Evening star., 1923-09-28
In Defense of Greece.
Government Declared Legitimate
and Entitled to Recognition.

To the Editor Of The Star:
The Star on Sunday carried an arti-
Gle by Andre Tardieu, headed Force
| Dominant in Europe Still" In this
article Mr. .Tardieu refers to Greece
twice and both times misstates facts.
He says:
Next came Greece, which in less
than four years overthrew two gov
ernments."
In making the above statement Mr..
Tardieu evidently has in mind the
/ changes in the Greek regime which
occurred in 1920 and 1922. Later on
| he says:
| THE Greeks and Bulgarians took
almost unheard-of liberties with the
| elections"
| Here again he refers to the cleo
ttons of 1920. The elections of that
| year were held in November. shortly
| after our own election in the United
| states, and Syere an overthrow Of the
i existing government" only In the
sense that our own election consti-
| tuted an overthrow" of our own
government; both in the United
States and in Greece the people had
tired of their war administration and
threw it out of power at the polls.
The elections in Greece were just as
/ constitutional, just as orderly and
! Just as lawful as the election in the
! United States in November, 1920. The
writer was in Greece at the time and
for many months afterward, and
never heard any claim that almost
| unheard-of liberties" were taken with
the election. As the party which was
| in power at the time was the one
that could have taken liberties" and
as 1T was badly defeated it is hardly
reasonable to suppose that they took
! liberties with the elections" in or
der TO insure their own defeat. Mr..
| Venizelos himself never claimed the
elections were fraudulent, and he has
always maintained that while the
! outside world had right to form it's
own opinion as to the wisdom of the
Greek people at the elections. for
eIgners had no reason to question the
right of the Greek people to vote for
! whom they chose
! The revolution of 1922 was caused
| directly by the refusal of the great
| powers (the United States included)
| to recognize the constitutional right
of the Greek people to control their
own elections; to this more than to
Iany other one reason can be attrib-
! uted the troubles which brought
| about the revolution. Greece would
be under constitutional government"
| today had the great powers not in
| terfered. Now, after their failure to
| recognize the constitutional govern
ment in power for nearly two years.
various powers make the excuse that
| they Will not recognize Greece now
| until she returns to a constitutional
government" George II of Greece is
! just as constitutional moarcb as
| Victor Emmanuel of Italy, Alfonso of
Spain or Boris Of Bulgaria; the pres
ent revolutionary government of
| Greece Is just as regular as the gov
ernments of Italy, Spain or Bulgaria.
Greece comes before the world with
!; just as good a claim and just as
clean hands as the other three. Why
! should she be treated so differently?
| Today the establishment of
! diplomatic relations with Greece
| means something more than an act
1 of friendship to a nation that has al
ways been friendly to US; it means
| help in the care which Greece is
| giving to the million dependent ref
| ugees now within her borders. Greece
| is struggling to establish the ref
uGees within the frontiers of Euro
I pean Greece. If this can be done much
! will have been accomplished toward
! the final settlement of the near east
! ern question, which has been so
| largely caused by the mixture of
races having wide cultural and re-
ligious differences.
In this great work Greece should
be given all possible assistance.
F., recognition and the re-estabIishment
of formal diplomatic relations is one
! of the easiest. best and quickest
means of helping straighten out the
tangled situation. 1t will stabilize
conditions and help Greece in her
! task of consolidating the Greek race
| in the confines of European Greece,
la task which should have the sup
! port of the whole civilized world.
| The permanent establishment of the
! refugees in the normal economic life
{; of Greece will not only save the
| refugees themselves, but will be a
distinct step toward final solution
| of the near eastern question.
b z. SALMON