VENIZELOS, Eleutherios, Greek statesman: b. near Canea, Crete, of Greek parentage, 1864. He was educated at his home town, at Smyrna, and the University of Athens, practised law in Crete and was elected deputy for the district of Kedonia in the Cretan assembly in 1888. He first acquired fame in the troubled events that led to the liberation of Crete in the insurrection of 1896 97. He became the leader of his people and president of the new Cretan national assembly. But the advent of Prince George of Greece as high commissioner of Crete was followed by a serious conflict between him and Venizelos. The prince aimed at despotic government, but Ven izelos had not overthrown the tyranny of the Turk in order to set up a new despotism from Greece. He resigned his office, donned military uniform and headed the insurrection of 1905 which culminated in the fall of the prince and his retirement to Paris. Under the new com missioner, Zaimis, Venizelos returned to power with increased prestige. His fame spread to Athens and fired new hopes in Greece. In the political confusion of 1909, when the throne trembled and the nation itself seemed on the verge of dissolution, the democracy of Greece appealed to the man who had saved Crete to come and be its .savior also. The late King George, overloolung the ((outrage° Venizelos had conunitted on his son the prince in Crete, joined in the appeal. Although a confirmed re publican, Venizelos came to Greece, saved the dynasty and the country, carried through a re vision of the Constitution and prepared the Balkan League (q.v.) of 1912. A man of un swerving honesty, he used smooth words neither to his king nor the people; he boldly declared that the Crown had usurped too large a place in the function of government. He reformed
the army and navy, swept away the oppressive taxation on the poor, set the throne on its feet and gave the country a stable administration. All this he accomplished in two years. After the overthrow of the Turk in the first Balkan War Venizelos strove hard to avert the disaster of the Bulgarian defection from the League. When Bulgaria was crushed and defeated, Venizelos offered magnanimous concessions to soothe Bulgarian sentiments, but King Con stantine, who had succeeded his father, in trigued against the minister. From the begin ning of the European War Venizelos was con vinced that Greece must join the Allies, espe cially after the entry of Bulgaria, for Greece was bound by treaty to come to the assistance of Serbia. Thwarted by his king and queen, the latter a sister of the Kaiser, and the in tngues of German agents, Venizelos steadily prepared for intervention. Unable to carry his point, he finally broke with the king and set up a provisional revolutionary government at Salonica, ultimately returning in triumph to Athens as head of the government after the abdication of Constantine and the accession of King Alexander. He contributed notably to the success of the Salonica army by the reor ganization of the Hellenic forces. Venizelos was the principal Greek representative at the Peace Conference in Paris, at which he advo cated the liberation of Greek Asia Minor and the 7Egean Islands from Turkish rule, as well as the union of all Greeks into one state.