Another Venizelos

Elongated, mountainous Crete, fourth largest island in the Mediterranean,* has two distinctions: it is potted with prehistoric remains, has long been the spawning ground for revolts. From Crete, Eleutherios Venizelos, a native of the island, launched a political career in the course of which he became Premier of Greece no less than seven times. From Crete, in March 1935, he supported one of the fiercest revolts in modern Greek history, seized several warships, only to have his revolt squelched. Old Venizelos fled to Paris, where he died year later.

In the quiet before dawn last week, a band of 400 dandelion-eating, political-minded peasants struck at the two-year rule of Greek Dictator General John Metaxas. They marched into the stony streets of Canea, ancient seaport and capital of Crete. At their head stepped former Minister of National Economy in the Athens Government, young Aristomenis Mitsotakis, nephew of Venizelos, and ex-Mayor Mountakis of Canea.

Once inside the fortified walls of Canea, the band seized Government buildings, grabbed city officials in their beds. Most of the city's garrison had previously been shipped to summer stations on the mainland. When the remaining troops awoke to find the rebels holding public buildings and the radio station, they bravely barricaded themselves in their barracks.

If Leader Mitsotakis expected his uprising to spread he was disappointed. Soon airplanes from Athens droned over the island dumping leaflets warning peasants to remain loyal. Later in the day. the leisurely Greek fleet, carrying two infantry regiments on its dirty decks, steamed into

Canea. Dictator Metaxas announced that the revolt was over, the rebels surrendering or fleeing to the hills. It was; they were. Having achieved this triumph, the Prussian-educated dictator seized the opportunity to announce that he had been made "Premier for life."

* The others, in order of their size: Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus.

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