Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-11-20
The Fall of Ven;ze7os
yENIzELOS we'll may comfort himse

TENlZELOS well may comfort himself
" with thoughts of Aristides the Just.
NO statesman of present-day Europe,
and certainly none of modern Greece, has
served his country with more genius or
more devotion than this now rejected leader
or the Hellenes. To whatever issues, do
nestle or foreign, his defeat in the recent
elections is to be ascribe9, the fact looms
out that Greece has lost, At a time when
she could ill afford to spare him. her ablest
counselor and trustiest guide.
In this she is but repeating history of her
own, and rejecting the almost worldwide
popular temper of the times. We need not
go back five centuries before the Christian
era to find lofty leaders suffering Punishment
because Of their justice their fidelity to
1.-The vision splendid" Republics were ever
ungrateful, it is said-and monarchies as
well, letsit be added-not because of forms
OF government, but simply because of hui
man nature. Today the crowd ''all halls
Caesar; tomorrow it acclaims Brutus, only
to howl for his head after Antony has
spoken. And each of us is in the crowd
though not always of it. and though repent
ing individuality the follies we do en- masse
Can Americans, in the yet robustious
echoes of their own political smashing
chide Greece for her treatment of the great
Premier? Or can the French, when they
think of Clemenceau? Or the Italians re-
membering Orlando?
1t seems a s1ngularly ungrateful fling of
popular caprice, however, that the very
maker of the Greater Hellas to today, the
thinker and patriot to whom, more than any
other man of their generation, contemporary
Greeks are indebted, should be thrust fro-I
the helm at an hour critical for his country
and for all Europe. Six years ago, even
three years ago, Greece was a third-class
State, in point of material strength and pres
tige. Now she stands but rank below
the great Powers. Within this short span
her boundaries have been WidenCd to some
thing of their ancient dimensions; her stra-
tegic position on land and sea has been vastly
improved, and her outlook upon the future
incomparably frightened. These gains and
prospects are all attributable to the policies
for which VeniZelos has stood, and largely
to the leadership which he ha, given Ger
tainly if the policies Of his opponents had
prevailed and the wishes of e-,-King Con-
stantine had come to pass, there would have
been no such Hellas today, and no such
hope for mankind.
"But it was wholly upon domestic, not
foreign, issue that Venizelos was defeated,
the new powers at Athens hasten to declare,
at the same time avowing firm friendship for
he Entente. May the event fulfill the pro-
fession! Naturally, however, Britain and
France are rather anxious over Developments
yet to come. Will Constantine be restored
to the throne? They will hardly allow
THAT. Do the rumblings of popular reac-
ton and unrest, already heard here and
there, presage a revolution? Venizelos has
called upon his followers to accept the dis
appointing result in calm spirit and as true
democrats abiding by the majority's deci-
sion. Will the unsteadiness which, not i'm
probably, may mark Greek affairs for some
seasons to come, offer secession for another
outfash in the Balkan finder box? The end
of renewed war in that fateful region would
he altogether unpredictable. These and
other dark questions come riding hard upon
Venizelos' fall.