War & Work

For years, when they were hungry, Greeks had been told by their government: "It is the war. The fighting has destroyed the crops. Things will be better when we have peace." This year, the Greeks had peace. Peasants plowed their fields, and new houses went up amid the rubble. Of Greece's 700,000 refugees, 500,000 have returned to their old homes, with a $35 government bonus in their pockets, free bread rations, and (if they were lucky) a "Baby Truman"--as the peasants call the large, frisky mules which ECA has brought from the U.S.

But Greece's long-deferred hopes were still far from fulfillment. The Greeks were flushed with victory, and impatient for its fruits; last week, all they got was. a political dogfight.

For six months, non-partisan Alexander Diomedes had headed an uneasy coalition cabinet of Populists and Liberals. Last week the coalition broke up, largely because of fat, fatuous Dino Tsaldaris, onetime Premier who served as Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister in the Diomedes cabinet. For weeks he had been on the stump, campaigning for the impending Greek national elections; he had infuriated the Liberals, had antagonized Marshal Alexander Papagos and War Minister Panayotis Kanellopoulos by loudly claiming credit for his own Populist party for the victory over the Communists.

In protest against Dino's doings, Liberal Leader Sophocles Venizelos last week resigned as Deputy Premier; Marshal Papagos and War Minister Kanellopoulos followed suit. A caretaker government under John Theotokis, until recently the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, took over; King Paul dissolved Parliament and fixed the general elections for February.

Later, Marshal Papagos rescinded his resignation, announced that he would stay on as commander in chief of the Greek army. Papagos, a national hero since his memorable stand against the 1940 Italian invasion, had himself been repeatedly reported ready to enter the political arena as candidate for Premier.

This week, Greece's chaotic flock of 50-odd political parties was getting ready for the impending campaign. Most plain Greeks were fed up with all of them; none seemed good enough for the staggering task of reconstruction.

The country's administration is flabby and corrupt; despite ECAid, its economy is semi-paralyzed by public distrust. Recently, when a Greek businessman sought ECA backing for a gold-mining project in Macedonia, an ECA official snapped: "The best place to dig for gold in Greece is in people's mattresses." The imprint of war still remains heavy on the land--and even on the language. A Greek washerwoman, bent over her heaped sink, will say: "Polemo tin bougada" (I am making war on the laundry). A truck driver sprawling underneath his truck will say: "Polemo tin mechani" (I am at war with the engine). After nine years of invasion, occupation and civil war, polemen (to make war) in colloquial Greek has replaced ergazer (to work).

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