Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/344

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GREELY, A. W.

Accordingly' a conference of the three Powers (England, France and Italy) met in London on Feb. 21 1921, and was attended by two Turkish delegations from Constantinople and Angora, while Greece was represented by M. Kalogeropoulos, who had become prime minister on Feb. 7. The two Turkish delegations coalesced with dignity, the Constantinople delegate retiring to bed and leaving the Turkish case in the hands of the Nationalist delegate from Angora. M. Kalogeropoulos, on the other hand, violently rejected semi-official attempts to persuade him to cooperate in defending the treaty with M. Venizelos, who had come to London in order to plead in his private capacity against the penalization of the Greek people. The Supreme Council first proposed that an Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry should be sent out to investigate the racial and other problems involved in the questions of Thrace and Smyrna. This proposal having been rejected by Greece, the Conference (March 12) submitted to the delegates its own proposals for modifying the treaty. These, while leaving the Greeks undisturbed in Thrace, strengthened the Turkish position in Constantinople and made certain financial concessions to the Turks; while for Smyrna they proposed a complicated regime of which the principal provisions were the following: the vilayet of Smyrna was to remain under Turkish sovereignty; a Greek garrison would remain in Smyrna, but elsewhere order was to be maintained by a gendarmerie under Allied officers and recruited in proportion to the numbers and distribution of the population in each district as reported by an Inter- Allied Commission; the same proportional arrangement would apply to the administration; and a Christian governor would be appointed by the League of Nations with an elective assembly and council. No definite replies to these proposed modifications of the treaty were received from either party; but on March 24 the Greeks opened an offensive against the Nationalist position, and before the end of the month had seized the important railway junctions of Afiun Kara Hissar and Eski- shehr on the line to Angora. North-west of Eskishehr, however, they were heavily defeated (April 2), and after losing 4,000 killed and wounded were compelled to retreat all along the line to their old positions. The reverse was not surprising, as on the eve of the offensive the Government had removed from their commands all the higher officers of Venizelist senti- ments and replaced them by Royalists. On April 7 Gounares, who had visited London and Paris during the last days of the Conference, became prime minister. At the same time the centenary of the independence of the Greek kingdom was rather gloomily celebrated (April 7) and was marked by the can- onization of the Patriarch Gregory V.

The new Chamber, which had met on Feb. i and declared itself a national constituent assembly, was a very representative collection of all the reactionary elements which had been swept out of Greek politics in 1910; indeed, some of the most prominent figures in it had not been heard of since 1897. After voting a large increase in the King's civil list as well as all the arrears of the pension promised him in 1917 it spent most of its time in denouncing such traces as were left of the Venizelist " tyranny," including the introduction into the national schools of the popular or demotic language. M. Gounares had on his programme many ambitious proposals for the revision of the constitution provid- ing for women's votes; for an industrial council of not more than 200 representatives of legally organized trades to advise the Legislature on social and economic questions and draw up bills for submission to the Government and Chamber; for a plebiscite to be held under certain conditions on the demand of king, Chamber or a fixed number of citizens; for a " service " Govern- ment of permanent civil servants, etc., to carry out elections after a dissolution, etc. He was also said to be contemplating decen- tralization in local government in the direction of provincial (monarchical) autonomy. But at the end of May the National Assembly was still discussing generous proposals for the com- pensation of all those who had suffered for political reasons since 1917. The Treasury was empty; but the spirits of the populace, who had begun to get uneasy at the continual postponement of the new offensive, the depreciation of the exchange and the rise in the cost of living, were maintained by a mendacious propa- ganda, one of the favourite legends of which was that England was secretly helping King Constantine in his war against Turkey with supplies of money, and munitions, and even with army and fleet. On May 20 the British, French and Italian High Commissioners in Constantinople proclaimed the strict neutral- ity during the Greco-Turkish " state of war " of all districts in their military occupation (i.e. the " Zone of the Straits "). But some colour was lent to these Athenian rumours at the beginning of June when British relations with the Nationalists of Angora were severely strained; and on June n (anniversary of the fall of Constantinople and death of Constantine Palaeologus in 1453) King Constantine left for the Smyrna front amid a frenzy of hysterical flattery, hailed by the Government press as emperor designate of Constantinople and as commander of the Anglo-Greek forces in the Near East.

Soon afterwards the Powers made another attempt to tran- quillize Asia Minor before the Greek offensive should open. On June 21 the ministers of the three Powers handed the Greek Government a note in which they offered their " friendly services to prevent the reopening of hostilities in the Near East and to secure an honourable and lasting peace." Four days later the Greek Government, after consultations with the King at Smyrna, replied that Greece, while thanking " her great Allies " for their offer of mediation, could not postpone the offensive as by imposing the terms of the Treaty of Sevres she was only continuing the task undertaken in conjunction with " her great Allies " during the war, and that the Turkish question could only be solved by force of arms. On June 28 the Greek forces evacu- ated Nikomeeia (Izmid), and the offensive finally opened on July 19. After a few days the Greek army had again seized Eskishehr and Afiun Kara Hissar as well as Kutahia. A month later they had reached Sivri Hissar, within 60 m. of Angora, but a check came at the end of August, and in September both sides had fought themselves to a standstill.

AUTHORITIES. I. General: Kenneth Brown, Constantine, King and Traitor (1917); D. J. Cassavetti, Hellas and the Balkan Wars (1914); S. B. Chester, Life of Venizelos (1921); Walter Christmas, King George of Greece (1914); L. Maccas, Ainsi Parla Venizelos (1917) and other works; J. A. R. Marriott, The Eastern Question (1918) ; P. F. Martin, Greece of the Twentieth Century (1913) ; William Miller, The Ottoman Empire 1801-1913 (1913) ; H. Morgenthau, Secrets of the Bosphorus (1919) ; R. Rankin, The Inner History of the Balkan Wars (1914); Arnold J. Toynbee, Greece (1915); E. Venizelos and others (speeches by), Vindication of Greek National Policy (1919). Handbooks prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office on Greece, Macedonia and The Eastern Question (1920); Handbook on Greece prepared by the Geographical Section of the Naval Intelligence Division at the Admiralty (1920) ; Greek " White Books " (AtirXajjuarmA "Eyypaa, 2 vols., 1917). II. Economic: A. Andreades, Les Finances de la Grece (1915), Les Progres economiques de la Grece (1919); H. Lefeuvre-Meaulle, La Grece economique et financiere (1916); Th. Lekatsas, Les Finances de la Grece pendant la guerre (1919); P. Papageorgiou, Agricultural Greece (1905) ; E. Tsouderos, Le Relevement economique de la Grece (1919). Diplomatic and consular reports issued by H.M. Stationery Office; annual and monthly Statistical Bulletins issued by the Greek Ministries of Finance, National Economy and Agriculture.

(J. N. M.*)

GREELY, ADOLPHUS WASHINGTON (1844- ), American soldier, was born at Newburyport, Mass., March 27 1844. He graduated from the Newburyport high school in 1860 and on the outbreak of the Civil War entered the army as a private, rising to major of volunteers. In 1867 he was appointed second lieutenant in the regular army and the following year became associated with the Signal Service. In 1873 he became first lieutenant. In 1881 he was chosen by President Garfield to establish in Lady Franklin Bay one of the 13 circumpolar stations recommended by the International Geographical Con- gress held in Hamburg in 1879. Setting out in the summer of 1881 with a party of 25, he penetrated farther north than had any previous explorer, reaching 83 24' N. and 42 45' W. in 1882. Two relief expeditions failed to reach his party, which returned south to Cape Sabine in dire straits. Only seven were alive when finally rescued in the summer of 1884 by a third expedition under Capt. Winfield Scott Schley. Lt. Greely received medals