Stamp on Greece
Sir: I am proud to share with Noel Malcolm (The new bully of the Balkans', 15 August) and, it seems, Murray Sayle (`Fighting the good fight', 29 August) the honour of hav- ing written an article in The Spectator which has provoked a protest from the Greek Ambassador. My own crime (10 December 1983) was to write a defence of the Elgin Marbles remaining in the British Museum, arguing that they belong to Europe and the West, not just to Greece, because the mod- ern and classical idea of the independent Greek state was essentially an invention of the British, Germans and French. Mr Mal- colm's identification of 'the neurotic nature of Greek nationalism' perhaps confirms that view.
Our joint sin, of course, was to offend against one of the last great English taboos: to be in any way critical of Greece. There is a deep vein of English sentimentality about Greece (even deeper than that about France) which idealises everything about that country. No doubt it began with Byron. It explains why Melina Mercouri selected Britain rather than France or Germany as an easy target for her histrionic and gratu- itous campaign for the repatriation of clas- sical antiquities and it informs Patrick Leigh Fermor's pompous and irrational attack on Noel Malcolm.
Mr Fermor failed seriously to address What I found most shocking about Mr Mal- oolm's original article, which was his description of the persecution of minorities and the dictatorial insistance that all Greek citizens adopt 'Greek' names. That such things have also gone on in Turkey or Bul- garia is no defence. Greece has become a member of the European Community. This is presumably because she aspires to West- ern values and political standards. That she so conspicuously falls short of such stan- dards is why criticism is appropriate. Noel Malcolm wrote a brave and necessary article.
Gavin Stamp 1 Moray Place,
Strathbungo, Glasgow
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