FOREIGN RELATIONS


himself to'accede to all these demands without recourse. He could not,
for instance, it is said, regard with indifference the removal of men of
approved integrity and honor, or the appointment of manifestly improper
persons to office. In such an event he must reserve to himself the right
to speak.
  Mr. Zaimis endeavored to persuade Mr. Coumoundouros to accept
without exacting so much. Bat the latter refused to act, unless the
terms already referred to were accepted, without alteration, by the
sovereign.
  It is said by some persons that the conditions imposed by Mr. Cou-
moundouros originated with Mr. Lombardos, whose hostility to the King
is well known.
  The "1Palingenessia," one of the organs of Mr. Coumoundouros,
in its
issue of yesterday, regrets that the King did not receive with favor the
memorandum of Mr. Coumoundouros. It says, moreover, that it is now
clear that the country is divided into two distin3t parties--the one con-
stitutional and parliamentary, of which Mr. Coumoundouros is the head,
the other composed of the court and those attached to it.
   After the rejection of the Coumoundouros programme the King invited
 to the palace Mr. Deligeorges, at 11 o'clock yesterday morning. Having
 explained the position of affairs, His Majesty requested Mr. Deligeorges
 to form a new ministry. The latter asked time to consult his party, and
 at 4 p. m. his friends assembled at his house in great numbers and gave
 him fall liberty to follow the dictates of his individual judgment. Up
 to the present moment Mr. Deligeorges has not returned a definite an-
 swer to the King.
   The situation is a most unfortunate one; for the country has been
 without a ministry for the last six days, the longest duration of a minis-
 terial crisis since the accession of His Majesty, King George.
       I have, &c.,
                                  JOHN MEREDITH READ, JR.



                              No. 352.
                        Mr. Read to ]Lir. Fish.

-No. 23.]                          UNITED STATES LEGATION,
                          Athens, May 107 1874. (Received June 1.)
   SiR: The Department will notice iu the communication inclosed in
 my Nlo. 21 an allusion to the increase of the duty upon dried currants.
 I seized the occasion a few days since to say to the minister of foreign
 affairs that I was not aware that final action had been taken by Con-
 gress upon the question, and that I had written to my Government as
 early as the 2d of April recommending the subject to its most favorable
 consideration. [See my No. 15 to the Department.] A paragraph has
 since appeared in the Greek papers setting forth the fact, and within
 the last forty-eight hours several of the principal journals of Athens have
 mentioned in terms of warm praise the action of the American minister.
 Dried currants and oil are the two principal articles exported from
 Greece. The question of the amount of tariff duty to be imposed by the
 United States Government upon the former is, therefore, one of absorb-
 ing interest here.
              I haveJOHN MEREDITH READ, JR.


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