30 SEPTEMBER 1916, Page 4

M. VENIZELOS AND KING CONSTANTINE.

"-Whoever is blessed with a true public spirit, God will certainly put it into his way to make use of that blessing for the ends it was given him, by some means or other. .And therefore it hath been observed in most ages that the greatest actions for the benefit of the common- wealth have been performed by the wisdom or courage, the contrivance or industry, of particular men,-and not of numbers."—Swifts Sermon on " Doing Good."

SWIFT'S words come into our mind as we contemplate the memorable act of M. Venizelos in placing himself at the head of the Greek movement to secure the intervention of Greece on the side of the Allies. We regard both the act of M. Venizelos and his manner of taking a step which he cannot possibly retrace with unbounded respect.: If a single man can save .his country, M. Venizelos is that man. . We are * tempted to say that he has behavpe ' a manner to. which the history of revolutions affords no el, or affords it only in the English Revolution of 1688. o doubt there have been other revolutions which show a closer similarity in detail. M. Venizelos, for ;e ample, is trying to save the existing monarchy as Mirabean tried to save the House of Louis XVI. ; but there the similarity ends, and we hope that all the omens of the French Revolution may be absent. It is in the astonish- ing moderation of M. Venizelos that we find an exact parallel between his spirit and that of the English statesmen who brought William III. to England.. He tries to accomplish his ends with the minimum of revolutionary disturbance. He wants to behave considerately and reasonably, and discard nothing that need not be discarded compatibly with the safety and honour of his country. As to the central object to be gained he is inflexible. He has taken his decision not a moment sooner than it was necessary. The last possible opportunity had been offered by the Allies to King Constantine to keep the pledge by which he holds his throne—the pledge that Greece under the Protecting Powers shall be a Constitutional country—and M. Venizelos, recognizing that that opportunity was being deliberately disregarded, has taken the only course by -which hereon hope to bring the King to the path of safety. We earnestly hope that M Venizelos may succeed. He has a thorny road to travel. We think we can say sincerely that,. as traditional well-wishers of Greece, we look on with more anxiety for the-future of Greece than for our own advantages:. The war is going very distinctly in our favour. The decline of Germany has visibly begun. The hour has passed when the intervention of Greece could make- an appreciable-difference to us one •way or the other. But for Greece everything- is still at stake. If she -follows M. Venizelos now, she- maybe saved ; if she tries to trick and flout her true friends among the Powers, it is impossible to say what penalties she may be bringing on herself through. her own action and not through any desire on the part of the Allies to punish her. A masterly statement by M. Venizelos,• which. contains his apologia for all that he has done and means to do, was pub- lished in the Times of Wednesday. He made-this statement on the eve of his departure from Athens in, company with Admiral Condouriotis, the Commander-in-Chief of the Greek Navy. The.faet that the most trusted naval officer in Greece has joined the revolutionary movement is- extraordinarily significant. He held a position of high honour in King Constantine's household, but he felt that he could not sacrifice his country to a pedantry of personal loyalty, and he has therefore gone forth with M. Venizelos on his strange adven- turous journey to organize the new movement in the islands, at Salonika, and elsewhere. Admiral Condouriotis is well known in England, where he has, many associations and has been a regular visitor. He understands the might of the Allies, and their high motives ; in his experiences and senti- ments he is. quite unlike that small group of petty politicians and " chocolate soldiers " at Athens who are innocent enough to take German promises at their face value, and who still believe in the myth of German- invincibility. M. Venizelos in his statement explains that he has gone deliberately to organize the patriotic attempt, which was already taking shape, to prevent the Bulgarians from holding Greek Mace- donia and maltreating the Greek inhabitants. Protection ought to be afforded to those people by the Greek Army, which, however, has been forbidden to do anything. The Greek Army can do its duty only in conjunction with the Allies. M. Venizelos, who from the beginning saw what might happen, has always advocated intervention on the side of the Allies. In February, 1915, as he goes on to say, he resigned office because his policy of intervention was not sanctioned. In August, 1915, he was returned to power as a result of the generarelections. But again he was obliged to resign because. the King refused to fulfil the Treaty with Serbia. " Even if the Treaty with Serbia " had not existed, says M. Venizelos, " it was evident to me that the moment Bulgaria joined the Central Powers it became an absolute necessity, if only to safeguard the bare interests of my country, that she should immediately join the ranks of the Entente Powers." When Rumania intervened it seemed to M. Venizelos impossible, after all, that Greece should not follow suit. But again " nothing was done." He then goes on :- " The betrayal of Kavalla, after the loss of Fort Rupel, Seres, Drama, and of the greater.part of Greek Macedonia, has brought matters to such a crisis in the very existence of my country that I can no longer resist the cry of my compatriots calling to me to help them and save them from extermination at the hands of Bulgaria. I can no longer wait. I have exhausted in vain every possible means of inducing those who govern Greece to take up arms in defence of their country. I have offered to support unconditionally any Ministry in Greece that should be ready to carry out the polidy of intervention—the only, policy compatible with the national interests of Greece. I have recently sent a message to the King, through one of the Ministers of the Entente, urging him to lose no more time in coming to the rescue of his country, and offering, should he so desire, to retire myself, if my retirement -would make it easier for him to follow-the path of duty towards his nation. All has been in vain, and I feel myself hound now to respond to the call of my -countrymen, the call of those who are oppressed by our hereditary foe, to come and lead them to the rescue of their oppressed brethren. I have hesitated to take the supreme step which I am now taking. I am only taking it because I em absolutely convinced—notwithstanding the published asstitances that the present official-Ministry aredisposed to consider the question of intervention—that those who now really control Greek policy do not honestly intend to arm the country and to drive out the invading enemy. Do not think I am heading a revolution- in the ordinary sense of the word. The movement now beginning is in no way directed against the King.or his -dynasty. This movement is one made by those of us who- can no longer stand aside and let our countrymen and our country be ravaged by the Bulgarian enemy. It is the last Wert we can make to induce the King to come forth as King of the Hellenes and to follow the path of duty in protection- of his subjects. As soon as he takes this, course, we, all of us, shall be only too-glad and ready at once to follow-- his Flag as loyal citizens led by him against our country's foe."

Surely that is a model of a revolutionary manifesto.

It is pitifal-to reflect on the opportunities King-Constantine has missed. One is almost inclined to believe the, story that hepromised his brother-in-law, the German Emperor, that the Greeks should never take up antis against the Central Powers., The story at all events fits in with the known facts and accounts for them. But if the King made any such promise he com- mitted' there and then a flagrantly =constitutional act. The Treaty under which Greece was created an independent kingdom stipulates that the government of the country shalt be Constitutional. The Greeks themselves had asked for a system like that of Britain. Even if M. Venizelos when in office had not invited the Allies to Salonika, the interference of the Protecting Powers of Greece—Britain, France, and Russia—would have been justified by the refusal of the King to govern constitutionally. In 1897 the King, then the Crown Prince, suffered in the debacle of the Greek fortunes when Turkey was foolishly provoked into war. The military disasters of Greece were probably due to no personal fault of his, but still he suffered in his reputation. Then (thanks entirely to M. Venizelos) came the astounding good fortune of the Balkan War. The Crown Prince found himself on a pinnacle. Greek troops accomplished everything they set out to do. Never was the Hellenic dynasty so popular. At the beginning of the present war, King Constantine, as he had then become, was at the head of a devoted nation. The story of how that position has crumbled away under his own hands is also the story of M. Venizelos's revolt. The King had only to say to his arrogant brother-in-law : " I am by law a Constitutional monarch. I have no power and no duty but to carry out the will of my people. It would be hateful to me personally to fight against your troops. If I can use any influence to prevent my country going to war with you, I shall do so. But if, in spite of all, my country insists on siding with the Entente, you must remember that I am only the head of a crowned republic." Neither the German Emperor nor the Entente Powers could have reasonably objected to such a policy as that. It would have been a bare statement of the facts. But the King preferred throughout to play with the Allies. His present Cabinet is largely composed of pro-Germans, and yet rumours, intended to mislead, are spread about that this Cabinet intends to intervene before long in the war against Germany. M. Venizelos knows the value of these hints, and means to be played with no longer. If the present pro-German Cabinet had been constitutionally elected, we should have had nothing to say against it. But a pro-German Cabinet appointed in the face of the known wishes of the Greek people--that is something which cannot be endured. With true statesman- ship, M. Venizelos has always placed first his demand for the restoration of popular government. Everything else that the Greek people desired would have flowed from that. The King of Rumania has set a splendid example of how to behave in circumstances quite as difficult as those which have afflicted King Constantine, and how to rise superior to embarrassing. associations. He is a Hohenzollern, but he decided to be ruled by only one consideration—the will of his people. King Constantine is not even a Hohenzollern ; he is only the brother- in-law of the chief Hohenzollern. Yet he has chosen to act as an imitation Kaiser.

There is still one more opportunity which has been specially created for the King by M. Venizelos. The King could say with all truth and sincerity to the Kaiser : " I have tried to remain neutral—I have tried even at the cost of breaking the ancient pledges of my House to the Protecting Powers. I have resorted to every sort of temporizing expedient in the hope that you would make neutrality easier for me. Now you see the result. You cannot help me. On the contrary,, your allies, the Bulgarians, have overrun Greek Macedonia. My provinces are being taken from me. My people are turning against me. I can continue your policy no longer. I shall send for M. Venizelos, who has saved both the country and the dynasty before and can save them again. But this time I shall act, without a thought of looking back, as a Sovereign whose decisions are formed for him by his Ministers." After all the follies of Greek policy it seems too good that this should happen. But M. Venizelos is attempting nothing less. We shall all watch • his efforts for the sake of Greece with genuine concern and sympathy, and a devout wish that he may succeed.