GREECE: Shot

Surrounded by soldiers, police and sombre-coated civilians, President Paul Doundouriotis, 72, puppet president of Greece, descended the steps of the town hall in Athens, well satisfied with his address to the Congress of Mayors, pompous, rotund, lean, from every municipality in the Republic of the Hellenes, otherwise Greece.

At the foot of these steps the presidential car awaited. As the hoary president, hero of the Greece-Turkish Wars of 1897 and 1912-13, entered the automobile, a young man, one Zafioios Goussios, approached with apparent intent to serve a petition upon the chief executive. Policemen beamed paternally. The president was so democratic that anybody could approach him, thought they. Yes, indeed, all Athens was accustomed to seeing him walk the street, quite alone, and often a stranger would salute him and perhaps pass a few words about this and that.

But M. Goussios, approaching the car from the front, of a sudden changed his mind, or appeared to do so, and instead of producing the expected petition, whipped out a revolver and fired through the windshield at the aged president. Smiles on the faces of policemen faded instantly. Before the assailant could pull the trigger twice a dozen strong arms of the law had siezed him. Soldiers, alarmed by the shot, became rigid, threw a cordon around the would-be assassin to prevent his being torn asunder by the infuriated mob.

Fortunately, the president escaped serious injury. The bullet passed through his hat and grazed his right temple, splintering the bone. He was immediately driven to the hospital, where he was able to walk to the operating room. His face suffered minor cuts from the splintered glass. His condition was said to be satisfactory, but the Athenians worried over him fearing that the shock would be more than his age could stand.