e where other nations would laugh. Thus she
wins by statecraft and loses by politics. In thought, and in the
spoken word, Greece is outmatched for instance by the Slavs; but in
silent action and in administrative policy Greece more often excels her
neighbours. You will always hear odious comparisons made in the Near
East between Greek and Turk, to the disadvantage of the former. But it
seems rather absurd. The Turk, at his best, is a child or a legendary
hero--not one of ourselves--whereas the Greek is a serious European
with a race-consciousness of civilization thousands of years old.

Athens has quietened down after the political violence of the
restoration of Constantine. One sees pictures of the King
everywhere--a cavalry officer with high Greek military hat, bushy
moustaches, and rather horse-like face. He has large strained eyes
with a questioning, impatient expression. All these pictures were
hidden during the King's exile, but on his return came forth to light
again. Common also are posters of Constantine as St. George, and the
Venizelist administration as a three-headed dragon of which Venizelos
is the chief and certainly most loathly head. Venizelos has become
violently distasteful to the people--though possibly he may return to
power by as violent a reaction. The chief reason for his fall was that
he offended Greek national pride by being the puppet of the Allies.
The revolution which he accomplished at the instigation of the French
was highly resented. And all the mortification of the French contempt
for Greece was vented upon him. Although Greece won such a goodly
share of the booty of the war, she was treated throughout the war with
a brutal nonchalance. Venizelos had much respect, but Greece had none.
A comparison is often made between the machinations of the Allies in
Petrograd in 1917 for the deposing of the Tsar, and the intrigues which
forced Constantine to flee. Venizelos nevertheless was one of the
cleverest statesmen of Europe--granted one can be clever and not wise
at the same time--clever and even stupid, his chief weakness being a
crude violence of temperament which breaks out in his speeches:

On vient de vous dire, s'ecria-t-il, qu'il n'y avait pas de
germanophiles an Grece. Cela est vrai pour le peuple, pour les homines
politiques de tous les partis en grande majorite. Moi-meme je viens de
l'attester a la conference de Londres. Mais cela n'est vrai du roi, ni
de son entoura