George & Georgios

Among exiled Greek royalties those who dislike beauteous Marina, Duchess of Kent, insist that this onetime Princess of Greece is a clever, ambitious minx bent on jacking up her husband into something of more consequence than the youngest and willowiest son of Britain's George V. Marina knows that Greek Premier

Panayoti Tsaldaris, though determined to restore the Throne and strong with the prestige of having just put down a Republican Revolution, is somewhat skittish about her cousin, ex-King Georgios II. One year was the short span of "Gorgeous Georgios' " kingship twelve years ago, and his childless ex-Queen divorced him recently (TIME, July 15). Two months ago Marina let it be understood that she, at any rate, is fecund. Last week the British public was supposed to think that the prospective young mother was merely resting in Yugoslavia at Prince Paul's romantic Bohinjsko Castle where she became engaged. The public was not supposed to notice that Premier Tsaldaris, after announcing at Athens that he was going to Germany to take a water cure, also turned up at Bohinjsko.

Since small paragraphs about the Duke and Duchess of Kent had to appear, as usual,, in London society columns, the Duke was reported to be "fishing during the day" while Premier Tsaldaris conferred at the Palace with the Regent of Yugoslavia, Prince Paul, and Yugoslavia's Dowager Queen Marie. Marina had the best possible excuse for not going fishing with her George. All Greece believed that she was fishing with Tsaldaris. In London the Duke was covered by Court intimations that "His Royal Highness avoided meeting Premier Tsaldaris, since His Majesty's Government would not permit such negotiations."

Meanwhile the Athens newsorgan Anexartitos reported former King "Gorgeous" Georgios II so enraged at Premier Tsaldaris that he was conferring secretly with the leader of Greece's lately suppressed revolution, foxy old Eleutherios Venizelos, who has just lost a chunk of his fat wife's fat fortune in the crash of Paris' Travelers Bank. The onetime

Greek Premier has been exiled under sentence of Death, but Anexartitos reported that Georgios II was "seeking his aid."

In the Venizelos political stronghold of Crete a so-called "general revolutionary strike" promptly broke out last week and Acting Premier Field Marshal George Kondylis asked Premier Tsaldaris what to do in an urgent long-distance call. "Do!" the Premier sputtered at the Marshal. "Why, raise the strikers' pay!" After 4,000 general revolutionary strikers had had their pay upped 15%, Crete subsided in the news, leaving seven dead, 50 wounded, censorship tight.

Cronies of "Gorgeous" Georgios II meanwhile pointedly recalled how often he has been the house guest of British George V. The London Court Circular always refers to Greece's deposed ruler-- he never abdicated--as the King of Greece, and his friends last week professed to believe that George V would never permit his son George to cut out Georgios II. They pooh-poohed Marina's reputation in Mayfair as the Empire's greatest expert at getting around not only King George but also Queen Mary. The forbidding Queen-Empress, seldom over-generous with other members of the Royal Family, constantly gives the Duchess of Kent this or that costly trinket because "she is so sweet."

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