The World War and What was Behind It; Or, The Story of the Map of EuropeBénézet, Louis Paul
History
The World War and What was Behind It; Or, The Story of the Map of Europe
Bénézet, Louis Paul
Europe -- History; World War, 1914-1918 -- Causes
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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