Glimpse of the Future

No document available to four doz en men can be kept secret very long, and last week a number of interested Greeks, including King Constantine in his Rome exile, were poring over a very limited printing. It was a draft of the new Greek constitution that the junta led by Colonel-turned-Premier George Papadopoulos has promised to submit to voters before Sept. 15 as a major step in returning Greece to normal parliamentary rule.

The draft was prepared by a commission of 20 jurists and submitted last month to the junta's 25-man Cabinet, which had hoped to prevent any premature disclosures. But a few copies somehow leaked out, providing at least a provisional glimpse of what Greece's new rulers have in mind for the country. Its major elements:

P: Parliament will be reduced from 300 to 200 members, and candidates must be either 1) native-born Greeks, or 2) citizens who have been naturalized for at least ten years, or 3) those who have held renewed Greek citizenship for at least five years after becoming citizens of foreign countries--a clause that would disqualify Leftist Andreas Papandreou from any election that might be held this year.* Banned from participation in Greek politics will be "all parties whose aims or the activity of whose members is openly or covertly opposed to the fundamental principles of the state or (designed to overthrow the prevailing social order."

P: "The abusive exercise of individual rights for the purpose of overthrowing the principles of the regime and the social order is prohibited." Strikes for motives "alien to the material or moral interests" of the strikers are also forbidden.

P: "The press is free and performs a social mission," but it must avoid offending "the honor of persons who perform public functions" or disseminating "principles or views of political parties that have been banned." Offending newspapers will be confiscated.

P: Greece is "a crowned liberal democracy." The King is "the symbol of national unity." He will have power to appoint and dismiss Premiers, but may select and fire other Cabinet ministers only with the Premier's consent. He is commander in chief of the armed forces and appoints the chiefs of staff and the internal-security chief on recommendation of the Supreme National Defense Council. He may pardon prisoners on recommendation of a newly created Judicial Council.

King Constantine has laid down two major conditions for his return to Greece: 1) the promulgation and adoption of a constitution, and 2) national elections. What he thinks of the present draft, which would limit his once broad powers, is not known. His strongest leverage on the junta has been that foreign governments have continued to recognize him, not the junta-appointed regent, as Greece's legitimate head of state. But at week's end Tur key--Greece's traditional enemy--became the first important nation to extend official recognition to the junta. Some other countries are now likely to follow the Turkish example.

* Papandreou, 48, who held U.S. citizenship from 1944 to 1964, was released from an Athens prison by the junta's Christmas Eve amnesty. Last week he flew to Paris, where he denounced the present regime as "repressive and dictatorial," warned it to step aside or face a civil war, and called for the establishment of a nonaligned "progressive" government in Greece.

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