TEXT C Greece, economically, is
in the black. With very little to export other than such farm products as
tobacco, cotton and fruit, the country earns enough from "invisible earnings" to
pay for its needed, growing imports. From the sending out of things the Greeks,
earn only ＄285 million; from tourism, shipping and the remittances of Greeks
abroad, the country takes in an additional ＄375 million and this washes out the
almost ＄400 million by which imports exceed exports. It has a
balanced budget. Although more than one drachma out of four goes for defense,
the government ended a recent year with a slight surplus—＄66 million. Greece has
a decent reserve of almost a third of a billion dollars in gold and foreign
exchange. It has a government not dependent on coalescing incompatible parties
to obtain parliamentary majorities. In thus summarizing a few
happy highlights, I don’t mean to minimize the vast extent of Greece’s problems.
It is the poorest country by a wide margin in Free Europe, and poverty is
widespread. At best an annual income of ＄60 to ＄70 is the lot of many a peasant,
and substantial unemployment plagues the countrysides, cities, and towns of
Greece. There are few natural resources on which to build any substantial
industrial base. Some years ago I wrote here: "Greek
statesmanship will have to create an atmosphere in which home and foreign
savings will willingly seek investment opportunities in the back ward economy of
Greece. So far, most American and other foreign attempt have bogged down in the
Greek government’s red tape and shrewdness about small points."
Great strides have been made. As far back as 1956, expanding tourism
seemed a logical way to bring needed foreign currencies and additional jobs to
Greece. At that time I talked with the Hilton Hotel people, who had been
examining hotel possibilities, and to the Greek government division responsible
for this area of the economy. They were hopelessly deadlocked in almost total
differences of opinion and outlook. Today most of the incredibly
varied, beautiful, historical sights of Greece have new, if in many cases
modest, tourist facilities, Tourism itself has jumped from approximately＄31
million to over ＄90 million. There is both a magnificent new Hilton Hotel in
Athens and a completely modernized, greatly expanded Grande Bretagne, as well as
other first-rate new hotels. And the advent of jets has made Athens as
accessible as Paris or Rome—without the sky-high prices of traffic-choked
streets of either. Greece imports annually goods and materials ______.
A．totaling almost ＄700 million B．that balance exports C．that are paid by tourists D．costing ＄66 million