18 MAY 1944, Page 13

4, GREECE'S PERPLEXITIES" SIR, —Dealing with the question of the future

regime in Greece in his article on " Greece's Perplexities " published in your issue of May 12th, your special correspondent mentions among other things that " the King has undertaken (since the mutiny) to respect the result of a plebiscite on the question." May I point out that his undertaking was given by the King not since the mutiny of last month but on July 4th of last year in a broadcast to the Greek people? " You will realise," said His Majesty, that conditions for a free expression of the popular will cannot exist until our country has ceased to be an immediate theatre of war. But it has been agreed that as soon as the security of our country is complete, and the necessities of military operations allow, free and general elections for a constituent assembly will be held, and I declare to you that they will take place within six months, as my Government has already decided. I am confident that no Greek, and least of all myself, will fail to respect the decision of the constituent assembly."

Three days later, on July 7th, 1943, speaking in the House of Commons, Mr. Eden said: " I would be grateful if the House would allow me to say how much the British Government welcome, and how sincerely they endorse, this far-sighted announcemetit by the King of Greece, which in their view provides for the constitutional evolution of Greek political insti- tutions in accordance with the principles of democracy and of the Atlantic Charter." That, surely, should have put an end to any further discussion on this question.

Such a significant omission on the part of your special correspondent— the implications of which are too obvious to need amplification—should provide a gauge of the detachment or accuracy with which he examines Greece's perplexities generally ; but there is one point which he should sever have made, and that is his statement that the recent mutiny in the Greek Armed Forces " should perhaps not be judged exclusively as a breach of military discipline." It is precisely that tendency to allow the military to interfere in political matters that has been the curse of Greek political life for so many years, particularly during the period when Greece was a Republic. Those who really love Greece and are honestly anxious to see her democratic institutions restored should be the first to admit that the paramount necessity is that the Greek Armed Forces should no longer " rightly or wrongly . . . consider themselves in some measure the representatives of Greek opinion." Western ideas reserve a different word for this state of affairs: it is " stratocracy "; definitely not " demo- aacy."—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,