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King.
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Saturday,
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King Who Was Mistaken For A
THE throne of Greece, over and set up his younger Britain's new Ally, and more susceptible bro- has had a chequered his- ther, Alexander, as a dummy The tory during the past
Army Turned thirty years.
King George II of After Alexander's sudden Greece, is the only post his pet monkey's bite, Con- death from the infection of war European monarch stantine was recalled to the to stage a "come-back" throne in 1920, but he quick- after having once been ly proceeded to get himself deposed and banished in hot water again. He from his country.
fancied himself a great gen- eral and led the Greek
Throughout his youth Armies once more into a dis- he was in the thick of astrous campaign in Asia' the violent turmoil con- Minor against the Turks. stantly raging around
The Greeks were beaten
the. "unluckiest throne and the country blamed Con- stantine for the defeat. His in Europe."
own army turned on him.
Although he is only One day in September, fifty now, during his 1922, a military plane flew lifetime his grand-over Athens and dropped father, George I, was leaflets demanding the im- slain by an assassin at mediate abdication of the
King. Salonika in 1913; his
Constantine didn't hesi- father, the late King tate long. On September Constantine, was twice 27, he signed his formal deposed and finally died abdication papers, turning in exile; and his brother, who succeeded to the throne before him as King Alexander, was
pet monkey.
Waiter
The Story CHEQUERED
Here is the story of the Greek Throne and the man who sits on it.
King George was born
Without batting
£11 eye,
January 11, 1941.
By Ernie Bushmiller
In 1928 he went before the Oxford Union and... debated against the Spanish Professor. Salvador de Madariaga on the advantagca of "Athletic as against aesthetic education."
.
The ex-King declared: "Instinctively, I distrust the professor and pedant. Give me a burly man of bone and gristle, The world is too full already of bookworms and blue stockings, long-haired men and short-hair cd women."
During the twelve years that
ACTORS' CLUB
a proclamation expressing his gratitude, and said:
"Let the past be relegated to oblivion. There should be abso lute equality and justice for all.”
The King plunged at once into the gigantic task of restoring order to the country. There had been no less than 25 cabinets and two dictatorships during his exile. Eager to smooth over the harsh political hatreds that had been turning the nation topsy-turvy with unrest, he an- nounced a general amnesty free
These cool, bracing days get out in the open in
followed the overthrow of the ing political prisoners who had PULLOVERS
monarchy, Greece went from been locked up during the rigid bad to worse. Cabinet after rule of Marshal Kondylis.. cabinet toppled. General dis- The latter resigned in a huff, content over internal economic and George quickly formed a woes hung like a black shadow non-partisan cabinet. over the country. The Republic Aware of the need of a strong was converted into an iron-military force behind his throne, handed dictatorship under Field the King entrusted this post to Marshal George ("The Thunder- 65 - your - old General John bolt") Kondylis,
By 1935 Greece was in the throes of open revolution once more. Kondylis found royalist sentiment rising in Greece by leaps and bounds. Of the 300 seats in Parliament, 287 were captured by royalist supporters in the election of June 9.
Kondylis proclaimed the aboli. tion of the Republic, declared himself Regent, convoked the National Assembly to decree a
Metaxas.
General Metaxas was made Premier, Minister of War, and Minister of Foreign Affairs-the three key posts in the Govern- ment.
Ever since that time, George has worked hand in glove with General Metaxas.
George's existence at the palace is dull, methodical, un- spectacular. He wakes up very early every morning and reaches for the latest editions of the morning's papers.
After reading the papers, he has a large British breakfast, puts on his admiral's uniform, walks through the tile-paved cor-
of a THRONE
killed by the bite of a over the crown to his son, a wealthy American approached restoration, and telegraphed ridors of his palace into his George, who ascended the George, who was waiting for George to fly back to Athens at favourite workroom, the library. throne the same day as ing the immaculately dressed
some dinner guests, and mistak. once."
The palace is far from preten- King George II..
ex-king for the head waiter,
When first news of the Greek tious just a simple three. Eighteen months earlier asked him for "a table for six." revolution reached him, George storey affair of white, built in i was shooting lions and tigers in pure Greck style with balconies George: had married Prin- George escorted the party, gra- India is the guest of the and high windows through .cess Elizabeth, daughter of ciously, if a bit stiftly, to the Maharajah of Bikunir.
which the King_can_look_down on July 20, 1890, at the Queen Marie of Rumania. entrance and told the American When he returned W London on his curiously costumed hon-
he could take whichever of the he received a Royal Villa at Tatoi,
delegation of our guards, the famed Evzones, Almost from the day he took many empty tables he cared to. Greek leaders in July of 1935 who over the tarnished crown from Just then the manager came up, but informed them he would not broidered jackets, fleecy mocca- near Athens.
fezzes, richly-cm- return unless there was a na sins, and long white stockings, Because
his father, George was a virtual flabbergasted. his
prisoner in the Royal Palace.
tional plebiscite in Greece with the tops of which are barely.con- at least a 60 per cent. vote in cealed by short flaring skirts. favour of his restoration.
A plebiscite held showed 95 George usually shares the
Prince Paul, the heir apparent
·
were con-
wear
per cent. in favour of George's noonday meal with his brother,
return.
George hesitated no longer, to the throne, and one or two on November 14, accompanied
Prince Paul, in contrast to
1
Favourite Pastime
uncle, then Kaiser Wilhelm II The new Cabinet that came Assembly ordered him out of the of Germany, was SO into power after Constantine's country.
abdication was a bloodthirsty Greece was proclaimed a re- angry at his having been one bent on wholesale revenge public, and the possessions of trained by English gov- for the disastrous Asia Minor the royal family ernesses and educated campaigns. Six former minis- fiscated.
ters and generals were court Exiled In London He packed his belongings, and aides-de-camp. in an English school, he martialed and shot, was sent to Germany to King George, 32 years old ni George courageously refused by his younger brother, Prince George, is very gay and fond of the time and a newcomer in to sign a formal deed of abdica. Paul, ho started homeward. At dancing. He recently married serve in the Prussian politica, was so disgusted. he tion, although he was offered the the station to bid him farewell Princess Frederica, granddatigh- Guards for a while. And wished to abdicate forthwith. return of some of his properties were the then Prince of Wales, ter of the former Kaiser of Ger- when the Balkan Wars But he was prevented from do- if he would do so. Instead, in a the Duke and Duchess of York
ing so by tho atrong-arm parting letter to the president (now King and Queen of Bri- many. broke out in 1912 he saw methods of the cabinet, which of the council of ministers, he tain), and the Duke and Duchess his first active service as watched his every move, refused merely stated that he
was of Kent. to countenance any abdication "going away for the time being." The royal party travelled by After lunch the King usually a gunnery officer.
and kept him under the guard Queen Elizabeth, apparently, train to Brindisi, Italy, where goes out into the palace garden During the World War, in the palace with all of the hon had little regret over the turn the Greek warship Helle and an and spends an hour or so potter- the Allies suspected that, ours but none of the powers of a of events. She was sick and escort of two destroyers awaited ing around in the open, plucking
sovereign. despite the ostensible neut-
tired of Greek politics and she the returning king,
at a weed here and there. Then Not content with remaining a finally told her husband that Like Ulysses returning from he goes back to his desk. rality of Greece, George's puppet of the dictatorship, King throne or no throne, she would his Odyssey, George sailed back father, King Constantine, George tried to stage a counter- prefer life in Rumania. They to Greece and rode into the George makes it a rule to re- favoured the cause of the revolution, but it was nipped in separated.
capital on the morning of No- ceive and treat exactly alike the the bud and he was forced to flee Kaiser.
A few years later, Georgo, vember 25. The Greek air force leaders of all the many-striped with Queen Elizabeth on Decem- living the quiet life of an exile circled overhead. Twenty-one political factions in Greece, even Constantine, who had led ber 17, 1923, after the National at Brown's Hotel, in London, guns boomed the royal salute. the Communists. In this man-
less marringo, and there was with £2,000 a year to his name, the Greeks into disastrous
At Hadrian's Arch, the gate er he has achieved a reputation no love lost when the ties were received notice from a Bucharest of Athens, the sentries shouted for impartiality that has com wars in the Balkans, was broken.
court to appear and defend the traditional challenge: "Who manded respect. never very popular, and the George, in modest circum- himself against his wife's goes there?"
Hia favourite pastime in the Allies found a brilliant con- stances though he was, became a divorce action. He ignored it. And George replied in the evening after dinner is to tune
figure In London's spirator in the shrewd Greek popular
After forty minutes of deli. traditional words of his un- in on the short wave radio broad- fashionable court circles and a beration, the court granted a cestors: "I am the King of the casts from this country. political genius, Eleutherios frequent visitor at Buckingham dissolution of their marriage. Hellenes," Venizelos.
Palace.
It had been an unhappy, child- The King rode through wildly Unlike King Carol and King Ultra-British in his manners, With great bowing and scrap cheering lanes of his country- Zog, both of whom are fond of Venizelos was more than he was in great demand socially, ing he explained to the Ameri. men over a four-mile route; in champagne, George is a tecto- willing to play their game. and for twelve years he enjoyed can who it was had done the the shadow of the pillared re- taller, his favourite beverages, He fomented a revolution his exile, riding, hunting, and honours for him. All three mains of Ancient Greece's famed being tonic water with a slice of that forced Constantine off travelling.
laughed after an embarrassed Acropolis, to the parliament lemon, ginger beer, or ginger ale Even in exile George was a pause, and Goorge passed it off building that was once the throne in 1917.
his which "bad habits" ho acquir. stickler for atiquette and pro- with a courteous nod as he walk- father's palace.
ed, as he did so many others, in George, who
the priety.
ed away to join his own party. There, with Field Marshal England. Crown Prince, was consider-
George found timo during his Kondylls, now called the "King- King George is very much in- ed as "pro-German" as his
exile to engage in his favourite maker," at his side, he went out terested in medicine and studies father, and so in the succes
sports. He has always bben an on the balcony and saluted the it as a hobby. His Intimates sion to the throne Venizelos over the incident in the vestibule swimmer, tennis player, and the square to great him.
In London they still laugh enthusiastic athlete, a good cheering Athonians packed in say that if he had not been born to be a king he might have bo- and his party passed him of Quaglino's Restaurant where horseman.
Later in the day George issued come a physician..
was
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