GREECE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1916, Page 5

GREECE.

GREECE MERELY A NAME. A LAST APPEAL. I'OK COX S T ANT IXE 'S ABDICATION*. HIP PRESTIGE GONE. , —— f Received Sept. 24. 5,5 p.m. London, Sept. 23. Mr. .Totl'iics, writing from Athens, states tliat tlie kingdom of firevcc is low merely a name. Alliens no longer governs Salonika, Lomnos, Hamaa and Uitylouo. An independence proclamation has been issued at Epirus and Lnrissa, C'n-te and the Cyclade Isles arc lollowing suit, while Phoci.s and Acariinnia are wavering. Only Athens and ilie Pelaponcssos remain. Jlr. Wallis says Athens is placarded ivith newspapers containing a last appeal: '"King! 0, King! Abdicate!" The Astvr journal publishes the declaration of a formal royal courtier: "VS e made the revolution, and disobeyed the commands of King and Government, because of the treason at Kavalla. The magnitude of the catastrophe is impelling me and others, hitherto fanatical enemies to the Liberal Party, to join the rising." The placards were not removed, because King Constantino's authority and prestige have practically gone. Quantities of arms have been stored unhindered in private houses. King Constantino and If. Venizelos ire hoidiiig co-equal powers, the King not faring to challenge \I. Venizelos' acts, King Constantino's rash promise to the Kaiser of no intervention is responsible for the whole trouble. He appointed MM. (lounariei and Skouloudsi because they were unlikely to do anything, subsequently temporising continuously. He saw the tide turning, and stubbornly imitated King Canute by patronising the Reservists' League and the wandering anti-Yenizolists. J!. Zaimis resigned because he was over-ridden jy Streit Stratos, and '-ther Kaiserites' programmes surrounding King Constantino, Streit actually flouts the Ministers, contemptuously and openly tating that there is no need to worry about the l'irneus fleet. RIDING FOR A FALL " CONSTANT [NE'3 AUTOCRACY. ■Received Sept. 2-1, 5.5 p.m Athens, Sept. ?!!. The King's harangue to recruits lias been widely commented upon, and it is pointed out that he passed over in silence the ignominious surrender of the Army Corps to the Bulgarians, while he fronziodly denounced the revolutionaries. The newspaper Piitras says King Constantino has considerably extended liis constitutional powers and assumed the Kaisers' autocratic methods. REVOLUTIONARIES JO TO THE FRONT. Received Sept. it, 5,5 p.m. Salonika, Sent. 2:). A battalion of (ireek revolutionaries paraded, preparatory to going to the front. General Ziobrakakis exhorted them to expel the invaders. Women threw flowers from the windows. SUSPECTED NAVALS SURROUNDED. Received Sept. 24, 5.5 p.m. ) Athens, Sept. 23. The Daily Chronicle's Athens correspondent says that the Government, suspecting that three hundred of the crew :if the cruiser Averoif were preparing to join the Salonika movement, ordered the rest of the fleet to surround tiie cruiser. SCHENK INTERVIEWED. Received Sept. 24, 5.5 p.m. ''Amsterdam, Sept. Baron Sehcnk has returned to Merlin, Interviewed, he stated that Greece was completely under il. Venizelos' thumb, ALLIES' FLEET INCREASED. ■ (Received Sept. 24, 5.5 p.m. Alliens, Sept. 23. The Allied licet at Sahunis has been increased to eighty-live ships, prepared for a long stay. OCCULT INFLUENCES AT WORK. Athens, Sept. 22. The Director-General of the Foreign Ofliee visited Sir ]'. Elliott, British Minister, and assured him that the Cabinet was omy u business Cabinet and not a political one. It was ready, if recognised by the Entente, to sacrifice the Gormanopliile. Ministers who, before assuming their portfolios, indulged in attacks on the Entente. Loudon, Sept. 22. A well-informed correspondent at Athens define;! the remarku'ble position. Occult influences are governing Greece, consisting of MM Streit, Gounaris. and Dousmanis. The clique r-ummuding King Constantino appointed the new Ministry, whose position is daily more assured. When the royal nominees were appointed patriotic Greeks fomented movements, as they realised it was hopeless to expect the new Cabinet of puppets and intrlgucis to attack tho Bulgarian invaders. The Government, belatedly realising the strength of the feeling against Bulgaria, and alarmed at the numbers of olilccrs and men smuggling themselves to Salonika, issued an authoritative report asserting that it was the King's intention to declare war on Bulgaria. At the same time it issued another authoritative report for pro-Germans, stating that there would be no intervention before two months. It issued the latter because the Government believed that Germany would destroy Rounumia before that date and then send a sufficient force to the 'Dardanelles to render intervention impossible. 4