W ITH the formation of a government by General Plastiras, who
would have preferred to be Minister for War, but has com-
NEWS OF THE WEEK
promised by becoming Minister for War, Navy, Air and Mercantile Marine as well as Prime Minister, the situation in Greece may be said to have developed ; it remains to be seen whether it has improved. General Plastiras' personality is in his favour. The man who saved what could be saved from the wreckage after the rout of the Greek forces in Asia Minor in 1922 is clearly marked out for the task of salvage today. He proposes that a new constitution be drafted, and there is not much doubt that it will be republican. The fact that the King of the Hellenes had agreed to the creation of a Regency and appointed Archbishop Damaskinos to that office has eased matters considerably and may ease them further yet. Another factor in General Plastiras' favour is that the population of Athens wants food, not fighting, and may be expected to rally to any Greek Government which aims at supplying the former, with the help of the British, and suppressing the latter. The E.L.A.S. leaders, more- over, who demurred to handing over their arms to a foreign, even though Allied, general, but professed themselves ready to hand them over to a Greek Governinent, see that obstacle to disarmament removed. Whatever grounds for hope there are—and the outlook is clearly brighter than it was a week ago—rest on the personal influence the Regent and the Prime Minister command. The urgent need now is for a cessation of the fighting, but the question of the surrender of arms cannot long be postponed. If constitutionalism is to be restored in Greece it cannot be under the perpetual menace of action by armed bands. General Plastiras has never manifested any sym- pathy with E.L.A.S., but he is sufficiently Liberal to command the sympathies of all but the extreme left or frankly subversive elements. Meanwhile the success of General Scobie's forces in clearing the greater part of Athens and the Piraeus means that the majority of the population is getting food.
