GREECE: Metaxas Dictates

In Athens a closely guarded limousine swept up to the British Legation and instalked stocky General John M’etaxas, the new Dictator (TIME, Aug. 17). A second car brought King Edward VIII. Over cups of tea the two men talked earnestly for more than two hours. That night Edward and his pleasure-cruising friends were up until 3 a. m. dancing in a simple tavern and open-air cabaret, near Athens.

Next thing Greeks knew their Dictator gave out a long statement in which for the first time he announced that he will “never” hold elections for another Greek parliament. General Metaxas said’ last week that the Socialist & Communist trade unions which he has done his best to smash “will no longer be tolerated” and that the State will set up a paternal form of worker organization.

”I have the King’s approval for all these plans,” added Dictator Metaxas—by which he was assumed to mean the approval of King George II of Greece, a most intimate friend of Britain’s late King George V, and an attentive host to King Edward VIII.