to have occurred at the end of June at Aidin, where the Turks had burned the Greek quarter and murdered many of the inhabitants, gave rise in ensuing discussions of the Turkish solution to very severe criticisms of Greek capacity for ruling a mixed population. When the Supreme Council met in London in Feb. 1920 the presentation of the Greek case was opposed by a strong Moslem propaganda, while the Turkish irregular armed forces in Asia Minor, retreating beyond the limits set by the Supreme Council to the Greek army of occupation, were developed by Mustafa Kemal Pasha into a Turkish Nationalist movement definitely hostile to the Allies; and after the Supreme Council had announced (Feb. 21) their decision to allow the Sultan to remain in Constantinople, where -he would be more amenable to Allied persuasion, the Turkish authorities professed to be unable to control Kemal, who declared his independence and established an Anatolian Government at Angora.
At a further conference at San Remo the Allies completed the draft of the treaty and handed it to the Turkish delegates (May n), and at the beginning of July at another conference at Spa Venizelos received from the Supreme Council a mandate for the Greek army to restore order in the whole north-western district of Asia Minor, beyond the frontiers of the Smyrna district, as well as in Thrace, where similar disorders had arisen. The Greek army occupied Thrace and entered Adrianople on July 25. " Venizelos -expressed the opinion," said Mr. Lloyd George in the House of Commons (July 21), " that he would be able to clear up the whole neighbourhood between Smyrna and the Dardanelles in 15 days. . . . The Greek troops, well organized and admirably led . . . did so in 10 days."
Treaty of Sevres. The business-like way in which the Greek army carried out this mandate was held to justify the terms of the Treaty of Sevres, finally signed on Aug. 19, by which the whole of Turkish Thrace from Adrianople up to Chatalja and Derkos, within 20 m. of Constantinople, including Gallipoli and the northern shore of the sea of Marmora (subject to an International C6mmission which was to control the zone of the Straits), was definitely ceded to Greece; together with the islands of Tenedos and Imbros and all the Aegean islands already in Greek occupation; the Smyrna district with its hinterland was placed under Greek administration, with provision for the exhibition of a nominal symbol of Turkish sovereignty, and subject to the rule of a local parliament, elected by prjportional representation, on the demand of which after five years the territory might be definitely incorporated in the Greek kingdom; while Rhodes and the other islands of the Dodecanese were ceded to Italy, but transferred to Greece by a Greco-Italian convention signed on the same day and incorporating the terms of the Venizelos-Tittoni agreement.
After thus concluding his diplomatic labours Venizelos was leaving Paris (Aug. 12 1920) when an attempt to assassinate him was made by two ex-officers of the Greek navy (Tserepes and Kyriakos). The crime was reasonably suspected to have been instigated by King Constantine's propaganda; it was extolled as a glorious tyrannicide by the Royalist press. When the news reached Athens the mob broke loose and looted the houses of many anti-Venizelist politicians, with the connivance of the police, who were also responsible for the brutal murder, after his precautionary arrest, of M. Ion Dragoumes; and although Venizelos telegraphed his horror at the crime he failed, after his return to Athens, publicly to censure the Government for their negligence.
Fall of Venizelos, During his absence from the country Venizelos had left as vice-president of the Council his Minister of the Interior, M. Repoules. With the growing pressure of public affairs, however, Venizelos had become separated from any healthy contact with the community at home. Often, too, he was unfortunate in his choice of administrative subordinates. A mendacious propaganda was kept up by King Constantine's agents that the people were being persecuted and oppressed; and their attempts to stir up seditions and conspiracies made it impossible to relax any of the stringent measures of censorship which gave colour to the tale. Venizelos had attempted in May to
repeal some of the provisions of martial law, retaining only those measures strictly necessitated by the state of war in Asia Minor, but had quickly been obliged to revoke the concession. Meanwhile, the country districts suffered even more severely than the towns under the burden of mobilization, from which they had known little release since 1912. When Venizelos returned to Greece, and presented to the Chamber (Sept. 7) the three treaties with Turkey, Bulgaria and Italy, he was, indeed, unanimously thanked as the saviour of his country, and was able to announce that on the imminent dissolution of the Chamber all restrictions of civil liberty would be abolished, so that the elections in the autumn should be held under constitutional conditions. He only made the condition that the return of King Constantine should not become an issue. The opposition, whose strength Venizelos unduly neglected, consisted of a coalition of prominent politicians united only by their hatred of himself. The situation was changed by the death of King Alexander, from the bite of a monkey, on Oct. 25. At a special session (Oct. 28) of the Chamber dissolved on Sept. 23, the Government advised the election as regent of Adml. Koun- touriotes and the offer of the crown to Prince Paul, Con- stantine's third son, whom they regarded as the only consti- tutional successor. Prince Paul replied that " the Throne does not belong to me; it belongs to my august father King Con- stantine and constitutionally my eldest brother is his suc- cessor. Neither of them has ever renounced his rights. . . . I would only ascend the Throne if the Hellenic people were to decide that it did not want the return of my august father, and were to exclude the Crown Prince George from his right of succession"; and then it became clear that the restoration of Constantine must be the real issue at the general election fixed for Nov. 14. The Opposition jumped at the heaven-sent election cry, while Venizelos was content to announce that if defeated he would retire from public life. The result came as a surprise to both parties. Only 120 Liberals were elected as against 246 members of the Opposition (and four Independents); and although the result failed to represent the real strength of the Venizelists in the country (it was calculated that proportional representation would have returned 200 Venizelists) and they still remained the larger single party in the Chamber, it was impossible to minimize the catastrophic nature of their downfall. Venizelos immediately resigned, and with many of his ministers and officials left the country, and a Government was formed by the aged Demetrius Ralli, which entrusted the regency to the Dowager Queen Olga (who had come to Athens for the funeral).
Return of Constantine. On Dec. 5 a plebiscite was held on the question of the return of King Constantine, from which the Liberals decided to abstain, announcing that they were content loyally to abide by the result of the election. The British, French and Italian Governments issued a proclamation re- minding the Greek people that the actions of King Constantine had been hostile to the Allies and " reserving to themselves complete liberty in dealing with the situation "if he were re- called. Nevertheless, 999,954 votes out of 1,013,724 were said to have been cast in favour of the King's return. King Con- stantine, with his Queen and retainers, returned triumphantly to Athens on Dec. 19 and was received with enthusiasm. The Allied Powers refused, however, to recognize him, and with- drew the financial assistance which Greece had been receiving. The withdrawal of Allied support was serious. Mustafa Kemal's Anatolian movement was still gaining in strength; he had estab- lished a Nationalist " Parliament " at Angora which entirely repudiated the Treaty of Sevres, and had also established communications with Russia; thus vitalized, he was threatening the French occupation in Cilicia and endangering the whole Allied arrangement in the Levant. Accordingly a strong section of Allied opinion, especially in France, seeking a quick and economic settlement, thought that Kemal should be pacified by negotiation and by concessions in Asia Minor; and that the restoration of King Constantine was an excellent pretext for revising the whole treaty (which, though signed, had not been ratified) in Turkey's favour and at the expense of Greece.
