"Our Dead Demand . . ."

To Cairo by plane from London hurried King George of the Hellenes to steady the rocking boat of the Greek Government in Exile. Promptly he promised a government "composed largely of Greeks who have lived in their country under enemy occupation." Promptly he persuaded liberal Sophocles Venizelos to take the premiership he had declined a week earlier (TIME, April 17).

Popular Premier Venizelos knew what most Greeks in the Middle East urgently wanted: an end to the old Tsouderos cabinet's dilatoriness, a broadened government capable of administering liberated Greece until elections could be held. His crushing task was to find the right ministers for a "Panhellenic" government, men who would be acceptable to fighting Greeks in Greece, where the Leftist EAM dominates.

For the moment Sophocles Venizelos gave himself four main portfolios (foreign affairs, war, navy, air), divided another six among three fellow ministers. At week's end occupied Greece sent her first envoy to the new exile government: George Papandreou, 56-year-old leader of the Social Democratic Party, colleague of the Premier's late father, the great Eleutherios Venizelos. Bitterly, passionately, the refugee spoke of Greek suffering under the Nazi heel, urged national unity: "From their graves our dead demand it."

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