Evening star., 1926-04-15
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL =. COLLINS.

The once-popular opera. 'Pinafore,
undertook to define a "Poobah,' but
that was before Gen. Pangalos, dicta-
/ tor of Greece, had demonstrated his
own capabilities in that line.
| The dictator has been elected
| President Of the republic and as
President has nominated and con-
| firmed his own appointment as
! premier. He had previously dismissed
! the Parliament, declaring that his
| country was not successful In parlla-
mentary government, and, as minister
of war, under the Revolutionary Pro
visional Government, with his friends
and allies in command of the navy. he
controlled both the military and naval
forces. Hence. why bother with a
Parliament? The State-it was him.
self-lictator. That was about
year ago.
Before Parliament had been dis
solved, it had appointed Il committee
of thirty members to revise the pro-
visional constitution. The committee
. deliberated long, and at last produced
a constitution modelled after the
constitution of France. in which the
Parliament was both legislative ana
executive-ruiing with cabinet mace
up of its own members, headed by a
premier responsible to Parliament.
The committee claimed to hold
plenary power to devise and adopt the
constitution, but Dictator Pangalos
disputed that presumption and set
aside the French model constitution.
He proceeded to make his own con-
stitution after the style of the Ameri-
can foundation, with a distinct separa-
ton between legislative and executive
powers. Yet he distrusted an execu.
tive, like the President Of the United
States, without fortifying the execu'
tive's powers by adding a premier
appointed by the President and re-
sponsible to the President. and who,
with his cabinet, initiates all legisla-
ton to be merely debated and ratified
by Parliament, in case there ever Is
| a Parliament.
The Pangalos constitution has not
been submitted to any parliamentary
debate. The dictator has merely
announced that it is in force, super
seding the constitution of the former
monarchy, the provisional constitution
and the constitution Of the Committee
Of Thirty. 1t Is unanimously ap-
proved" by the dictator.
The mutiny at Saloniki ~hicn
broke out among few hundred sol
djers last week was reported as be-
Pangalos government. A colonel and
two majors were arrested and sem
fenced by court-nnartial TO death, but
President Pangalos has commuted the
sentence. This leniency Is construed
as q sign of conscious strength of the
government, otherwise the summary
execution would have resulted.
X. y *
In Greece it is the political custom
for any party which faces prospective
defeat at an election to refrain from
voting at that election. BY absten.
ton the sting of defeat is prevented.
So. in this weeks election of Presi-
dent under the new constitution
there was only one candidate-Gen.
Pangalos was elected by 80 per cent
of the registered voters. In the
United States the records indicate
that only about so per cent of our
citizens take the trouble to vote, even
in presidential elections.
The fact that 80 per cent Of the
Greeks took part in their presiden.
tial election is not construed by those
familiar with Greece as an indication
that the masses are especially inter.
ested in government, but rather that
they are ready to let any strong man
govern who will relieve them Of the
persistent unrest and upSetting OF
cabinets and policies.
X X X
Greek politics Is not controlled by
two or three strong parties, as in
the United States and most other
republics. The parties are not formed
around any particular set OF political
principles, but are merely divided by
personnel and the adhesion of a few
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