The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-03-02
KING CONSTANTINE COMPARES
VENIzEL0S' ACTION TO THAT
OF AARON BURR IN AMERICA
Green People Call Him Traitor, Says Ruler in Inter
view Truth About Happenings in Greece Will Out
Despite Censorship, He Tells Correspondent.

I both. AS for Venizelos himself
you had man once in your country,
| a very great man who had even been
| vice president of the United States,
! who planned to split the country in
! two and set himself up as ruler in
the part he separated from the rest,
your Majesty means Aaron Burr p
| Precisely. But he only plotted to
| do thing which he never accomplish
ed. Venizelos, with the assistance of
| the Allied Powers-and he never
| could have done it without them
| has succeeded for the time being in
| the same kind of a seditious enter
| prise. You called Aaron Burr a
traitor. Well, that's what the Greek
people call Venizelos.
| 1.-THE impression has been spread
broadcast that Venizelos stands in
Greece for, liberalism and his op-
ponents for absolutism and militar-
ism. 1t is just the other way around
Venizelos stands for whatever suits
his own personal book. His idea Of
government is absolute dictatorship
a sort of Meyican government take
it. When he was premier he broke
every man who dared to disagree
R with him in his own party. He new
er sought to express the will Of the
people; he imposed his will on the
people. The Greek people will not
stand that. They demand consti-
tutional government in which there is
room for two parties liberals and
conservatives, each with a definite
program, as in the United States or
England or any other civilized coun-
try, not a personal government where
the only party division is into Veni-
zelists and ti-venizelists.
THAT is one thing I wanted to say.
The other is about the effect of the
so-caaled German propaganda in
Greece. The Entente powers seem to
have adopted the attitude that every
body who is not willing to fight on
their side must be pro-German.
Nothing could be fa1ser in respect of
Greece. The present resentment
against the Allies in Greece-and there
| is a good deal of it, especially since
the blockade, is due to the Allies
themselves and not to any German
propaganda. The proof of it is that
when e Q so-ca1led German propa-
ganda was at its height there was lit
tie or no hostility in Greece towards
the Allies. It has only been since the
diplomatic representatives of all the
Central Empires and. everybody else
whom the ANGLO French secret police
Indicated as ininica1 to the Entente,
have been expelled from Greece and
any German propaganda rendered vir-
tua1ly impossible, that there has
grown UP any popular feeling against
the Entente
Part of this is due to the Entente's
Z a IL
with the personal ambitions of ven-
tlzelos: blt a great deal has also been
due to the very unfortunate handling
of the Allied control in Greece. When
you write persinal letter Of no pos
sibae international Significance to a
frdend or relative here in sAthens and
post it in Athens and it is held a
week, opened and half it's contents
blacked out, it makes you pretty cross
mot because 1t is unspeakaAble tyran- 4
ny in free country at peace with all
the world, but because it is So silly.
For after all il you want to plot with
a man living in the same town YOU
don't have to write him a letter. You
put on your hat and go to see him. /
Half the people Of Greece have been
continually exasperated by just this
sort of uninteIigent control which has
1rTftated the Greek people beyond any
telling. But to say that they are pro-
German because they dislike having
their private letters opened or their
homes entered without any legal au-
thority whatsoever is childish. It's a.
vicious circle. The Entente take ex-
ceptionaa1y severe measures because
they aIlege the Greeks are pro-Ger-
man. The Greeks very naturally re-
sent the measures thus taken aus would
the Americans or anybody else. The
entente then turns arounids and says:
/ YOU see that proves that the Greeks
re pro- German as we suspected
THE fact Of the matter is that
there is even now less pro-German
feeling in Greece than in the United
States, Holland or any Of the Scandi-
navian countries. And there is far
less anti-Entente, propaganda in
| Greece even now than there is anti
Hellenic propaganda in England,
France and Russia. The whole feel
Ing of the Greek people towards the
Entente powers today is one of sorrow
and disillusionment. They had heard
so much Of this war for the defense
Of little nations that it has been a
very great shock to them to be treat
ed as they feel very badly, even
Slucily, IoT no reason ana to nObOdy'S
profit And more than anything else,
after all the Greek government and
Greek people have done to help the
Entente powers since the very out
break Of the war, they deeply resent
being called pro-German because
they have not been willing to see their
own country destroyed as Serbia and
Rumanta have been destroyed.
AS l have tried repeatedly to point
out to the Entente representatives
there can only be one certain guar
| antee of the safety Of the Allied forces
| in the Balkans as far as the Greeks
are concerned-,that is mutual conf
kdence. The assumption that every
Greek is an enemy and not to be
j trusted is merely standing challenge
| to every hothead to attempt some
thing irreparable - irreparable for
/ Greece as we'll as for the Entente.
| II have done everything I could to
dissipate the mistrust Of the Powers
l have given every possible assurance
and guarantee. Many of the military
measures that have been demanded
1 myself suggested with view to
tranquillizing the Allies and myself
voluntarily offered to- execute, NV
| army, which any soldier knows co,,Id