* * * * It was a great Greek who
affirmed that man was a political animal. His present-day successors (though the succession has experienced a good many adventures through the centuries) are political past any comprehension. With a population of just over six millions Greece was governed, till the recent resignations, by a Cabinet of thirty-eight, and the political parties number something over twenty. To distinguish and enumerate them is pest any normal Englishman's comprehension, but the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs specified them conveniently in an answer in the House of Commons on Monday. Asked which parties were proposing to vote in Sunday's election, he replied that as the list was lengthy he would circulate it in the official report. It is too lengthy to quote here, but a statistical summary will suffice. Those intending to vote fall into three main groups, including between them fourteen parties, but two outer parties will be standing separately. In addition six other parties confined to Athens are in the field. Those abstaining number six. This tots up to twenty-eight, leaving independents out of account. But independents are no doubt inconceivable in Greece.
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