Royal Rebellion

Correspondents wondered why King Peter of Yugoslavia had been bouncing in & out of London's swank Claridge's. He was calling on his uncle-in-law, King George of Greece. In the royal Greek suite, the young King, whose people do not want him, and the old King, whose people do not want him either, discussed an urgent problem: how to keep their crowns from blowing off in the high wind of history.

Last week, King Peter decided to hold his crown on with both hands. Without notifying the British, Russian, U.S., or even the Yugoslav Government of Premier Ivan Subasich, he issued a royal communique to the British press, announced that he would not accept a regency while his subjects were voting on the question of his return to Belgrade.

His Majesty had "two essential objections" to the regency and provisional government plans as worked out by Premier Subasich and Marshal Tito (TIME, Dec. 4). Objection No. 1: "the form of regency"--a triumvirate which will probably be dominated by Marshal Tito's followers. Objection No. 2: the plan to give "unrestricted legislative power" to Marshal Tito's Council of National Liberation--"this suggests a transfer of power to a single political group."

Having spoken, King Peter motored home. Next day the London press, led by the sober-sided Times, called him defiant, a flouter of Churchill, one who "threatens grave embarrassment to the British Government." A spokesman of the Government called the royal statement, issued without his Government's sanction, "unconstitutional." In Belgrade, some 50,000 of King Peter's subjects shouted: "Down with the destroyer of unity, King Peter! Down with the Fifth Column emigres!"

In the quiet Surrey countryside, King Peter went for a quiet walk with his pretty wife, the former Princess Alexandra of Greece, who is expecting an heir to their vanishing throne.

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