M. VENIZELOS.*
MR. CHESTER'S new biography of M. Venizelos is very well worth reading. It describes clearly the career of a remarkable man, and, it throws much light on recent events in Greece. The fast thing to notice in regard to 3L Venizelos is that he is a Cretan. He is descended from a Peloponnesian Greek who settled in Crete about the year 1770. He was born near Canes in 1861. He went to Athens to be educated, taking a degree in law, but with this exception his whole life was spent in Crete and occupied with 'Cretan affairs • until 1910. Now it is true that the Cretans are Greeks, and that they ardently desired reunion with the mother-country just as Greece wished to annex Crete. But for all that there are differences between the Greeks of Crete and the Greeks of the mainland, and still more between the Greek politicians of Crete and the Greek politicians of Athens. It is impossible to understand the meteoric rise and the sudden fall of M. Venizelos, unless we remember clearly that he was introduced to the politics of the Greek mainland when he was a man of forty-six, with a hard training in a very different school. Mr. Chester rightly impresses this fact on•his readers by devoting nearly half his book to an interesting account of M. Venizelos' work in Crete, where M. Clemencean met the young Cretan leader about 1900 and discerned his rare ability. M. Venizelos first directed the Cretan revolt against the Tarks in 1897. The Powers might have discussed the question in a half-hearted way for many years had not the Turks at Candia in September, 1898, in- the course of a massacre of Christians, treacherously killed a number of British soldiers. Admiral Noel then compelled the Turkish garrisons to leave the island, and the Powers, faced with a new situation, agreed to the appointment of Prince George of Greece as High Commissioner. The Prince unhappily proved to be a thoroughly bad rider, guided by favourites from the mainland who knew nothing of Crete. M. Venizelos' • next task was to get rid of the Prince and to obtain full union with Greece. After a fresh insurrection in 1905 he achieved his end. Prince George resigned in 1906 and .M. Zaimis succeeded him. M. Venizelos became the virtual Premier of Crete, and the Allied forces were gradually withdrawn. In 1908, when Austria annexed Bosnia and Bulgaria declared• her independence, Crete proclaimed her union with Greece. The Powers formally objected, but could do nothing.
M. Venizelos in expelling the incompetent Prince George had angered the Greek 'Royal family, who have never forgiven him. But in .1910 King George I. had nevertheless to accept 31. Venizelos as Premier of Greece. The Army had revolted in 1909 against the Greek Princes who held the high commands and against the corrupt politicians who disputed for office in Greece and had made the country virtually bankrupt. Army and people looked for an honest man to save Greece from disaster, and early in 1910 M. Venizelos was invited by common consent to go to Athens. The King, fearing for his throne, agreed to summon a National Assembly if the Military League of Army Officers were dissolved. In October, .1910, M. Venizelos formed a Greek Ministry. But as he found that the old politicians were busily intriguing against him, he dissolved the Assembly in a week and summoned a new legislature which worked harmoniously with him and drastically reformed the constitution in 1911. Under M. Venizelos as Premier, Greece rapidly recovered. Her Army was reorganized, her finances were restored. In 1912 the country was able to join with the Balkan States in making war on Turkey and freeing the Chris- tians of Macedonia from age-long tyranny. No man has done half as lunch -for modern Greece as M. Venizelos. Yet it is may to see why he has so many Greek enemies. He has had to face the ill-concealed hostility of the Royal family, who resented the dismissal of Prince George from. Crete, the removal of the Princes from the Staff in 1909, and the curtailment of the Royal prerogative under the new constitution. Then, again, M. Venizelos has infuriated the old party leaders by dropping, as it were, from the skies and depriving them of their comfortable monopoly of office. Further, the new spirit which he infused! into Greek political life made many place.hunters and corrupt hangers-on extremely uncomfortable. We may suppose, too,.
• Aft op-V= 41a. By S. D. Chester. London: Constable. [2,ba sat.1 that after the. first enthusiasm for Venizelist reforms had worn off there was among the Athenians generally a good deal of jealous criticism of the Cretan, who had come from his old- fashioned island and ventured to read a lesson to the capital. The -city republics of mediaeval Italy used very often to seek a Podesta or impartial ruler from some other Italian city, who was not concerned in the local feuds. The Podesta seldom lasted long. There is no very exact parallel for such a case in English history. Englishmen have long ceased to complain because they have a Welsh or a Scottish Prime Minister. But we may perhaps recall the case of George the Third's adviser, Lord Bute, who was given office when the Whig factions .were hopelessly at variance. Modern readers are too much inclined to accept as true the violent contemporary libels on Mite, who was in fact an honest man and on the whole. a moderate ancl sensible statesman. Bute, though not a VenfrAOS, was assailed with outrageous violence because he interfered with the Whig party game, and his opponents could think of nothing worse to say about him than that he was a Scotsman. This was half a century after the Union, yet the prejudice in England against Scotsmen was strong. We can well imagine that M. Venizeles has suffered in Greece for being a Cretan.
The author gives a lucid account of M. Venizelos' -work for Greece during and after the Turkish war of 1912-13 and during the European war. We need not refer to it, except to emphasize the fact that. M. Venizelos unquestionably had the support of. a large majority of Greeks for his pro-Ally policy, whereas King Constantine pursued a pro-German policy by violence and intrigue in defiance of most of his subjects. It devolved upon M. Venizelos to promote a third revolution, in which Crete and the other islands led the way, while Salonika, which Se had recovered for Greece in 1912, was his headquarters. Mr. Cheater deals briefly with the later events and does not attempt to explain the deplorable vote of November last when the mainland Greeks repudiated their. one statesman and brought back the King who had disgraced himself and his country by a treacherous pro-German policy which, moreover, had failed. We can, however, begin to understand that vote when we look bank. at M. Venizelos' earlier career. He fell before a combination of jealous rivals—a King who wanted to ape his Hohenzollern brother-in-law as an Admirable Crichton, party politicians who detested the interference. of a provincial, unscrupulous folk who disliked the severity of honest Venizelist officials. It would have been a miracle .indeed if M. Venizelos had retained his supremacy ranch longer. We can only hope that the good work of the ten years dining most of which he ruled Greece will not be entirely undone.
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