ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. KING CONSTANTINE AND THE ALLIES.

Marlborough Express, Volume L, Issue 223, 30 September 1916, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. KING CONSTANTINE AND THE ALLIES.

•i For th'i' time being the avowed, -object of the Greek; "revolutionaries is not the dethronement of.King U>nstjintine. but the freeing of Macedonia ■from the Bulgarians. This latter task the Allies Save-also in hand, but M. Veneaelos evidently considers tihat Greece should' in her own interests, make -it." perfectly plain 'that the "deal" •■■' concluded with **inS Ferdinand by the pro-German Court party'at Athens nius-ti be not only disavowed iis-'-inimical' to the natibnal welfare, but broken by force of arms. ■The-cablegrams"'ir-ia-Te' alluded to the Vetiezelos party as '-revolutionanesj .but. as; a matter of fact t<hey the true Constitutionalists.. It is King Ou'istanti^e' and.' his friends \whbmight, \viih- much bettier reason, >; be dcenificl Vevolutioriaries. As. far back as 1827 Great Britain,. France, and Russiar were acting .in concerb as friends and champions of Greek freedom- arid when, in 1863, King Con-: stanViiio's !.father, ..King George -(a DnViish prince) succeeded Px-ince'-Otho .(a/'Bii-^anan), the three-.;protecting Voided thafcvlie wa^ to be a strip|iv constitutional monarch,-- and the 7 nc^- Constitution was framed -'tintih^ 'inotfel- of the British Consti<--i)tion> ■':AlVthrough Otiio's reign it was Britaih 'whalusgd lior'-'Mufettee'.on'the'-gide.-pf, • Greialt f i'CGdom, jis. bppbsod ii the jatbempted .autocracy of tho Teuton" king;. '■ iiideed, ift Athens of to-day s<:C?dnMatut4dn Square/ commemoi-jites ihe .bloodless : revolution of 1843, whehr .i"j;or(L Aberdeen and Sir E. "(afterward'. liorciV Lyons, gained for Greece her !' first-tfenstitntion. When, Otho ;' fell; the'Greekß,' by popular yote, desired to offer .the crown to ,the British. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh; but'Bi'itain1 had no desire to be,.entangled with dynastic problems so hn juvay os the Levant,' and n Danish brince, father of the present monarch, was - chosen/"" Undoubtedly ,it;; was'niifdersfcood,? botli by, the Greeks and* by^.-ohe three protecting Powers, that the politica.| liberties of the. former, were t/o> bo as untrammelled as those of Greavßritain. The point is of some imnortanoe '•nofv^.-fpr. should' the Allies be compelled, as is ' still/ by no means ■improbable^.,, to. depos^ King Oonstantine, they will .have full warrant for po doing, the Greek King | .having grossly trampled r upon that same' Constitution which wa^ the renult of;the.''Allies? .interference over hale ■& wntmiy ago. .• * : PmffesscJr.''-Burrows, a well-known j •authority"on; international.law,, maintainu tihat-1 "what we (the Allies) have aright to-demand; is.that this Con-1' ■■ Ktitutipn, ehall be maintadned;in the spii-it' ass i^eli as "jbhe letter/ It is difn'♦ult;*'' He";9ayß. ,"to exp>-ess on papp* oiir'limited,monarchy, and an Articleof thp'txre^ek jConstit'ution,-whichgives t : he J'King tho right choosing and ! 'msniissini? his ..Ministers,- •■■ has beonij interpreted by King Constantine in a' way that was^neyer meant by us when j k we"-gave f/he Constitution, or by\ his i father, when he received it." For pver ii year King Constantine hasv; deliberately ignored the Constitution, i and werej1 ;the expressed object of>,the so-called^ revolutionaries,1 the dethronemnnt of a monarch.who defies the Gnn-, stitution of tho 'country he rules, M. ; Ver.oaclos and his /supporters would-be,] quifo within ; their' rights. , Apart,: however, from the, Question of King | Cpnsiinntrne's ignoring or defiance of the . Constitution," the Allies ha\ce j axnplo, .testification for deposing him, | .shonl'l thfys desm.'.it necessary or de- I sirabloto.proceed to such an extreme1! moasuro. For tho King, and the sue- j cessivo gangs of Court puppets j who havo actsd as his Ministers j of State, havo undoubtedly broken i nil the rules of neutrality. Their silenti, . :vnd probably soorotly. a-otiye, 'connivance with Gerlnany's ngents has- long been notorious, Qnts glaring example of, how the Governhicnt lias i vlayed the Gernran game may Im? (juotsd. For more than' throT week's' after the battle of Jutland, so it is stated by Pi'ofepso" Burro,u-.s. no ncnvspnt-ers from Allied countries were - allowed to enter Greece.. Tlio lyinsc claims of the enemy ... that the 'British Fleet had suffered' n. bru shin j? defeat were, on the contrary, jrivon^ the .widest publi-. city in the Greek '* pre?ts, and ev«n' .when news fi-ora a British source was, very belatedly, ■ allowed-.-'to filter through it was only tho first, and, as Tie know, pomtTvh«.t i>eßsimis=tic, a«coiint. whirh was.circulated. The later i accounts, in which it ■ vas ■ made clear j thr>t it was Oermcny which.had roally Fufforod a ho.ivy disaster, were 'so ■dr.-'.sticnHy cw^or-ed as to bo practically unintelligible. * In allowing the provision of oil supplies for the German and Austrian submarines th*» pro-German Government at Athens was clearly guilty of a. breach of neutrality, and other msta-noos of deliberate harassing of tho Allies might be quoted. - , ' The latest news from Athens refers to some change of front by the King. An open co-opersition with the Entente AH'os is now c ; pok?>n of as probable. Possibly the docision of certain military and nival officers,to fchrow in their lot-: with the/.Venexie-. lists may exercifse a restraining influence upon wjiat was apparently Constantine's original jntention of remaining true to Ms pro-German policy-, regardless of tho best interests of G**««ce Tn the p?^.t, hov.-----eve-r, the King has proved himself a very tricky personage, and it Would be unwise to assume too readily that his eleventh-hour conversion is to be \ a-ccepterl .wi.fhout a certiain suspicion las to its sincerity. The whole course

of the King's conduct .since the commencement of the war is opposed to the idtvi that ho., can now, suddenly T/iirn round-and honestly espouse the Allies' cause. The partial collapse or yon Mackensen's ' movement against' Rpiimania nuiy not improbably havo. made tho King more to :a<> copt the Venezelist policy t b)it were the' Russians »6r lioumknians r« me^>t .with' any : v ba<l sei-back Kitig , Constantine • might again prove, miscliktvohs. ";■ Meanwhile, ho\tevei^ lie recognise?:that it is no longer .sate-to' oppose the aspirations'.of the great majority of his people, and that an. obstinate defiance of the Venezelists would impwil his throne.- Thrones are not to be- had for "pho asking nowadays, and Constantijie may consider that it is better to put up with the wrath of the Kaiser—and his own wif^— than to lose his ."crown.. One thing appears to be "certain, anrl that is that if lie tries-ion any new trickery he will b-3 deposed, either by,the Con-, stitutipnalists or by! the Allies.. For many reasons it would be: prefei-able that the Greek 'jseose ' should settle their oSvh O-ffair^, without, direct in-, terfwence by'thfe'Allies^ whose sction might be rnisihterpr.eted,in .the neutral countries. '':..