OBITUARY

Evening Star, Issue 22446, 17 September 1936, Page 11

OBITUARY

M. ZAIMIS Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, September 16. The death has occurred of M. Zaimis, the former Prime Minister of Greece. [M. Alexander Zaimis was horn in October, 1855, and came of a family which played an important part in Greece at the time of the War of Liberation in the third decade of last

century. He studied at Leipzig, Berlin, and Heidelberg, taking his degree in law, after which he spent some time in Paris. Since 1890 he had been Premier or Minister in many Greek Cabinets, and his aid was usually invoked when it was a question of getting the country out of some awkward situation. Thus, in 1897, he urged that the proposals put forward by the Great Powers regarding Crete should be accepted by Greece. This, however, -was not done. The unsuccessful war with followed, and M. Zaimis was called in to end it by an honourable peace. In 1906, at the request of the Powers, he became High Commissioner in Crete, whore he was in opposition to Venizelos, as was the case later during the war. In October, 1915, he succeeded that statesman as. Premier, but in November handed over his post to M Skouloudis, who tried to carry on M. Zaimis’s policy of neutrality. Then came the blockade of Greece by the Entente, with which M. Zaimis made his peace and held the Premiership from June to October, 1916. During his third War Cabinet in May and June, 1917, King Constantine was compelled by the Entente to abdicate, and the Venizelos Government that followed brought Greece into the war. The next post M. Zaimis held was that of Education Minister in the Rhallis Cabinet, which recalled King Constantine at the end of 1920, and also in 1921, in the Gounaris Government. After the debacle in Asia Minor he was again Premier in October and November, 1922, and again in 1927. He resigned on February 3, 1928, as the result of a disagreement about a road contract. Four days later ho formed a new Cabinet, and became Premier for the eighth time. Since then lie kept in Oho background. He was regarded as i skilful and cautious politician, but he was no orator, which is so unusual in Greek politics that he was dubbed “ the fish ”]