Perhaps I may be
allowed to express the fervent hope that a land where so many of our
heroes lost their lives or their health; where, under the most terrible
and exacting conditions, human loyalty and human service were poured out
lavishly in a great cause, may never be allowed to become a menace to
the future peaceful development of the world. I am sure my gallant boys,
dead or living, would wish for no other or greater reward.
* * * * *
Greece, as a result of the intrigues of the pro-German king and queen,
was a thorn in the flesh to the Allies for the first years of the war.
The deposition of King Constantine, and the resumption of power of
Premier Venizelos, brought Greece back to the place where her people
wished to be.
GREECE'S ATONEMENT
LEWIS R. FREEMAN
[Sidenote: A meeting with Venizelos.]
The Venizelists had been having a bad time of it from the first, but the
blackest hours of all were those toward the end of last April, when
Constantine was still strong in Athens, and before the Saloniki Allies
had found it practicable or expedient to welcome them to a full
brotherhood of arms. It was during this "dark before the dawn" period
that I had my first meeting with M. Venizelos, a conventional half
hour's interview in the suburban villa, midway along the curve of
Saloniki Bay where the Provisional Government had established its
headquarters.
[Sidenote: The attitude of Constantine.]
I had just come up from Athens, where I had found the Allied diplomats
still smarting under the memories of their ignominious experiences
following Constantine's spectacular coup of the previous December, and
it was by no means the least of these who had told me point-blank that
he could not conceive how it would be possible that Saloniki should be
returned to Greece after the war.
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