Home to Hellas

Crumbling, sleazy, disused, the Greek Royal Palace was found last week to contain no bed in which George II by the Grace of God King of the Hellenes could possibly be expected to sleep.

The triumphal arches available for the restored King's entry into Athens had been bought by the Greek Republic last year when a visit was expected from Egypt's King Fuad who sent his regrets.

But there was no lack of splendor for George II last week on his route home from London to Athens across Italy. The world's finest private train* has been provided by small Dictator Benito Mussolini for even smaller King Vittorio Emanuele III. As a matter of courtesy its sumptuosity and splendor were placed at the disposal of the new King.

"A truly royal train; a small royal palace traveling at a mile a minute" is the proud description of King Vittorio Emanuele's train by its stiff-necked, arrogantly bourgeois builder, Tycoon Giovanni Agnelli, Senator of the Realm and President of FIAT (Italian Automotive Works of Turin). Inconspicuous on each coach is the symbol RIC ("workable over all European railway lines"). This means three separate braking systems, two distinct electric lighting systems and alarms so ingeniously concealed and blended with the palace decor that a stranger would be quite unable to discover how to stop the palace-train in an emergency.

Since a King must often speed unobserved from front to front in wartime, Italy's Royal Train is closely curtained with rich stuffs at night, shows no chink of light. Instead of the precarious passage from car to car amid jangling and jagged gadgets common on most European trains, the passageway between cars is lined with heavy velvet, the handrails roped with cords of gold.

In the King's bed last week George II looked up at the Roman-nosed ancestors of Vittorio Emanuele III cut in the ceiling frieze. He ate spaghetti in the grande Salone da pranzo at a royal banquet table seating 20. By touching a button near his bedside telephone George II could connect himself with either of the royal parlors, or the Queen's intimate and exquisite camera da letto di Sua Maesta la Regina-- although last week there was no Queen aboard.

Childless and divorced, George II, protege of British George V, was reported to have in mind seating beside himself on the Throne of Greece his sister Helen, the gracious royal female for whom King George & Queen Mary have most sympathy. The language in which George V invariably refers to how beauteous Helen was treated by her buck-toothed consort King Carol II of Rumania is salty with sea oaths (TIME, Sept. 10, 1934). Helen although no longer Queen of Rumania, carries officially the style "Her Majesty." The legal nature of her relation to King Carol II is so anomalous that an act of the Rumanian Parliament would suffice to make her again his consort & wife, whether either of them liked it or not.

Last week in Italy George II stopped first at Florence, knelt at the tomb of his parents, King Constantine and Queen Sophie of Greece, removed his monocle, prayed. In Rome poisonous suspicions that he is being restored as King of Greece to become primarily a crowned agent of the British Empire caused the great crowd of Italians which gathered at the station to fall back as His Majesty appeared and let him pass without a single cheer.

To George' II Benito Mussolini was crisp cordiality itself, affable but brief. So was Vittorio Emanuele III. In record time at the Italian Royal Palace the Greek King received the Collar of the Order of the Annunziata, Italy's highest decoration which makes all its holders, who include II Duce, technically "cousins of the King." Last week Cousin George was not invited to so much as luncheon by either Cousin Benito or Cousin Vittorio.

A raging tempest which suddenly blew up in the Adriatic delayed George II in sailing from Brindisi and was deemed by Greeks an ill omen. While he fumed on the Greek cruiser Helle, with Greek destroyers wobbling wildly in the roadstead, an even less welcome omen arrived by cable from Greece.

In Athens forceful, bristling-mustached General George Kondylis made himself Regent after a successful coup d'etat (TIME, Oct. 21). A great admirer of Mussolini, Kondylis went to Rome and talked of restoring the Throne in such fashion that he would remain Dictator and link the policies of Greece closely with those of Italy. By last week Athens, always a powder barrel, was again at the exploding point as. Greeks quarreled about whether to be pro-British or pro-Italian and wagered in their coffee houses on whether George II would ask General Kondylis to kiss his hand as his Premier or attempt to oust the Dictator with some slick, British-backed maneuver.

To George II, tempest-bound at Brindisi, the Greek Government of Premier Kondylis cabled these dark words: "The present government, which has the confidence of the armed forces of Greece, and which conducted the plebiscite which recalled Your Majesty, hopes to enjoy the Sovereign's confidence too. It is this government which can insure the elections confirming the Restoration and which should carry them out."

One George Streit, an enigmatic person who was the late King Constantine's most trusted adviser and now serves George II in the same capacity, was already in Athens telling bigwigs: "The King is a great man. He is tolerance itself. He is incapable of a vengeful policy and is opposed to any kind of Fascism. He is entirely democratic."

As the Adriatic tempest calmed, Greeks broke out casks of their coarse heady wine, fell to dancing in the streets to the quick-strumming strains they love, and went on a three-day Restoration binge. A few spoilsport Republicans hurled bottles of ink which burst and spattered the triumphal arches but the Royalist spree went on with only one strict order: No throwing of "flowers or other objects" at George II. Amid Athenian pandemonium and between tightly drawn police lines His Majesty George triumphally arrived, graciously accepted an olive branch, a peculiar Greek floral tribute in which no bomb can possibly be concealed.

"I am happy," said Premier Kondylis, "to welcome Your Majesty to the soil of the fatherland."

"I am really grateful," said George II, "to be able again to set foot on the soil."

From the Palace the King issued a proclamation: "I will put at the nation's disposal all my capacity for work and my love for the people. I will bury the past for the sake of all, without exception." But to the sharp disappointment of many a Greek, George II said not a word about an amnesty to political opponents.

At the Royal Palace amid huzzas George discovered that adolescents of the Young Monarchist Society had chipped together, bought and installed in the picturesquely Spartan Royal Palace one bed.

*Disused but in good repair at Vatican City is the world's most elaborate private train. An entire car is devoted to the papal chamber and throne room, with four lifesize figures of angels outside the big arched windows. By an ingenious mechanism the Throne can be caused to upend and vanish into the wall, a superb berth appearing in its place covered by a white & gold canopy. So that six Cardinals can celebrate Mass at once en route, the Papal Train has six altars sumptuously provided with cruets of water and sacrificial wine, tabernacles, lace altar cloths, candlesticks of all necessary sizes and complete but compact sets of sacred vessels. (Continued on p. 20)

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