GREECE: End of Compromise

Last spring a TIME correspondent asked a Greek Communist leader how he could label the Greek Government “monarcho-fascist” when it permitted a Communist opposition press to operate in the heart of Athens. “They permit it,” he said, “so foreigners can ask questions like that.”

Henceforth, Greek Communists would not be troubled by such questions. Last week, aging Liberal Premier Themistocles Sophoulis, who had tried to get along with the Communists (TIME, Oct. 20), finally lost his liberal patience. His police closed down Greece’s top Communist papers. Said he: the Government must take security measures when the press supports the guerrillas “and incites the people to take to the mountains.”