Britain promises Mytilene to Greece

The British chronology of the war records under 25 July 1915 that the British government guaranteed Greece that Turkey would in future cede Mytilene to her. In English and in Italian this name was then used not only for the main town but for the whole island of Lesbos, lying just off the coast of Asia Minor. We have not been able to find the text of this guarantee or to establish in what form it was given. Everything suggests, however, that it was the counterpart of the promise London made in March concerning Lemnos.

An island disputed only by the Turks

Lesbos, like Lemnos, had been in Greek hands since the First Balkan War. The Greek fleet had landed troops at Mytilene in November 1912, and in February 1914 the great powers awarded Greece all the Aegean islands she had occupied except Imbros and Tenedos at the entrance to the Dardanelles. Turkey, however, never recognised this decision. The British used this to justify their use of Greek islands, although Greece remained neutral. Formally they were not violating Greek territory, merely making use of islands whose ownership the Sultan had not yet confirmed. In August the Italian minister in Athens described as sophistical the legal justification with which the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, Arthur Nicolson, explained the British presence on Mytilene. He recalled that Turkey itself had once agreed to leave the question of the islands to the decision of the great powers.

For the Greeks such an explanation was disturbing. If London treated the island as disputed Turkish territory, its fate could become an object of bargaining when the Ottoman Empire was partitioned. The guarantee was meant to dispel these fears. Britain undertook that after a victorious war Turkey would renounce the island in favour of Greece. London lost nothing by this, since it promised only formal recognition of a state of affairs that had existed for three years anyway.

A base before Suvla

The British had reasons to cultivate good relations with Athens at precisely this moment. Since June the Gulf of Gera on the south-eastern coast of Lesbos, called Port Iero by the British, had been the base for the blockade of the coast of Asia Minor. With the consent of the Greek authorities an airfield was set up there, and a seaplane carrier lay in the harbour. In July the island became even more important. The British were preparing a great new offensive on Gallipoli with a landing at Suvla Bay, and transports carrying part of the 10th (Irish) Division arrived at Mytilene. According to the British official history six battalions waited here aboard ship, going ashore every day for route marches. This was also meant to convince the Turks that the Allies were preparing a landing on the Asian coast, in the area of the Gulf of Edremit.

Athens was then governed by Dimitrios Gounaris, whose cabinet the Entente considered unfriendly. The June elections had been won by the party of Eleftherios Venizelos, but King Constantine I delayed entrusting him with power, which happened only in August. For London it was important that no Greek government should protest against the Allied presence on the islands.

Aftermath

Lesbos remained an Allied base throughout the war. In the autumn Venizelos even suggested it as a staging point for Entente troops bound for Salonika. Its ownership was settled only by the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, in which Turkey recognised Greek sovereignty over Lesbos and the other Aegean islands.