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George's coyness seemed reasonable, for his family has not been comfortable on the throne of Greece. His grandfather, George I, Greece's second modern King, was assassinated. His father, Constantine ("Tino"), was kicked out by Venizelos in 1917 because he was pro-German. After the War a plebiscite called him back; a revolution kicked him out again and he died in exile. For eleven months in 1923 George II actually reigned as King, in competition with a revolutionary Republic. He was politely asked to leave and abdicate. He left but did not abdicate. Another plebiscite confirmed his exile.
Not necessarily a proof of Greek fickleness, this was all Balkan politics, true to modern Greece which since the War has produced six revolutions, four dictators and 17 governments. Even last week Greeks had no great personal admiration for George, who has spent his twelve years of exile lion-hunting in Africa, toadying to British society, and getting himself divorced by Queen Elizabeth, sister of Rumania's King Carol, who has himself divorced George's sister Helen.
¶ The best-born pretender in Europe, Otto of Habsburg, ''Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary," was so chagrined by George's good luck that he hastened to rebuke Austria for not having done the same for him, indicated that he is the solution to Europe's peace and hoped that Austria would hurry before it was obliged to summon him to rule "a heap of ruins."
¶ Ex-Grand Old Man Eleutherios Venizelos, exiled in a Paris apartment, eloquently said nothing.