Eleftherios Venizelos Autograph Letter Signed.

VENIZELOS, Eleftherios.

$2,500.00

Item Number: 82459

Autograph letter signed by “the maker of modern Greece,” Eleftherios Venizelos. One page, typescript on Delegation Hellenique letterhead, the letter reads, “Lausanne, 7th December 1922 My dear Mr. Hammond, I thank you most cordially for your letter and wish to express to you the deep gratitude that I feel for the promptness with which you have do kindly undertaken to help us in this hour of trial and misfortune. I am indeed very sorry to hear that your daughter has been ill and hope that she has by this time completely recovered. My wife joins me in cordial greetings to Mrs. Hammond and yourself. Yours sincerely, E. K. Veniselos.” The recipient, John Hays Hammond was a successful American mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist with who Venizelos corresponded regularly. 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. In fine condition. Double matted and framed, the entire piece measures 12 inches by 14 inches. 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.