Greece (6)

At the close of the second war, when Bulgaria, attacked by five
nations at once, had to make peace as best she could, the Greeks took
advantage of her by insisting on taking, not only Salonika but also
Kavala, which by all rights should have gone to the Bulgars. Venizelos
was willing to be generous to Bulgaria, but the Greeks had had their
heads turned by the extraordinary successes of their armies over the
Turks and Bulgarians and as a result insisted upon being greedy when
it came to a division of the conquered lands.

Let us return now to events in Greece after the world war had begun:
In March, 1915, when the great fleets of France and England made their
violent attack on the forts of the Dardanelles, intending to break
through and bombard Constantinople, Venizelos was eager to have Greece
join the conflict against the Turks. He felt sure that Turkey, in the
end, would lose the war and that her territory in Europe would be
divided up among the conquering nations. He wanted to get for Greece
the shores of the Dardanelles and the coast of Asia Minor, where a
great majority of the inhabitants were people of Greek blood. The king
of Greece, Constantine, as has been explained, is a brother-in-law of
the German Kaiser and has always been friendly to Germany. He and
Venizelos had been good friends while both were working for the
upbuilding of Greece, but a little incident happened shortly after the
Balkan wars which led to a coolness between them.

King Constantine, while on a visit to Berlin, stood up at a banquet
and told the Kaiser and the German generals that the fine work of the
Greek soldiers in the two wars just fought had been due to help which
he had received from German military men. This statement angered the
French very much, for you will remember that it was French generals
who had trained the Greek army officers. Venizelos, very shortly after
this, made a trip to Paris and there publicly stated that all credit
for the fine condition of the Greek army was due to the Frenchmen who
had trained its officers before the war of 1912. This was a direct
"slap in the face" of the king but it was the truth and everyone in
Greece knew it. From this time on it was evident to everybody that
Venizelos was friendly to the French and English, while the King was
pro-German.

Accordingly, in March, 1915, when Venizelos urged the Greek government
to join the war on Turkey, the king refused to give the order.
Venizelos, who was prime minister, straightway resigned, broke up the
parliament, and ordered a general election. This put the case squarely
up to the people of Greece and they answered by electing to the Greek
parliament one hundred eighty men friendly to Venizelos and the Triple
Entente as against one hundred forty who were opposed to entering the
war.

Venizelos, once more prime minister as a result of this election,
ordered the Greek army to be mobilized. At this time the fear was that
Bulgaria, in revenge for 1913, would join the war on the side of the
Germans and Turks and attack Greece in the rear. In order to keep
peace with Bulgaria Venizelos was willing to give to her the port of
Kavala, which Greece had cheated her out of at the close of the second
Balkan war. He felt that his country would gain so much by annexing
Greek territory now under the rule of the Turks that she could afford
to give up this seaport, whose population was largely Bulgarian.
Constantine opposed this, however, and the majority of the Greeks, not
being as far-sighted as their prime minister, backed the king. When
the attack by the Central Powers on Serbia took place, as has been
told, Venizelos a second time tried to get the Greek government to
join the war on the side of France and England. He said plainly to the
king that the treaty between Greece and Serbia was not a "scrap of
paper" as the German Chancellor had called the treaty with Belgium,
but a solemn promise entered into by both sides with a full
understanding of what it meant. The king, on the other hand, insisted
that the treaty had to do with Bulgaria alone and that it was not
intended to drag Greece into a general European war. As a result, he
dismissed Venizelos a second time, in spite of the fact that twice, by
their votes, the Greeks had shown that they approved of his policy.

Now Greece is a limited monarchy. By the terms of the constitution the
king must obey the will of the people as shown by the votes of a
majority of the members of parliament. In spite of the vote of
parliament the king refused to stand by the Serbian treaty. From this
time on he was violating the law of his country and ruling as a czar
instead of a monarch with very little power, as the Greek constitution
had made him.

Things went from bad to worse. In the meantime the French and English
had landed at Salonika in order to rush to the aid of the hard-pressed
Serbs. You have already been told how Venizelos arranged this. Their
aid, however, had come too late. Before they could reach the gallant
little Serbian army it had been crushed between the Austrians and
Germans on one side and the Bulgarians on the other, and its survivors
had fled across the mountains to the coast of Albania. The French and
English detachments were not strong enough to stand against the
victorious armies of Germany, Austria, and Bulgaria. They began to
retreat through southern Serbia. King Constantine notified the Allied
governments that if these troops retreated upon Greek soil he would
send his army to surround them and hold them as prisoners for the rest
of the war. France and England replied by notifying him that if he did
this they would blockade the ports of Greece and prevent any ships
from entering her harbors. This act on the part of France and England,
while it seemed necessary, nevertheless angered the proud Greeks and
strengthened the pro-German party in Athens. The king took advantage
of this feeling to appoint a number of pro-Germans to important
positions in the government. Constantine allowed German submarines to
use certain ports in Greece as bases of supply from which they got
their oil and provisions. The Greek army was still mobilized, and the
small force of French and English, which had retreated to Salonika,
were afraid that at any moment they might receive a stab in the back
by order of the Greek king.