Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1917. CAREER OF THE ABLEST OF GREEK STATESMEN,

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1732, 30 June 1917, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1917. CAREER OF THE ABLEST OF GREEK STATESMEN,

THE abdication of Constantine nnd the return of M. Venizelos to the Premiership of Greece murks the conclusion of the struggle between the lender of constitutional democracy and the Royal autocrat. This is not the first time that Venizelos has successfully challenged royal authority. He has been a loader of revolutions. He was brought up in Crete, an island accustomed to revolution for centuries. He took an active purl in successive uprisings against the hated Turk. He was the leader of the Cretan revolution which precipitated the war of 1897 between Greece and Turkey. After the European Powers, as a consequence of that revolution, had compelled the Sultan to grant autonomy to Crete and to recognise Prince George of Greece as their High Commissioner in the island, Venizelos led a second revolt, to force the Powers to realise that half measures in the interest of Crete were doomed to failure, and that the only satisfactory solution must be the union of Crete with the mother country. In 1908 a third revolution broke out in Crete under the leadership of Venizelos, who then pro-' claimed the union of the island to the Kingdom of Greece. The Powers again refused to recognise this union. On his departure for Athens in 1910, Venizelos left his native island still struggling for the realisation of its unalterable desire to become a part of Greece. M. Venizelos landed in Greece as a member of the National Assembly, having been elected to it by the people of Athens. The late King George, appreciating this Service to the Crown, entrusted him with the formation of a new Cabinet. Before accepting the mandate of the King, however, Venizelos demanded- absolute freedom of action for the purpose of purifying Greek polities, for the introduction of various reforms in tha administration of the country, and for the reorganisation of the military and naval forces of Greece, flis conditions were accepted by the King, and in the course of three years the work of restoration and reorganisation had made such progress as to permit the formation of an alliance with Bulgaria and Servia, for the purpose of liberating

the Christian races of the Balkan Peninsula from the Turkish yoke. The Balkan League was the thunderbolt of Venizelos against the oppressor of his native island. All efforts to persuade the Great Powers and Turkey to recognise the union of Crete with the Greek kingdom having failed, the Cretan statesmen- resolved to attempt the'kettlement of the whole problem of the position of Turkey in Europe and in the Acgian Sea by uniting the Christian peoples of the Balkan Peninsula against, the Ottoman Empire. With this purpose in mind he established the Balkan League. The first Balkan war followed, and by the treachery of Bulgaria, the second Balkan war was forced on Greece and Servia. The struggle between the Cretan patriot and the Germancontrolled king, as the most recent incident in the career of Venizelos, is fresh in memory. Venizelos looks more like an Italian of Piedmont than a Greek islander. In fact, a great many who have seen him have doubted his Greek descent. His blue eyes, his surprising coolness, his absolute self-control, his ability to overcome and conceal his emotions, his extraordinary will-power, his steadfastness of purpose, and his unswerving adherence to the object to be attained, are not generally characteristic of the Greeks of to-day. Yet Venizelos is a most genuine Greek. His is .one of the oldest families of Greece.