Greece: The Colonels Change Clothes

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Looking stiff and ill at ease in their unaccustomed civilian clothes, the ruling triumvirate of Greece stood on the stage of the military academy in Athens. It was their first public appearance together since they had resigned from the army earlier last week to give their regime a semblance of civilian respectability. At the close of the ceremony, in which graduating cadets took their oaths, Premier George Papadopoulos, the former colonel who masterminded last April's-coup, shouted: "Long live the King!" Coming from the man whom the King had tried to overthrow only a week earlier, it was indeed an extraordinary cry, but it reflected some new realities in Greece: 1) the King will probably return home sooner or later, and 2) he will become a figurehead monarch, stripped of his former wide powers.

At week's end, having been sworn into their new offices in a mass ceremony, the junta prepared to present to the country a draft of the new constitution that it has been preparing. The King had been shown a copy in Rome, to which he had fled after the failure of his inept countercoup, and apparently he found it palatable. The junta has also promised to announce the date for a plebiscite on the constitution—another move that would enable the King to save face. The most probable route for the King's return now seems to be through his sister, Princess Irene, 25, or, less likely, through one of his uncles. The King would appoint the relative as regent—the present lieutenant general who holds that post was carefully designated by the junta as "temporary regent"—then come back himself in two or three months when matters had cooled off.

Reforming Zeal. When they first seized power eight months ago, the military men put such emphasis on their allegiance to King Constantine, on anti-Communism and on puritanical reforms that they appeared to be rightist defenders of the status quo. Now, after changing to mufti in order to run as civilians for office in the elections provided for in the new constitution, the ex-colonels' attitudes appear more activist. They seem not only eager to suppress leftists but also to break the power of the Greek Establishment. Under the new constitution, the monarch will no longer have power to appoint and dismiss Premiers or to promote and assign generals. He will, in fact, have none of the power that made it possible for the Greek throne to create its own mini-aristocracy of loyal retainers.