ན ནྡྲ། ན,: ELEUTHERIOS VENIZELOS THE BALKAN BEAR GARDEN By RICHARD BOARDMAN "The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! But all, except their sun, is set.?? "Earth! render back from out thy breast N THE island of Crete, in the year 1864, Dame Destiny gave birth to a man child who, after redeeming three million Greeks from Turkish oppression, one day was to sit as the most distinguished member in the first council of the League of Nations. Upon his infant shoulders was placed the burdensome name of Eleuthérios K. Venizelos. 1 I have before me two accounts of his birth. Neither states the precise day of its occurrence. This is due, no doubt, to two facts. The Greeks pay little or no attention to birthdays, celebrating instead the day of one's patron saint; and, as they still use the old style in reckoning time, a Greek writer might hesitate to give a date which must from the nature of things be untrue, either from his own or from his reader's point of view, and at the same time might consider the matter of too little consequence to warrant a full explanation. His father was a rich merchant. His mother, like the mothers of so many other great men, was a woman of profound religious nature. Already three children had been born to this couple, all of whom had died in infancy. His mother resolved that if prayer could save this child, he should be saved. The story is told that in the house, for two days and two nights before the birth of Venizelos, two Mohammedan hodjas and two Greek priests prayed ceaselessly that the child about to be born might have a long life. They prayed in four different tongues. Whatever one may think of the prayers of these professionals, few will doubt the efficacy of the spirit of the mother who not only called in these men, known far and wide for their spiritual power, but added to their prayers in divers languages, her own prayer uttered in the great universal language of a woman's love for her child. In those days-nay, weeks and months of yearning, of determination and of prayer, she impressed upon the face of the child a beauty of expression that years of struggle have not been able to deface or mar. Venizelos was educated at the University of Athens. He became a lawyer and returned to Crete in 1886. He is said to have acquired a considerable law practice. But in 1887 he was in politics as the leader of the Liberal party elected to power that year. Crete, at the time, was a wellnigh autonomous dependency of Turkey. But the bitterness of the party quarrel in 1887 led to the intervention of the Turk with an army of 40,000 men. The story of the years that followed is the story of one armed conflict after another. In the Rebellion of 1895 the Concert of Powers of Europe took part and sided with the Turk. Venizelos led the forlorn hope of the Cretan patriots who stood for union of Crete with Greece. The fighting continued off and on till 1897. Then the Turks, because of their own bad conduct toward the British, were forced by the Great Powers to withdraw, and Prince George, a son of the King of Greece, was appointed High Commissioner. The contest now became one between the Cretans, who wanted immediate union with Greece, and the Grecian Prince, who wanted to hold his berth under the suzerainty of Turkey. In March, 1905, a Revolutionary Convention proclaimed the "political union of Crete with the Greek kingdom." The * revolt headed by Venizelos lasted eight months. Then the English, Russian, Italian and French forces supporting Prince George moved against Venizelos and his Cretan followers. Venizelos decided it was time to parley. A compromise was agreed upon whereby Venizelos gave up 700 rifles, and Prince George resigned his Commissionership... The Cretans continued to agitate for a union with Greece. In 1910 the question came up again, but the Great Powers were firm. The union of Crete with Greece seemed farther off than ever...} Then, an unforeseen event in Greece changed the whole course of Cretan affairs. The Military League, an organization of military officers, had succeeded in a bloodless revolution in Greece. The Grecian populace had become wearied with the inefficiency of their government. But the Military League, upon coming into power, found that civil government required talents different from those learned in the army. The leaders knew of Venizelos. Some of them, of course, knew him personally. They sent for him to come to Athens to reorganize the government of Greece. Venizelos stood for election and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from a district of the city of Athens. Turkey protested his election on the ground that he was a Turkish citizen. He had spent the larger part of his life in Crete, yet he was technically a citizen of Greece by virtue of his father's citizenship and the Turkish protest was disallowed. He was, however, an islander and a provincial. He landed at the Piræus, the port of Athens, on September 14, 1910. He was welcomed by an outburst of enthusiasm. At the moment, the burning political question was whether the popular assembly, recently elected, should be considered a constituent assembly or remain merely a revisionary body. The populace of Athens chose to consider it a constituent assembly. On the evening of his arrival at Athens, a crowd gathered about his hotel. He came to the balcony to address them. He said: "My criticisms upon the inertia of royalty have been misinterpreted as anti-dynastic. On the contrary, I believe that it is to the nation's interest to show its devotion to the reigning dynasty, and I therefore consider that the Assembly should remain revisionary, and recast the bases of legislation, according to modern requirements. When Venizelos said, "I consider that the Assembly ought to remain revisionary," the crowd of Athenians began to shout, "Constituent, constituent!" When the shouts ceased, he repeated his statement; "I consider that the Assembly should remain revisionary." "Constituent!" shouted the people. "I say revisionary," repeated the speaker. |