REGENT RESIGNS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 305, 23 November 1945, Page 5

REGENT RESIGNS

GREEK POLITICAL CRISIS

SPLIT OYER CABINET

(N.Z. Press Association. —Copyright ) (Rec. 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 22 The Regent of Greece (Archbishop Damaskinos) has resigned after a disagreement over the Cabinet of the new .Prime Alinister (Al. Sofoulis) and lias refused to reconsider his decision. The resignation followed a conference of the British Ambassador (Air Deeper), the British Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (All* AlcNeil) and the Regent, when the British urged him to instal AI. Sofoulis as Premier iff spite of the absence of AI. Papandreou from the Government, says a correspondent in Athens. The Regent was adamant that AI. Papandreou should be included in the new Cabinet, which he said should be constructed on a broad' coalition basis.

The Exchange Telegraph Agency's Athens correspondent quoted Al. Sofoulis as saying that the statement in London by King George of the Hellenes was the direct cause of Archbishop Damaskinos’s resignation. Reuter’s Athens correspondent says the Populist Party leader (AI. Tsaldaris) said his party would -refuse to recognise a Cabinet sworn in by Al. Canellopoulos. He told Air. AlcNeil that the British proposal that he should swear in the new Cabinet .would be illegal.

Air McNeil and Air Deeper thereupon again conferred with Archbishop Damaskinos, . this time accompanied by AI. Canellopoulos. The Sofoidis Cabinet was later sworn in by Archbishop Damaskinos, who almost immediately resigned. AI. Sofoulis asked the Archbishop to withdraw his resignation, otherwise the' Regency would be assumed by Cabinet, in accordance with-the Constitution.

The Greek Communist Party announced that the party accepted the Sofoulis Government and added that the British now had their first real opportunity to serve the Greek people in breaking Fascist- reaction.