The Daily News Letter

Athens.

The Venizelist revolt has been crushed and Euleutherios Venizelos, its central figure, is a fugitive from the Republic which he so greatly was responsible for founding. It is to be assumed now that his influence on the Greek political scene is at an end and that his party, with so many of its leaders inculpated, will scatter to the four winds.

To the Jews of Greece, particularly those in Macedonia and the Salonica district, this comes as an unmixed blessing. For the Venizelists in recent years had picked up anti-Semitism and transformed it from a football of hooligans into a powerful political issue. The reputation of Venizelos, one of the dominant figures in recent Greek history—if not in a larger sphere—had been used to cover a long and fierce campaign against the Jews aimed to force them out of the political field where they had been instrumental in the last elections in the defeat of Venizelos’s ambitions to become Premier once again.

The Tsaldaris government, which the Jews have supported almost unanimously, had acted on many occasions in suppressing rowdy anti-Semitic activities. Many members of the government had displayed friendliness toward the Jewish population and a sympathetic willingness to assist it. The Tsaldaris government further acted favorably to the Jews in eliminating the “electoral college” in Salonica which distinguished between Jews and other citizens and forced the Jews to vote apart from the rest of the population.

In the last closely contested election, with the electoral college eliminated, Venizelos was defeated by the margin of the Jewish vote cast for the government list. Loss of the elections came as a crushing blow to the “Old Men of Crete” and his party retaliated with such an unceasing and unsparing attack on the Jews that many of them began to talk of asking for restoration of the electoral college which, despite its segregational character, had the advantage of removing the Jews from the political arena.

Long considered a liberal and one of the type of true democrats, the transformation of Venizelos in recent years had come as a painful shock to many of his former friends and admirers, Jewish and non-Jewish. His growing strength, particularly in Macedonia, had been a cause of great concern to the Jewish population which looked forward to the next election with considerable apprehension. The Greek Senate, dissolved during the revolution by Premier Tsaldaris, had a Venizelist majority. It was possible that the next election might result in a majority for the Opposition in the lower house as well.

But the ill-considered and purposeless putsch by the service officers and Venizelos, it is now believed, has banished all fear of that. Venizelos is now in exile, the revolt is crushed and the government is more strongly entrenched than at any time in recent months.

For this the Jews of Greece rejoice two-fold. They have confidence in the present government and are glad to see it continue. And they are tremendously relieved by the failure of the Venizelists.

Full authentic reports of the activities of the rebel forces in Macedonia are not yet available here at this writing, but in view of the widespread looting and pillaging by the revolutionists in Northern Macedonia, in cities where there are many Jews, it can be readily assumed that they, as well as the general population, have suffered much harm. Even this is not entirely a calamity for the actions of the Venizelist revolutionaries have counteracted much of their previous success in gaining support by their intensive propaganda there.

During the week of uncertainty during the revolt, the Jews demonstrated their loyalty by enlisting in the government forces and in offering aid to the government. They can expect now that the government, undeterred by political considerations, will act with vigor and promptness in crushing anti-Semitic manifestations such as have been inspired and perpetrated by the Venizelists with the implicit approval of Venizelos himself.