Friends In, Phase Out

After barely three months in office, Greece's bald, immaculate and dour new Premier, Marshal Alexander Papagos, had reason to be optimistic last week. Items:

P: The country's economy is picking up; the budget is almost balanced.

P: The galloping cost-of-living has been arrested, and the black-market price of drachmas is down 15%.

P: Greece's chronic trade deficit is only one-fifth of what it was in 1951.

P: The 160,000-man army is in top fighting trim, with 500,000 men in reserve four years after its costly but victorious war against the Communists.

P: A full member of NATO, Greece is about to sign mutual-defense pacts with a friendly Turkey and Yugoslavia.

But the most important single fact is that, after 26 cabinet changes in seven years, Greece has a government with a solid enough majority (239 out of 300 seats) to avoid compromising its program. Said Papagos: "We will be here for the next four years, just like my friend President General Eisenhower. There will be no more changing of governments every six months. We have a clear plan for Greece, and we will carry it through."

As an old soldier, 70-year-old Premier Papagos spends much of his time looking to his country's defenses. The man who looks to Greece's economic and financial affairs is intense little Spyros Markezinis, chief theorist of Papagos' Greek Rally Party. Markezinis' program: 1) reorganization of overlapping government ministries, 2) decentralization of government from Athens. By ordering a merger of the national bank and the bank of Athens last month, Markezinis aroused the ire of shareholders, but, when effective, the merger will reduce the number of bank clerks by 2,000. In his reorganization of ministries, he plans to drop 15,000 bureaucrats from the government payroll, thus balance the budget.

"Sure, people voted for Papagos," growled a Greek last week, "but did they get Papagos? No, they got Markezinis." Tiny (5 ft. 2 in.) Spyros Markezinis. at 44, is the new force in Greek government. A onetime palace lawyer and minor resistance leader who worked hard for the return of King George II, he served as Papagos' chief deputy when the Greek Rally Party was in opposition. In his office he chain-smokes gold-initialed cigarettes and chain-drinks Turkish coffee, talks cheerfully, optimistically and incessantly. One of Greece's chess masters, he plays a brilliant, passionate, impatient game. Two years ago he spoke hardly a word of English ; last week he rattled off a fine-sounding sentence: "We shall be obliged to take unpopular measures for the simple reason that American aid cannot go on forever and we must become self-sufficient..."

Satisfied that the U.S.'s $2.2 billion investment in postwar Greece is in good hands, U.S. agencies in Athens are preparing to "phase out." Ambassador John Peurifoy advised Washington that the 500-man U.S. military mission, the 160-man U.S. economic mission, and the 100-man embassy staff could be cut 50%, leaving the Greeks to run their own country. In his office on Athens' Constitution Square, Marshal Papagos penned a letter to Oslo nominating ex-President Harry Truman for the Nobel Peace Prize for the working of the Truman Doctrine.

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