MARCH 4-5, 1952
DEATH OF GEN. PANGALOS: General Theodoros Pangalos died at 2.35 this morning at the Chloe Hotel in Kifissia, where he had lived for the past four years. He was 74. Pangalos had served as commander-in-chief, government minister, prime minister and then president of the republic. (…) Pangalos was born in Elefsina in 1878. (…) He studied at the French Military Academy and fought in all the recent wars. In the Revolution of 1922 he was one of the chief allies of the current prime minister, Nikolaos Plastiras. After the 1922 disaster (in Asia Minor), he became field marshal in the Evros prefecture and successfully reorganized the army. (…) In 1925 he overthrew the Michalakopoulos government and a few months later declared a dictatorship. Following a referendum, he was elected president of the republic. A year later his dictatorship was overturned by Gen. Kondylis. Pangalos was imprisoned but later pardoned. KATHIMERINI’S COMMENT: The many services Pangalos offered his country (…) after the passage of time cancel out the impressions that the unfortunate episode of his dictatorship naturally made on those faithful to constitutional order and democratic freedoms. (…) However, he reconstructed the Asia Minor army, deploying it along the Evros River as a ruling was about to be passed in Lausanne against Greece.
