character in normal times, is favourable to the dictatorship, especially if the latter can give peace and ensue it. Besides, many friends of Greece believe that any established Government, whatever doubt there may be about the legality of its origin, is better than yet another change, which might be for the worse. Another military dictator, a General A. or B., who should upset General Pangalos and rule in his stead, would certainly injure Greek credit abroad, especially important at a time. when another Refugee Loan is needed.

The Greek people is so intelligent and has so much initiative, that it progresses, in spite of frequent crises and occasional 'revolutions,' usually exaggerated in the headlines of Western newspapers. Every visitor to Greek Macedonia is struck by the rapid development of that neglected region, only emancipated in 1912 from five centuries of Turkish misgovernment, and since then twice the battlefield of contending armies. In two years the Greek refugees from Asia Minor have doubled the cultivable area of that province, which is now, thanks to the same cause, 90 per cent. Greek. Thus the collapse of Asiatic Hellenism has been the gain of European Hellenism, and against the abandoned fields of Cappadocia and Pontos may be set the tilled lands of Macedonia. The refugees, too, like our Huguenot emigrants after the edict of Nantes, have introduced into 'old' Greece industries, such as carpet-making, unknown there since the Middle Ages, when Thebes was an industrial town. As Sir Arthur Salter remarked on his visit, Greece has absorbed the refugees in a manner impossible for a less flexible organisation. Nor must the importance of the refugees as a political factor be ignored. Their support -for there is no residential qualification for electorsswelled the Republican vote at the plebiscite in 1924; their suffrages helped General Pangalos at the Presidential election. But their continuous adhesion will depend upon his capacity to prove that he has been their protector, that proof will be the success of the supplementary loan, and that, in turn, will be conditional on the return of Greece to 'normal' and stable conditions. Critics of Greek parliamentarism ignore two historical facts. Royalist critics forget that in the early years of the Second Monarchy Cabinets had even shorter Vol. 247.-No. 489.

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lives than in these first two years of the Republic. Pangalist critics omit to mention that three-year administrations were known not only in the time of Mr Venizelos, but in that of Trikoupes, Deligiannes, and Theotokes, not to go back to that of Kolettes. As Mr Michalakopoulos reminded his compatriots, Cavour (who was a greater statesman than Signor Mussolini) said that the worst chamber is better than the best antechamber.' For personal government usually falls, not by the faults of the Dictator, but by those of the camarilla which surrounds him.

It is asked abroad whether the Greek Dictator will follow his Italian master in a possible war against Turkey-whether, in fact, in the recent negotiations the alliance or benevolent neutrality of Greece was secured. It is difficult to see what Greece would gain by such a leonine contract-for Italian diplomatists have never been altruists. Constantinople has been suggested as the bait, and the City,' as the Greeks call it, has always been a name wherewith to conjure up enthusiasm, but it seems doubtful whether the present war-weary generation of Greeks would be stirred by such a dazzling, but difficult, enterprise. Obviously, the Italians would want Asia Minor for themselves; while an extension of the Greek corridor to Constantinople would expose it to attacks on the flank from both Bulgaria and Jugoslavia, both anxious to descend to the Egean, the one at Salonika, the other at Dedeagatch, or Alexandroupolis, as it is now officially called. Moreover, the Greeks well know that the Italians would have considerable difficulties in defeating the Turks when the latter were on the defensive in their own country. The Libyan war was not exactly a walk-over, and, if Fascist Italy is more bellicose than the Nationalist Italy of 1911, Asia Minor is farther away than Tripoli and less easy to invade. Besides, Greece, despite the great material progress accomplished since the writer first visited her thirty-two years ago, has ample scope for all the energies of her governors in the development of her existing territories, 'old' as well as 'new.' If Athens has 10,000 motor-cars, the Athenian streets-in proportion to the number of houses five times those of Paris-still leave something to be desired, especially after their excavation by the

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theUlen Company in the course of bringing sea water up t from Phaleron for watering them. If most classical bsites need no longer be visited on mule-back, and rail and motor-car transport the tourist in twelve hours from Athens to Sparta, the roads, with some exceptions, Csuch as that made by our soldiers from Brallo to Itea, those of Mytilene and those of Corfù, require attention. Even in the neighbourhood of the capital, the charming seaside resort of Vouliagméne needs a good road connecting it with Old Phaleron. Allowance must be made for these material shortcomings, because the long years of war and civil disturbances have left little time and less money available for internal improvements. Similarly, in the 'new' provinces, for which the outgoing Turks did nothing, there is ample scope for the genius of an administrative Napoleon in the draining of the Vardar and Struma valleys, the utilisation of the water-power from the falls of Vodená, and the improvement of the harbour of Salonika. Some of these great works are in contemplation, others have already been begun. A Dictator, too, might apply his autocratic power to the task of coping with the boatmen, whose interests prevent the landing of passengers direct from steamers on the quays of Greek ports. Naturally, the dispossessed boatmen should be equitably compensated out of the proceeds of a tax on steamer-tickets, which passengers would cheerfully pay to escape the disagreeables of landing in boats in bad weather. Further, an enormous economic asset of Greece, as yet unrealised, the tourist traffic, should be developed. No country in Europe possesses the natural beauties of Greece; nowhere are the colours so magnificent, nowhere, in such a comparatively small area, is there such infinite variety. But no appeal to the foreign public is made on this ground: Greece is represented as interesting mainly to archæologists. who are not always sensitive to romantic scenery. Besides, the existing English guide-books, the latest edition of which dates from 1909, act as positive deterrents. They depict a state of discomfort in countrytowns, which may have been accurate in the days when George I was king, but is enormously exaggerated in the Consulship of Pangalos. Thus, misled by these antediluvian 'practical' hints to travellers (which contain

not a word about motor-cars), people have recently brought out camp-beds from London to use on the train and motor journey to the excellent hotel at Delphi ! As for the maps, they bear no trace of the direct railway communication with 'Europe,' which has existed since 1916! Baedeker,' in fact, is, in these circumstances, becoming a classic, like Pausanias, possessing historical interest, but of little practical utility. For those who read Greek, an up-to-date Greek guide-book, 'Hellas,' has just been issued. But the number of those Englishmen who read even ancient Greek is far smaller than in the last generation, when classical education was cultivated more generally. This is a further reason why the Greeks should interest foreigners in their beautiful country, because of its scenery rather than its classical associations. Even those who have never heard of the Argo can revel in the view over the Gulf of Volo from Portaria, and the varied scenery of the Gulf of Corinth appeals to many who only know the Corinthians as correspondents of St Paul. A good series of picture postcards, not merely of the classical monuments, would be an excellent advertisement and to many a revelation. They would discover that Greece possesses a Switzerland in Epeiros, a Corniche at Spetsai, and a côte d'azur at Hagios Andreas.

Those who from distant capitals see in Greece a second Mexico, and shrug their shoulders over 'Another Revolution in Athens,' ignore the small practical effect which such events exercise upon the Greek people. I was an eye-witness of the fighting of Dec. 9, 1923, the departure of George II, the proclamation of the Republic, and the coup d'état of June 25, 1925. None of these events moved the Athenians. Business went on as usual, no enthusiasm, no hostility, was expressed. The change of régime passed with far less excitement than a byeelection with us. Such was the case when Otho was deposed in 1862, as Finlay's private correspondence shows, and when Bavarian autocracy ended in 1843. Hellenic people, more than once in its long history, could have said, as the young shoot said to the goat, 'Even if you eat me down to the root, yet shall I bear fruit.' A race, which has seen Romans, Franks of many races, Venetians, and Turks pass over it, and has survived

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them all, will not collapse because the wave of autocracy, which extends from Madrid to Angora, has also swept over Athens. The present, like 'the Age of the Despots' in ancient Greece, is a passing phase, which, as General Pangalos himself admits, must tend to the re-establishment of 'normal' conditions. Doubtless Greece would have a more stable government, if she had a less intelligent population; for, as Bagehot saw, a dose of stupidity tends to the smoother working of parliamentary institutions. Nor need one be a cynic to perceive that snobbery greases the wheels of British public life. But in Greece snobbery is non-existent. There is no aristocracy, the plutocracy has no special political advantage, and public men are judged on their personal merits. Candidly, how many British ministers have attained their position by their individual merits, without the adventitious aid of birth or influential connexions? Besides, Greek party chiefs have no powerful caucus behind them, no party funds, no titles to bestow. Their every act is criticised in countless cafés and newspapers, and there has been a natural Greek tendency in all ages to 'cut off the heads of the tallest poppies.' Hence the ostracism of the Ancients, which in modern times has found an analogy in Trikoupes, dying in exile at Cannes, and in Mr Venizelos, annotating Thucydides in Paris. Indeed, so deeply was Mr Papanastasiou impressed with this symptom that he obtained the insertion in the draft constitution of Clause 84, limiting to one year the tenure of the Premiership. This General Pangalos eliminated. When, however, General Pangalos allows the Constitution to become active, we shall witness an interesting experiment, untried since 1862, that of a Second Chamber. The Othonian Senate, created by the Constitution of 1844, was not successful, and was not included in the Constitution of 1864. But there is a general wish among politicians that a bi-cameral system should be revived, although none of the first rank wishes to sit in the Senate. Meanwhile, Greece, essentially a democratic country, but temporarily tired of politics and politicians, has elected the chosen of the army.

WILLIAM MILLER.