country, which ho had achieved; unity in the Balkans, which he almost achieved,. but whichnow again lios shattered by intrigue and ambition. ' A Great European. M. Venizelos is a Cretan; but he is in all' essentials a statesman of Western Europe t shall novor forget an im-. pressive conversation one evening after dinner. The talk had drifted to' Irish Homo Rule. There, as always, I found that he had closely watched the coursa of events in Great Britain. Someone in the company remarked that Greece and Britain were pursuing opposite objects. Greece was pursuing unity; Great Britain, division. The answer came from M. Venizelos. He stroked his beard in that reflective way of his, and his eyes twinkled through his spectacles. "No," ho said, "we are both pursuing the same object—essential unity. The difference is that our trouble is different. The trouble of Greece is excessive, separation the trouble of Britain is excessive and artificial -union." There spoke the statesman and the thinker—a man who could look beyond | thoso surface resemblances that deceive the superficial. Even in the midst of all the fret and worry of the London Conference, ho wanted to know about English affairs. He keenly watched the struggle over the Insurance Act. One evening, when we were all talking about it, he said quite quietly, "When things have quieted down 1 must try and introduce that Act into Greece." Well, things have not quiets down, and I do not suppose that it will injure his cause inGreeco at the present moment to know that ho ib in favour of the Insurance Act. A Simple Man. 'He lived a very simple life when ho was in England, practically the same life as he used to live in Greece. Ho rose early, and ate scarcely anything before midday. A cup of coffee and an apple was his- favourite breakfast. It did not seom to tiro him to talk with visitors all day. _ He ' talked fairish Frenoh, but nothing like so good as most of the distinguished men. among his compatriots—as, for ifistanoe, the Greek Minister in London.

Ho could not talk a word of English. He drank scarcely any wine, and seemed as strict and abstemious in has habits as a monk from his oivn beautiful Athos.'

I liavo met and' conversed with most of the leading men in Atheus, but M. Venizelos always seems to mo to stand aloof and apart from them. He took a larger and more European ,r iew. Not that Athens lacks men, and the new Ministry . contains somo ' of great ability—especially M. Rallis, who lives like 'a patriarch in a Greek villa of . the old style in the heart'of Athens, and is a true descendant of the great old Greeks. But M. Venizelos,'perhaps because lie came from an island in the heart of the Mediterranean, seemed to breathe a larger,'serener air. There is a touch of Gladstone about him—Gladstone, who is, by tho way, still by far the greatest memory to con. jure with both in Greece and Bulgaria. One could understand his rising "above the quarrels of tho Balkan races and dreaming of that Federation which he founded in 1911, and would havo brought to full accomplishment if the storm had not broken in the Balkans too soon. A Man of tho Future. He is a great Parliamentarian. Hjb courage and fire in debate is tremendous, and he has the great gift of being able to tell the people the 'unpleasant truth. All through theso recent years he lias had against him not only a pro-German Court, but also —what has been far more difficult—a factious and demagogic Opposition. Every concession he has made to the Powers or offered to Bulgaria 'has been represented as an act of weakness or even of betrayal. The intense race-hatred of the average Greek for the Bulgarian has been exploited against him at every turn. Even now, when ho has mobilised against Bulgaria, the most serious attack- on 'him is not from the Palace, but from those extreme Hellenes who pay that he has given Bulgaria too much. ''

• Well. "God's fruit of justice ripens slowly," as a great poetess said when another great deed seemed to fail. M. Vonizelos is not a nian to be easily beaten. The future is on his side. Ho has fought the Court twicc .before, and twice won. His difficulties now are not with the Court so much as with the Army that follows the • Court. The rank and file of'.the. Army are with the Western Powers; the staff and the officers are with the Central. Such a situation is-delicate. M.- Vonizelos is a bravo man, ami 'he is Teady to take extreme measures if tliey are left to him. But there are contingencies whipli oven he may _ shrink from at a momeiif when Bulgaria, with Germany behind her, awaits t<? devour.