The Venizelists had scant measure of sympathy, and still less of
confidence; and when their first chance to fight was at last given them,
they were allowed to face the foe only after elaborate precautions had
been taken against everything, from incompetence and cowardice on their
part to open treachery. That this was the fault neither of themselves
nor of their Allies, and had only come about through the perfidy of a
King to whom they no longer swore fealty, did not make the shame of it
much easier to bear for an army of spirited volunteers who had risked
their all for a chance to wipe out the dishonor of their country.
[Sidenote: Spies sent in the guise of deserters.]
The thing that for a while made it so difficult for the Allies to know
what to do with the Venizelist army was the almost ridiculous ease with
which, under the peculiar circumstances of its recruitment, it lent
itself to spying purposes. All the Royalists, or their German
paymasters, had to do to establish a spy in the Saloniki area was to
send over one of their Intelligence Officers in the guise of a deserter
from the Greek army to that of Venizelos, and there he was! To send back
information, or even to return in person, across the but partially
patrolled "Neutral Zone" was scarcely more difficult, and it was the
wholesale way in which this sort of thing went on that made it so hard
for the Allies to decide just who the bona fide Venizelists were, and
just how far it would be safe to trust a force to which the enemy still
had such ready means of access.
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