British Secret Service During the Great WarEveritt, Nicholas
History
British Secret Service During the Great War
Everitt, Nicholas
Secret service -- Great Britain; World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- Great Britain
"As a matter of fact, the Treaty was much more comprehensive than
is generally supposed. Under its provisions the _casus foederis_
arises not merely in the event of a Bulgarian attack on Serbia, but
also of an attack from any other quarter also; and therefore
Greece, in not coming to Serbia's aid against Austria-Hungary in
1914, had already broken her pledge. Hence Sir Edward Grey, who
must have been well aware of this fact, was surely running a very
grave risk when he relied upon Greek constancy in a situation which
his own diplomatic failures had rendered infinitely less
favourable. On September 23rd Bulgaria mobilised against Serbia;
yet on September 27th Sir Edward Grey practically vetoed Serbia's
proposal to take advantage of her own military preparedness and to
attack Bulgaria before she could be ready. Next day (September
28th) in the House of Commons he uttered his famous pledge that, in
the event of Bulgarian aggression, 'We are prepared to give to our
friends in the Balkans all the support in our power, in the manner
that would be most welcome to them, in concert with our Allies
without reserve and without qualification.' At the moment everyone
in England, and above all in Serbia, took this to mean that we were
going to send Serbia the military help for which she was
clamouring; but on November 3rd Sir Edward Grey explained to an
astonished world that he merely meant to convey that after Bulgaria
had joined Germany 'there would be no more talk of concessions from
Greece or Serbia.' The _naïveté_ which could prompt such an
explanation is only equalled by the confusion of mind which could
read this interpretation into a phrase so explicit and unequivocal.
Greece's failure in her Treaty obligations towards Serbia alone
saved Britain from the charge of failure to fulfil her pledge to
Greece. Nothing can exonerate Greece's desertion of her ally, but
in view of our tergiversation and irresolution, some allowance must
be made for King Constantine's attitude towards the Entente. Sir
Edward Grey, throwing to the winds all his public pledges to
Serbia, definitely urged upon the French Generalissimo complete
withdrawal from Salonica and the abandonment of the Serbs to their
fate. General Joffre replied with the historic phrase: 'You are
deserting us on the field of battle and we shall have to tell the
world.' General Joffre carried his point, and in the biting phrase
of Sir Edward Carson, 'the Government decided that what was too
late three weeks before was in time three weeks after.' But those
three weeks, which might have transformed the fortune of the
campaign, had been irretrievably lost through Sir Edward Grey's
lack of a Balkan policy. Even then our hesitation continued. In
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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