Neue Freie Presse
- Resignation of the Kondylis Cabinet.
- Announcement of a Franco-Russian Treaty.
- A Russo-Lithuanian Treaty of Friendship.
The Neue Freie Presse of September 29, 1926 reported on political negotiations in Athens, Paris and Moscow. Its Athens report explained how disagreement over proportional representation and who would conduct the coming elections prompted Kondylis to offer his resignation, which the president refused. The Paris report described de Monzie’s discussion of a possible treaty with Soviet Russia alongside Franco-German rapprochement. The report on the Lithuanian prime minister’s visit to Moscow announced a forthcoming friendship and neutrality treaty and said it would bring the Baltic pact question into a new phase.
Translation
Resignation of the Kondylis Cabinet.
Paid notices appearing in the editorial sections (Brief Chronicle, Local Reports, Theatre News, Court Reports) are identified by a prefixed E.
Rejected by the President of the Republic.
Telegram from our correspondent.
Athens, September 28. The consultations among party leaders held today at the President of the Republic’s, Admiral Kanduriotis, produced no result, since both the Royalists and the Venizelists maintained their positions. General Kondylis consequently submitted the government’s resignation. However, as six party leaders against three had called for the resignation to be rejected, the President of the Republic did not accept it.
* * *
The dispute between Venizelists and anti-Venizelists chiefly concerns proportional representation. The anti-Venizelists demand that proportional representation be removed from the electoral law and, furthermore, that the new elections be conducted by a nonpartisan caretaker cabinet, while the Venizelist parties favour retaining proportional representation and have no objection in principle to Kondylis conducting the elections. General Kondylis’s resignation comes as a surprise, since only yesterday he declared that he was determined not to resign before the new elections and might enter the election campaign at the head of a newly founded party. [?]
Announcement of a Franco-Russian Treaty.
[?].
Announced by Senator de Monzie.
Paris, September 28. Senator de Monzie, president of the General Council of the Lot department, delivered an address to the council in which, discussing Franco-German rapprochement, he said he was pleased to see the system of control and coercion dismantled, and to see the completion of what he had helped prepare in the moral sphere before Locarno, during his stay in Berlin in December 1925.
De Monzie further announced that, despite the extraordinary difficulties, the possibility of a Franco-Russian treaty could be envisaged within a few months; its conclusion would imply no French endorsement of the Soviet government’s methods. [?]
A Russo-Lithuanian Treaty of Friendship.
Telegram from our correspondent.
[?], September 28. The Lithuanian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Schlesevitschas arrives in Moscow today. The Soviet press is preparing a warm welcome for him. The visit reciprocates Chicherin’s earlier visit to Kovno. During the Lithuanian prime minister’s stay, a treaty of friendship and neutrality between the Soviet Union and Lithuania will be signed in Moscow. This brings the Baltic pact question into a new phase. [?]
Context
Electoral rules and the survival of the Kondylis cabinet
The resignation dispute joined two questions: how votes would translate into representation, and who would administer the election. According to the newspaper, anti-Venizelists wanted both the removal of proportional representation and a nonpartisan caretaker cabinet; Venizelists favoured retaining the system and accepted Kondylis as election administrator in principle. The reported six-to-three demand to reject his resignation therefore concerned the immediate conduct of the transition, without demonstrating agreement on its rules. The official Greek government register independently dates his cabinet from August 26 to December 4, 1926, confirming that the September crisis did not end its tenure. [Greek government register](https://gslegal.gov.gr/en/government/kondyli-georgiou/)
De Monzie’s connection between rapprochement and Soviet negotiations
De Monzie’s argument, as reported, linked agreements across political divisions: he welcomed the dismantling of control and coercion in Franco-German relations and presented a possible Soviet treaty as compatible with rejecting Soviet methods. That connection framed negotiation as practical cooperation without ideological approval. Locarno supplied a concrete diplomatic reference: the UN treaty record dates the mutual-guarantee treaty to October 16, 1925, and its entry into force to September 14, 1926, shortly before this report. The passage’s placement of a December 1925 Berlin visit “before Locarno” conflicts with that treaty chronology; his claimed contribution should therefore remain distinct from the independently dated agreement. [UN treaty record](https://treaties.un.org/Pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=08000002801683d0)
Why the Lithuanian agreement mattered to a Baltic pact
The report’s reference to a new phase in Baltic diplomacy points to the tension between regional cooperation and a separate understanding with Moscow. In his 1999 study, Algimantas Kasparavičius identifies a secret understanding accompanying the September 28, 1926 nonaggression pact: Lithuania and the Soviet Union would coordinate policy concerning Poland and the other Baltic countries. He concludes that it contributed to Lithuania’s isolation from its Baltic neighbours. This later research helps explain the regional stakes of the announced treaty; the newspaper itself does not disclose the secret arrangement. [Kasparavičius’s study](https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/108540)
Original
Demission des Kabinetts Kondylis.
im redaktionellen Teil (Kleine Chronik, Lokalberichte, Theaternachrichten, Gerichtssaal) enthaltene entgeltliche Mitteilungen sind durch ein vorgesetztes E kenntlich gemacht. Demission des Kabinetts Kondylis. Ablehnung durch den Präsidenten der Republik. Telegramm unseres Korrespondenten. Athen, 28. September. Die heute beim Präsidenten der Republik Admiral Kanduriotis stattgefundenen Besprechungen der Parteiführer haben, da sowohl die Royalisten wie die Venizelisten auf ihren Standpunkten verharrten, zu keinem Ergebnis geführt. Infolgedessen hat General Kondylis die Demission der Regierung überreicht. Da jedoch sechs Parteiführer gegen drei die Ablehnung der Demission gefordert hatten, hat der Präsident der Republik die Demission nicht angenommen. * * * Der Streit zwischen Venizelisten und Antivenizelisten geht hauptsächlich um das Verhältniswahlrecht. Die Antivenizelisten fordern die Eliminierung des Verhältniswahlrechtes aus dem Wahlgesetz und überdies die Durchführung der Neuwahlen durch ein unpolitisches Geschäftskabinett, während die venizelistischen Parteien für die Beibehaltung des Verhältniswahlrechtes eintreten und im Prinzip nichts dagegen haben, daß Kondylis die Wahlen durchführt. Die Demission des Generals Kondylis bietet eine Ueberraschung, da der General erst gestern erklärt hat, daß er entschlossen sei, vor den Neuwahlen nicht zurückzutreten und eventuell an der Spitze einer neugegründeten Partei in den Wahlkampf einzugreifen. [?]
Ankündigung eines französisch-russischen Vertrages.
[?]. Ankündigung eines französischrussischen Vertrages. Durch Senator de Monzie. Paris, 28. September. Im Generalrat des Departements Lot hielt der Präsident Senator de Monzie eine Ansprache, in der er zur deutsch-französischen Annäherung ausführte, er freue sich darüber, das Regime der Kontrolle und des Zwanges abgeschaltet zu sehen, und darüber, daß das vollendet wird, zu dessen Vorbereitung er vor Locarno während seines Berliner Aufenthaltes im Dezember 1925 auf moralischem Gebiete beigetragen habe. De Monzie kündigte weiter an, daß man trotz der außerordentlichen Schwierigkeiten in einigen Monaten mit der Möglichkeit eines französisch-russischen Vertrages rechnen könne, dessen Abschluß französischerseits keinerlei Zustimmung zur Methode der Sowjetregierung in sich schließen würde. [?]
Ein russisch-litauischer Freundschaftsvertrag.
[?], 28. September. Heute trifft der litauische Ministerpräsident und Außenminister Schlesevitschas in Moskau ein. Die Sowjetpresse bereitet ihm einen warmen Empfang. Der Besuch ist die Antwort auf den seinerzeitigen Besuch Tschitscherins in Kowno. Anläßlich der Anwesenheit des litauischen Ministerpräsidenten wird in Moskau ein Freundschafts - und Neutralitätsvertrag zwischen der Sowjetunion und Litauen unterzeichnet werden. Damit tritt das baltische Paktproblem in ein neues Stadium. [?]