Nine Resignations

Soldier-Premier Alexander Papagos called in the top men of his government last week and asked for their resignations. Having received them, he accepted the resignations of seven Cabinet ministers and two under secretaries. Then he replaced the departing nine with relatively obscure men from the ranks of the Greek Rally, Papagos' coalition party. The move, said 70-year-old Premier Papagos, was designed to give others a fair chance to learn the complicated machinery of government.

Connoisseurs of political intrigue which means nearly every coffee drinker in the Athens cafes) had another explanation: Papagos was fortifying his position in case of an open struggle with Spyros Markezinis, the ex-Minister of Economic Planning. Markezinis, whose ruthless, unpopular pruning had done much to restore Greece to economic health, had asked for the post of Vice Premier; Papagos had turned him down (TIME, April 12). The coffee house connoisseurs could not quite explain why these two men -- who in their disparate ways had done so much for their country -- should now be at loggerheads.

It seemed incredible that proud old Papagos should simply be jealous of Markezinis; it seemed more plausible that a Markezinis grasping for power should be (in Papagos' view) bound to make trouble. By shaking up his Cabinet. Papagos managed to strengthen his own control of the government. But significantly enough, he announced that there would be no change in economic policy, and kept at the top Cabinet jobs two stalwart Markezinis men, Economic Minister Thanos Kapsalis and Finance Minister Constantine Papayannis.

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