Venizelos, Dengue

Two months ago Eleutherios Venizelos, scholar, statesman, translator into modern Greek of an historical opus by Thucydides (TIME, March 22, 1926), deserted the pleasant island of Crete where he was born, and journeyed to Athens.

He announced that he intended returning to politics.

Last week a sweeping election placed Parliamentary power in his able and practiced hands. His return was complete.

He, as leader of the Liberal party, won 228 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The Royalists losing 100 seats, kept only 15. Only one supporter of General Theodore Pangalos, onetime dictator (TIME, March 1#151;Aug. 30, 1926) and bitter foe of M. Venizelos, was elected.

Observers saw in the election a blow to Italian influence in the Balkans, a restoration of French and English prestige. The Jugoslav press, delighted, prophesied peace in the Balkans, hoped for early ratification of the treaty which gives Jugoslavia a free harbor at Saloniki.

M. Venizelos, quiet and busy, made no promises.

The Greeks voted. But Athens reported a curious fever which was taking a daily toll of some 40 lives in the city. Telephone and telegraph communications were crippled because the personnel also was stricken.

Premier Venizelos asked help of the League of Nations. Experts from France were despatched to Athens. M. Venizelos instructed his Ministry of Finance to grant all necessary credits to combat the fever.

Known as dengue fever, it is an acute contagious tropical disease, accompanied by sharp pains in muscles and joints.