Neue Freie Presse
- The new regime in Greece
- The League’s December session — Berlin under consideration
- Children as a burden — Bernard Shaw
Kondylis presents the Greek army’s intervention as a restoration of public liberties. A separate dispatch cautiously reports a possible Berlin meeting of the League Council. Below the political coverage, Bernard Shaw challenges the assumption that children’s rights and adults’ rights rest on different principles. The page combines a leader’s self-justification, an unconfirmed diplomatic prospect and a social essay.
Selected passages from the Greek interview, the complete short Council dispatch, and the opening of Shaw’s essay. The interview and essay continue beyond these excerpts.
Translation
The new regime in Greece
Return to parliamentary government. Removing the army from politics.
By General Georg Kondylis, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic.
(From a conversation with our special correspondent.)
“When news of my intervention reached other countries, people there must have thought it was another instance of the army interfering in politics. Well, it was neither a new dictatorship nor a new kind of militarism. Greece was to be freed from the misery that had already cost it so dearly. The upheaval of Sunday, August 22, was a revolution by the army for the people, to restore their liberties and set out on the path towards tranquillity and equality. Anyone in contact with the army could long have recognized its regret at being misunderstood by public opinion, at being accused of supporting an intolerable tyranny instead of overthrowing it.”
The League’s December meeting
Berlin under consideration.
Telegram from our correspondent.
LONDON, September 13.—According to reports by British correspondents in Geneva, word in diplomatic circles there is that consideration is being given to holding the next meeting of the League Council in December in Berlin, under Dr Stresemann’s presidency.
Children as a burden
By Bernard Shaw.
When experienced parents are preached to about the rights of the child, they naturally ask whether children are to be allowed to do whatever they please. The best answer is to ask in return whether adults are to be allowed to do whatever they please. The two cases are identical. An unpleasant, disagreeable adult is no more entitled to do whatever he pleases than an unpleasant, disagreeable child. In principle, there is no difference between the rights of an adult and those of a child; the entire difference depends on the circumstances.
Context
A general justified intervention as a return to civilian freedom
Kondylis faced a problem built into the change of regime: an army intervention had produced a promise to remove the army from politics. His explanation casts the soldiers as agents restoring the people’s liberties, rather than as rulers with a continuing military mandate. Parliamentary government matters to that argument because authority would have to pass into representative political institutions. The interview shows the new leader trying to give a military overthrow a civilian justification.
Berlin would place Germany at the centre of League business
The Council handled security, disarmament and other continuing questions within the League, while the Assembly brought together the membership as a whole. Hosting a Council session therefore meant more than receiving a ceremonial delegation: it would bring the organization’s ongoing work to the host city. The proposal to meet in Berlin under Stresemann’s presidency gave concrete form to expectations about Germany’s new role inside the League.
Children’s rights were becoming an international question
In 1924 the League adopted the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, emphasizing duties to provide for and protect children. Shaw’s essay approaches the subject through the everyday authority of parents. By asking the same question about adults and children, he challenges age alone as a reason for applying different principles. The passage belongs to a wider contemporary discussion of children’s status, while pursuing the issue at the level of family relationships.
Original
Das neue Regime in Griechenland
Das neue Regime in Griechenland.
Rückkehr zum Parlamentarismus. Ausschaltung der Armee aus der Politik.
Von General Georg Kondylis.
Ministerpräsident der Hellenischen Republik.
(Aus einem Gespräch mit unserem Spezialkorrespondenten.)
„Als die Nachricht von meinem Einschreiten ins Ausland drang, mußte man dort wohl glauben, daß es sich um eine neuerliche Einmischung der Armee in die Politik handle. Nun, es handelte sich dabei weder um eine neue Diktatur, noch um eine neue Art von Militarismus. Griechenland sollte aus jenem Elend befreit werden, das es schon so viel gekostet hat. Der Umsturz vom Sonntag den 22. August war eine Revolution der Armee zugunsten des Volkes, für die Wiederherstellung seiner Freiheiten, für das Beschreiten des Weges zur Beruhigung und Gleichberechtigung. Wer mit der Armee in Berührung stand, konnte in ihr bereits seit langem das Bedauern darüber erkennen, daß sie von der öffentlichen Meinung mißverstanden wurde, daß man ihr vorwarf, eine unerträgliche Tyrannei zu stützen, statt zu stürzen.“
Die Dezembertagung des Völkerbundes — Berlin in Aussicht genommen
Die Dezembertagung des Völkerbundes.
Berlin in Aussicht genommen.
Telegramm unseres Korrespondenten.
London, 13. September.
Nach Meldungen englischer Berichterstatter in Genf verlautet in dortigen diplomatischen Kreisen, daß erwogen werde, die nächste Tagung des Völkerbundrates im Dezember in Berlin unter dem Vorsitze von Dr. Stresemann abzuhalten.
Kinder als Last — Von Bernard Shaw
Kinder als Last.
Von Bernard Shaw.
Wenn erfahrenen Eltern die Rechte des Kindes gepredigt werden, so fragen sie natürlich, ob Kindern gestattet sein soll, alles zu tun, was ihnen beliebt. Die beste Antwort ist die Gegenfrage, ob es Erwachsenen gestattet sein soll, alles zu tun, was ihnen beliebt. Die beiden Fälle sind identisch. Der Erwachsene, der unangenehm und widerwärtig ist, darf ebensowenig tun, was ihm beliebt, wie das unangenehme, widerwärtige Kind. Im Prinzip besteht kein Unterschied zwischen den Rechten des Erwachsenen und denen des Kindes; der ganze Unterschied ist durch die Umstände bedingt.