CRISIS IN CRETE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3406, 23 December 1911, Page 5

CRISIS IN CRETE.

HUBBUB RAISED OVER FRENCH ACTION.

IN STOPPING DEPUTIES

[UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION COPYRIGHT] ATHENS, Dec. 21. One of the Cretan deputies surreptitiously reached Athens, and re-shipped to Crete. Meanwhile there is a hubbub in Crete over the action of a French cruiser in stopping a Greek steamer with Cretan deputies aboard. Colonel Laputhiotis, for instigating a. movement in Cretan interests, has been banished to Corfu, with two months’ imprisonment. [The secret discussion which has been going on for several days in the Cretan Assembly, on an ill-advised motion of the Deputy Lyonakis that aims at bringing about union with Greece and sending Deputies to Athens to sit in the Greek Parliament, is (states the Athens correspondent of the “Times” at the beginning of last - month) a source of serious anxiety to the leaders of public opinion here on account of the complications which might arise from such a step. This motion, reflecting as it does the just impatience of the Cretans, has ; been brought about by the precarious and untenable situation created for them by the dangerous uncertainty and difficulties of tlie present regime—which have recently been pointed out to the Powers by the answer of the Executive Commission to their Note on the abolition of the High C-omniissioncrship. This spontaneous proposal has meanwhile been also exploited by the adversaries of M. Venezelos in Crete, instigated here, it is said, by certain agents of the old parties in the hope of putting liim into difficulties and upsetting his Cabinet. The Government hopes, nevertheless, that tlie Cretans will not depart from their prudent attitude, and that the Assembly will reject the untimely, motion. If, however, in spite of his repeated advice the Assembly should vote for the sending of Deputies to Athens I am in a position to state that M. Venezelos, strong in the confidence of the people, will not hesitate to prevent the Deputies by forcible means from going to Athens since he does not wish to drag Greece into a position provocative to Turkey. As a Cretan having naturally at heart the' union of his country with Greece, and being in a position to appreciate properly the present situation, M. Venezelos is the only Greek statesman who can treat his' refractory fellow-countrymen severely without having his attitude interpreted as a refusal .to accept union.]