Greece: A Year of Clear Sailing

In Athens last week, the young King of Greece was regaling his friends with his version of an encounter at sea. It seems the sky was clear and the wind low enough so that the officer on the deck of the U.S. carrier Saratoga was able to hail the youthful skipper of the sloop Proteus without a megaphone.

"You know who I am?" said the officer.

"I am admiral of the Sixth Fleet." "And I'm the King of Greece," responded Constantine.

The weather ashore in Constantine's domain last week was as calm as the Mediterranean. While tourists sunned themselves on the beaches and listened to David Oistrakh perform with the Utah Symphony Orchestra in the 1,800-year-old Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Premier Stephan Stephanopoulos, 67, celebrated his first full year in office in his cluttered quarters at the Parliament building. He had been sworn in as Constantine's solution to the summer-long constitutional crisis provoked by the resignation of Premier George Papandreou last summer and as a way of avoiding Papandreou's demand for a general election. At the time, Papandreou predicted that the Stephanopoulos government, like two others that Constantine had chosen, would have "an ephemeral life." Surprisingly, it has lasted.

Tax Reform. The regime has even accomplished some things. Panic buying of gold, which threatened the drachma, was stemmed by the central bank early in the year. Since then, the economy has expanded nicely. Gross national product will be up 8% for 1966, industrial production is up 15% , and after nearly two years of inflation brought on by Papandreou's free-spending policies, prices have stabilized. Governing with a precarious majority of 152 Deputies (out of a 300-man Parliament), in which the balance of power is held by 40-odd Deputies weaned away from Papandreou's once-dominant Center Union Party with promises of Cabinet portfolios, Stephanopoulos has rammed through some tax reforms. Even before they went into effect, collections jumped 35% . Possibly this was because the prosperous shipowners and commercial aristocracy who sometimes take a casual attitude toward taxpaying, decided that economic stability could be in their interest as well as that of Stephanopoulos. Unfortunately, Stephanopoulos has made enemies as well as friends. He has so far enacted no social-welfare legislation at all and, in order to economize, slashed the wheat subsidies enacted by Papandreou, enraging the farm vote, which represents 51% of the total. In July, demonstrators protesting the cuts rioted in Salonika. Over 90 police and demonstrators were injured, and 140 demonstrators arrested. If an election was held tomorrow, Papandreou's Center Union would most likely win.