The refugee problem constituted the major concern of the Fourth National Assembly. The following examples are demonstrative of that. The bill on "the naturalisation of Greeks descended from Asia Minor and Thrace, who had sought refuge abroad" was voted through on July 2, 1924. The bill on "the allocation of city property that belonged to exchanged Muslims from Thessaloniki" was voted on July 8. The bill on "the registration in the polls of refugees coming from Turkey to Greece" was voted on July 17. The bill on "the allotment of a public sports field on the Piraeus peninsula for the installation of a refugees' settlement" was voted on July 10. The bill on "the exemption of refugees from the occupation tax for the financial year 1924-25" was voted on July 14. The bill on "the appointment of Greek lawyers coming from Bulgaria" was voted on July 17.
On July 12 and 17, on November 17, 1924, on April 3 and on June 3, 1925 approximately 10 bills had been voted. These concerned the ratification of contracts between the Greek State and the National Bank as regards the grant of loans that would serve to indemnify expropriations of rural and city properties, refugees that were small professionals organised in groups, civil cooperatives of small industrialists and artisans, as well as the Committee for Refugee Settlement. Lastly, other bills pertained to the ratification of contracts between the State and the National Bank. On the strength of these contracts the State would become the guarantor, so that large agricultural loans would be granted to refugees.
At the Parliament session on November 10, 1924 the issues discussed were "the unfortunate and miserable scenes, which took place ... in various refugee settlements ..." and "the conflicts between refugees and natives". The discussion continued on November 12. The refugee issue re-emerged with particular intensity during the session of April 8, 1925. On April 11, the proxy L. Iasonidis declared that "the independent group of refugees considers the government's policy on the furtherance of the refugee issues inadequate so far and expresses its mistrust of it". This issue engaged the Parliament during the sessions of May 23, 25, 26 and 29, 1925. |