Greece and the Allies | Page 6

attitude of Greece in face of Servia's
war with Austria, M. Venizelos pointed out, corresponded absolutely
with the attitude which Servia had taken up in face of Greece's recent
crisis with Turkey.[3] On that occasion Greece had obtained from her
ally merely moral support, the view taken being that the casus faederis
would arise only in the event of Bulgarian intervention.[4]
Accordingly, when the Servian Government asked if it could count on
armed assistance from Greece, M. Streit, Minister for Foreign Affairs
under M. Venizelos, answered that the Greek Government was
convinced that it fully performed its duty as a friend and ally by
adopting, until Bulgaria moved, a policy of most benevolent neutrality.
The co-operation of Greece in the war with Austria, far from helping,
would harm Servia; by becoming a belligerent Greece could only offer
her ally forces negligible compared with the enemy's, while she would
inevitably expose Salonica, the only port through which Servia could
obtain war material, to an Austrian attack; and, moreover, she would
weaken her army which, in the common interest, ought to be kept intact
as a check on Bulgaria.[5]
A similar communication, emphasizing the decision to keep out of the

conflict, and to intervene in concert with Rumania only should Bulgaria
by intervening against Servia jeopardize the status quo established by
the Bucharest Treaty--in which case the action of Greece would have a
purely Balkan character--was made to the Greek Ministers abroad after
a Council held in the Royal Palace under the presidency of the King.[6]
This policy brought King Constantine into sharp collision with one of
the Central Powers, whose conceptions in regard to the Balkans had not
yet been harmonized. Vienna readily acquiesced in the Greek
Government's declaration that it could not permit Bulgaria to
compromise {9} the Bucharest Treaty, and since by an eventual action
against Bulgaria Greece would not quarrel with Austria, the Austrian
Government, on its part, promised to abstain from manifesting any
solidarity with Bulgaria in the event of a Graeco-Bulgarian war.[7] Not
so Berlin.
The German Emperor egotistically presumed to dictate the course
which Greece should pursue, and on 31 July he invited King
Constantine to join Germany, backing the invitation with every appeal
to sentiment and interest he could think of. The memory of his father,
who had been assassinated, made it impossible for Constantine to
favour the Servian assassins; never would Greece have a better
opportunity of emancipating herself, under the protection of the Central
Powers, from the tutelage which Russia aimed at exercising over the
Balkan Peninsula; if, contrary to the Kaiser's expectations, Greece took
the other side, she would be exposed to a simultaneous attack from
Italy, Bulgaria and Turkey, and by the same token all personal relations
between him and Constantine would be broken for ever. He ended with
the words: "I have spoken frankly, and I beg you to let me know your
decision without delay and with the same absolute frankness."
He had nothing to complain of on that score. King Constantine on 2
August replied that, while it was not the policy of Greece to take an
active part in the Austro-Servian conflict, it was equally impossible for
her "to make common cause with the enemies of the Serbs and to fall
upon them, since they are our allies. It seems to me that the interests of
Greece demand an absolute neutrality and the maintenance of the status

quo in the Balkans such as it has been created by the Treaty of
Bucharest." He went on to add that Greece was determined, in concert
with Rumania, to prevent Bulgaria from aggrandizing herself at the
expense of Servia; if that happened, the balance in the Balkans would
be upset and it would bring about the very Russian tutelage which the
Kaiser feared. "This way of thinking," he concluded, "is shared by the
whole of my people."
What the Kaiser thought of these opinions was summed up in one word
on the margin, "Rubbish." This, however, was not meant for his
brother-in-law's ears. To him he {10} used less terse language. On 4
August he informed King Constantine through the Greek Minister in
Berlin that an alliance had that day been concluded between Germany
and Turkey, that Bulgaria and Rumania were similarly ranging
themselves on Germany's side, and that the German men-of-war in the
Mediterranean were going to join the Turkish fleet in order to act
together. Thus all the Balkan States were siding with Germany in the
struggle against Slavism. Would Greece alone stand out? His Imperial
Majesty appealed to King Constantine as a comrade, as a German Field
Marshal of whom the German Army was proud, as a brother-in-law; he
reminded him that it was thanks to his support that Greece was allowed
to retain Cavalla; he begged him