The Colonels Change Clothes

Looking stiff and ill at ease in their unaccustomed civilian clothes, the ruling triumvirate of Greece stood on the stage of the military academy in Athens. It was their first public appearance together since they had resigned from the army earlier last week to give their regime a semblance of civilian respectability. At the close of the ceremony, in which graduating cadets took their oaths, Premier George Papadopoulos, the former colonel who masterminded last April's-coup, shouted: "Long live the King!" Coming from the man whom the King had tried to overthrow only a week earlier, it was indeed an extraordinary cry, but it reflected some new realities in Greece: 1) the King will probably return home sooner or later, and 2) he will become a figurehead monarch, stripped of his former wide powers.

At week's end, having been sworn into their new offices in a mass ceremony, the junta prepared to present to the country a draft of the new constitution that it has been preparing. The King had been shown a copy in Rome, to which he had fled after the failure of his inept countercoup, and apparently he found it palatable. The junta has also promised to announce the date for a plebiscite on the constitution--another move that would enable the King to save face. The most probable route for the King's return now seems to be through his sister, Princess Irene, 25, or, less likely, through one of his uncles. The King would appoint the relative as regent--the present lieutenant general who holds that post was carefully designated by the junta as "temporary regent"--then come back himself in two or three months when matters had cooled off.

Reforming Zeal. When they first seized power eight months ago, the military men put such emphasis on their allegiance to King Constantine, on anti-Communism and on puritanical reforms that they appeared to be rightist defenders of the status quo. Now, after changing to mufti in order to run as civilians for office in the elections provided for in the new constitution, the ex-colonels' attitudes appear more activist. They seem not only eager to suppress leftists but also to break the power of the Greek Establishment. Under the new constitution, the monarch will no longer have power to appoint and dismiss Premiers or to promote and assign generals. He will, in fact, have none of the power that made it possible for the Greek throne to create its own mini-aristocracy of loyal retainers.

The Establishment is a clique of some two hundred industrialists, politicians and ranking generals, whose close ties to the Crown have won them important business contracts, political influence and key commands. Greece's new rulers are country boys, who come from lower middle class or peasant families. "Papadopoulos was the richest of us all," says an officer loyal to the junta, "because his father was a schoolteacher." Papadopoulos & Co. are suspicious of intrigues in the big city, jealous of the rich and resentful of the favors that the Palace passed out to highly placed officers. In the past, any incursion on royal prerogatives met with kingly counterattacks; in recent years two Premiers--Constantine Karamanlis and George Papandreou--lost their jobs for suggesting far less drastic limitations. This time Constantine had little choice but to accept a diminished status for the Palace. "Let us be perfectly realistic," he said in his first public statement since he left Greece. "I have no actual power at my command now."

Growing Awareness. Displaying new self-confidence, the ex-colonels allowed the Greek press to print the King's statement*They were feeling good because their fears about being isolated from their NATO allies have proved to be ill-founded. Also, the latest evidence of their firm control of the country has caused reappraisals of the new Greek situation in many foreign capitals. Though no nation has recognized the new regime, most diplomats feel that recognition is not necessary anyhow, since the government has maintained at least a vestige of legitimacy by appointing a general and temporary regent and retaining the monarchy.

In Washington, former Secretary of State Dean Acheson appealed to the editors of the Washington Post to halt their badgering of the ex-colonels about stepping aside in favor of an early return to "constitutional democracy." Wrote Acheson: "Greeks both ancient and modern have had grave trouble when they experimented with nonauthoritarian rule. Certainly no friend of Greece would wish to see her return to the 'constitution government' of two Pa-pandreous, the old fool and the young rascal."

It was a surprising statement, but it reflected a growing awareness in Washington and elsewhere that it is indeed the ex-colonels who rule Greece--and that they are not nearly so bad a choice as some others might be.

*As they did, Helen Vlachos, the defiant Athens conservative columnist and publisher who closed her papers rather than submit to junta censorship, dyed her hair, evaded the guards that kept her under house arrest, and escaped to London, saying: "I felt I could be more useful to the Greek cause abroad."

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