THE COUP IN GREECE

Evening Star, Issue 22460, 3 October 1936, Page 30

THE COUP IN GREECE

• DUE TD PARTY STRIFE FOLLOWS OBSTRUCTION The astonishment caused by General Metaxas’s concentration de pouvoirs on the night of August 4 was not diminished by ; rumours that had for some time credited him with such intentions (wrote the Athens correspondent of ‘The Times’ on August 14). His use of the opportunity afforded by a 24hour strike aroused only mild surprise. The cacophonic terms “ dictatorships ” and “ directorate ” are being avoided here. There was no commotion, and the only indications of what was planned were at first a few pickets •nd cavalry patrols in the streets and some unobtrusive machine guns at tactical points—precautions against , any attempt at violence by the strikers. At about 11 p.m. on ’August 4 all telegraphic and telephonic communication Was cut off, arid a proclamation issued in the streets that the Prime Minister (General Metaxas), with the King’s approval, had suppressed the Chamber, suspended certain clauses of the Constitution regarding the liberty of the subject, and declared martial law. It appears that General Metaxas’s decisions were approached at a Cabinet meeting held that evening, where he presented information which had come into his possession concerning the Communist Labour leaders and their threats to create disorder in Athens and The Piraeus. The Cabinet drafted the decrees, which were taken with an explanatory report to the palace, there s'gned, and promptly published in the official gazette. Greece once more took leave of parliamentarianism and the absolutist regime came unostentatiously into being. The strike ceased, and Athens, under the occasional supervision of patrols, went about its normal business. There was no incident, THE COMMUNIST BOGY. On the morning of August 5 no newspapers appeared, and the local news in the afternoon papers bore a strange similarity. The censorship on Press telegrams was so strict that exaggerated reports managed to escape from some mysterious source. A decree was published mobilising railway and transport workers, bakers, millers, and electnc workers; and all the Communist deputies, with the exception of one who managed to get away, were arrested, -he Prime Minister's action has met

with toleration jn general except among the would-be leaders of the various parties and the deputies of the now abolished Chamber, whose stipends the new has allocated to the Ministry of Public Assistance. It is widely held that use of the Communist menace as a stalking-horse _ was unjustified. Labour troubles, it is true, were imminent again, especially in the tobacco and currant growing districts. The Prime Minister stated that he had been threatened with a “ 24 times 24 days’ strike ” unless he withdrew his recent law providing for compulsory arbitration and restored the “ Syndicalist ” right to strike. He watf also resolved to prevent recurrences of scenes like those at Salonika in May, where there was Communist agitation and much loss of life. INFLUENCE OF FACTIONS. But he was chiefly influenced by the “ dog-in-the-manger ” attitude of the political factions, leaderless -since the death of MM. Yenizelos, Tsaldaris, and Kbndylis, and unable to sink their differences and collaborate in government. They continued to bicker, pander to their supporters, and manoeuvre for the next elections. The principal culprits were the Liberal Party, who made support conditional on the reinstatement of officers and officials sentenced after the revolt of March, 1935. and the removal of the gendarmerie said to be implicated in the attack on M. Venizelos. Many of their demands had been met, but enough were unsatisfied to supply contention. When, after the death of M. Demerdjis, General Metaxas’s Government appeared in the Chamber, he was given legislative authority to govern by decree for five months until the Chamber met again in October. These decrees were subject to confirmation by a Parliamentary Committee of all parties. After three months M. Sophoulis, the Liberal leader, grew impatient and hinted at withdrawing his party’s confidence. An inkling of what was happening was given by General Metaxas’s statement to Greek newspaper men that “ there was no question of the Government’s resignation at the present moment . . . but he could not tell what might happen later.” It was later found that M. Sophoulis had laid his grievances about the dilatoriness of the Government before the King, who replied that he was a constitutional monarch. The parties had begun again to negotiate an agreement to overthrow the Government in October, when General Metaxas, justly incensed, resigned and asked M. Sophoulis to take over at once. M. Sophoulis, having come to no agreement with the other parties, was forced to admit himself outmanoeuvred.

PATIENCE EXHAUSTED. For the moment controversy was at an end. But the general had another account to settle. As he explained in his proclamation, the ceaseless delays and obstruction which his Cabinet’s legislative work had met with at the hands of the Parliamentary Committee, and his inability to bring his more important decrees into effect, had exhausted his patience. Whether or not he will succeed remains to be seen. Fears seem ungrounded that the King, by his sympathy for this digression from the Constitution, might alienate the hard-won support of the republicans; and the people are mostly anxious to give General Metaxas his fair chance. He has never been a popular political figure, and his party consists of not more than six or seven Deputies. He is thought to have no axe to grind.. His ability is generally recognised, and he has been a brilliant Chief of the General Staff. He appears to have the army with him; and so long as he enjoys the King’s confidence, the man in the street awaits the results of his' arbitrary measures with a rare freedom from bias. _ If he can release Greece, even for a time, from the nightmare of party political strife which has harassed her for the past 20 years, and can instil some reciprocity into the relations between the workers and their employers, he will have succeeded where all his predecessors have failed.