Photo by Emma G. Cummings 

 PEASANT WITH DISTAEE, SPINNING AS SHE WAEKS 



The Greek royal family are claimed 

 as the best looking, the most charming- 

 mannered, and the best behaved royalties 

 in Europe. I believe it to be true. Court 

 life is democratic and simple, the late 

 King much preferred his life as a farmer 

 at the Chateau of Tatoi to that of the 

 palace at Athens. Queen Olga and the 

 princesses devote themselves to good 

 works, and the princes have so recently 

 given such good account of themselves 

 on the field of battle that words of mine 

 are needless. 



My chief criticism of modern Greek 

 life would be that the young men of 

 good family and of fortune have not 

 turned themselves to the economic de- 

 velopment of their country. Manufac- 

 turing and agriculture have been almost 

 wholly neglected, and all that one wears 

 and much of what one eats is brought 

 from abroad. The owners of estates 

 have considered them chiefly useful as a 

 foothold for a seat in Parliament — that 

 one-chambered and often turbulent body 

 where have centered the chief defects in 

 Greek development. 



POEITICS THE CURSE OF THE GREEKS 



To speak the truth, the curse of poli- 

 tics has overlain all Greek activities 

 since the establishment of the kingdom. 

 And politics in Greece has meant a sor- 

 did thing. There are no questions of 

 principle which divide parties there. 



Economic conditions demand high tar- 

 iffs; on foreign questions there is no 

 division; sociological problems have not 

 developed along party lines — and so it 

 has happened that parties have now 

 grown up with well-defined lines of 

 cleavage in policy, but have arisen from 

 time to time in accordance with the am- 

 bitions or political necessities of individ- 

 ual leaders — and the struggle has been 

 wholly between the ins and the outs. 



Thus it has happened that maladmin- 

 istration has been the rule. I have never 

 inclined to the belief that Greek admin- 

 istration has been dishonest. In fact, 

 the modest budget forbids graft on any 

 scale to be really dangerous, but waste- 

 fulness and poor service have been com- 

 mon to all ministries. 



I speak of this in the past tense, be- 



304 



