Royal Plebiscite

A dapper little Dane who for one year reigned as King of the Greeks is George II, a great-nephew of Britain's late Queen Alexandra and a frequent house guest of her Son George V. Last week George II was hopefully trying in London to make head or tail of the latest Greek election. So were most Greeks.

The election came after Premier Pana-yoti Tsaldaris, rated for years as a Royalist, put down the revolution of his arch enemy, famed Eleutherios Venizelos, "Father of the Greek Republic" (TIME, March 11 et seq.). In that bloody victory there should have been something for George II and he at once sent an agent to Athens to see about his Crown. But victorious Premier Tsaldaris was by no means ready to kiss the royal hand. He sent to the polls candidates for something he called the Government Party, while loyal old General John Metaxas put up Royalist Party candidates. Only nine Royalists were elected, while the Govern-ment Party won 285 seats out of 300 in the new Greek Assembly. Did that mean that George II had no chance to get back his Throne?

In Athens last week uprose Field Marshal George Kondylis, War Minister and supposed to be a Republican. "We do not consider," he startlingly declared, "that the defeat of the Royalists means the defeat of the royalist idea." Meanwhile Premier Tsaldaris abruptly announced that a nationwide plebiscite will be held on the issue of whether to invite George II to return to Athens as King. The newly elected Assembly, said M. Tsaldaris, will set the date for this plebiscite. On which side he himself would be the Premier let Greece guess but Athens buzzed with rumors that he and his Cabinet had not yet taken and would not take the required oath of loyalty to Greece's Republican Constitution.

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