Crooks and the law
Sir: The abysmal Taki really should stick to gossip, or else be put out to grass. The only pleasing thing about his article on the Rothschild case in Corfu (23 April) is that Greek Taki Theodoracopoulos's proposi- tion that the Greeks are crooks invites the formulation of a simple syllogism.
At the risk of lending credibility to his ig- norant (or malicious) assertions by treating them as worthy of serious refutation: a) there was no change of the relevant Greek law in 1962; b) Supreme Court rulings in Greece do not create a necessary precedent in law, nor are they binding on lower courts; c) the Greek courts have not allowed original vendors themselves to recover pro- perty illegally sold to foreigners, on the grounds that if they had colluded in an il- legal transaction they should not be entitled to benefit from its subsequent invalidation; d) Greece is not 'bordered by islands everywhere', or indeed anywhere — but this is simple illiteracy; e) the 1927 decree upheld by the Supreme Court in the Rothschild case refers to specifically designated frontier areas, which include Corfu because of its proximity to Albania but do not include the other Ionian islands and certainly not the large majority of Greek islands in the Aegean. On this last score, Taki is merely provoking alarm and despondency among whatever British property-owners in these islands may be ig- norant of their own innocence.
Finally, having an idea of the qualities of the present Minister of Justice, George Mangakis, I very much doubt that he will stoop to sue Taki over his allegations of bribery. But any notion that the Supreme Court in Greece bends to the wishes of the Minister was conclusively dispelled by its re- cent rejection of the plea for a re-trial of the man sentenced for the murder of Ann Champman, a plea Professor Mangakis was known to favour.
Perhaps it is safer for Taki to sign his abuse of his own country from New York, but is is obviously no help to him in writing the truth about Greece.
G.E. Beswick 34 Cantelowes Road, London NW1
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