Eleftherios Venizelos Autograph Letter Signed.

VENIZELOS, Eleftherios.

$1,250.00

Item Number: 82454

One folding page letter hand-written and signed by “the father of modern Greece,” Eleftherios Venizelos. Dated December 24th, 1921 on letterhead from the El Mirasol in Santa Barbara, California, the letter reads “To Mr. John Hays Hammond El Mirasol. My dear Mr. Hammond, We are giving a very small luncheon party here on the 26th and Madame Venizelos & I would be delighted if Mrs. Hammond, Miss Hammond and yourself would give us the great pleasure of your company at 4 p.m. on the day. Very Sincerely yours, E.K. Venizelos.” The recipient, John Hays Hammond was a successful American mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist. A close friend of President William Howard Taft, Hays was appointed a special United States Ambassador and became chairman of the U.S. Coal Commission in 1922. A nice association.

Greek statesman Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos was an eminent leader of the Liberal Party and elected a total of eight times as Prime Minister of Greece, serving from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1933. Venizelos had such profound influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece that he is credited with being "the maker of modern Greece." In World War I, Venizelos brought Greece on the side of the Allies, which expanded the Greek borders but also brought him into conflict with the Greek monarchy, causing the National Schism. Despite his achievements, he was defeated in the 1920 General Election, which contributed to the eventual Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22). In his subsequent periods in office Venizelos succeeded in restoring normal relations with Greece's neighbors and expanded his constitutional and economical reforms.