ON AGAIN, OFF AGAIN

Greece is the country, par excellence where ministries and dynasties alternate with astonishing rapidity. Almost the only way to tell at a given moment what form of government and what ruler are in power is to gaze into the swirling crystal, for the present is almost as uncertain as the future.

No one is surprised, therefore, to hear that King George of the Glucksburg dynasty is being widely fonted during these weeks preceding the Greek elections. His poor guesswork in siding again the Allies in the war, together with the loss of his early romantic character, typified by the shedding of his hair, lost for him the fickle favor of his people. And the accession of financial, and, therefore, of political strength, through the marriage of his daughter to the American millionaire Leeds, has been counterbalanced by the generous openhandedness of American Greeks, who look back to Attic aridity, through a veil of hazy recollection, a ward the cause of the Republic.

Everything considered, it seems quite unlikely that King George will be invited to leave his delightful Swiss chalet; but Greek politics will continue to supply the stepsick of democratic comedy, for apparently only a German or a Cretan can rule the fruity Hellenes.