Entente démarche in Athens, Sofia and Bucharest

The British chronology of the war records under 5 December 1914 a joint démarche by the Entente powers in Athens, Sofia and Bucharest, intended to secure help for Serbia. The available sources do not make it possible to establish exactly what was presented that day in the three capitals. They do, however, make it possible to reconstruct the aim of these efforts. Since November the diplomats of France, Great Britain and Russia had been trying to induce Greece to give Serbia military help, Romania to guarantee peace in the Balkans, and Bulgaria to maintain at least a benevolent neutrality.

Serbia in need

At the beginning of December Serbia’s situation seemed critical. Under the pressure of the third Austro-Hungarian offensive the Serbian army had given up Belgrade without a fight, and General Potiorek’s troops entered the city on 2 December. The Serbs were short of ammunition, and their allies were far away. Russia was fighting in Poland and Galicia, and France and Great Britain had no troops at all in the Balkans. Help could come only from Serbia’s neighbours. On 3 December the Serbs went over to the counter-offensive on the Kolubara, but in the Entente capitals it could not yet be known how it would end.

Three capitals, three problems

The key was Greece. In June 1913 it had concluded a defensive alliance with Serbia, directed above all against Bulgaria. The prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, sympathised with the Entente but consistently refused to send troops to help the Serbs. According to Greek documents, when at the beginning of November the ministers of France, Great Britain and Russia supported in Athens the Serbian request for help, Venizelos explained that a march of the Greek army northwards would expose the country to attack by Bulgaria, and perhaps also by Turkey. Before the Greeks reached the battlefield in northern Serbia, the Bulgarians could cut them off from the Serbs. Venizelos would agree to help Serbia if Bulgaria joined Greece and Romania, or at least if Romania guaranteed its neutrality.

Hence the second target of the Entente’s efforts, Bucharest. Romania, which in 1913 had taken Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria, was the only state capable of restraining the Bulgarians with the threat of a blow from the north. The prime minister, Ion I. C. Brătianu, gave assurances of goodwill towards the Entente but avoided binding commitments.

The third target was Sofia. Bulgaria, humiliated by its defeat in the Second Balkan War, wanted above all to recover Macedonia, which Serbia and Greece had divided between themselves in 1913. The government of Vasil Radoslavov leaned towards the Central Powers, but officially remained neutral and waited for the best offer. According to studies based on Bulgarian and Romanian documents, on 24 November the Entente promised Bulgaria compensation for benevolent neutrality, though only after the war. On 9 December its ministers presented in Sofia a joint verbal note in which they held out the prospect of gains in eastern Thrace, up to the Midia–Enos line, and “just” acquisitions in Macedonia. The démarche of 5 December was probably one of the stages of these efforts.

No result

The Entente’s efforts came to nothing. Serbia would not hear of giving up Macedonia, won at the cost of two wars, and Greece had no intention of moving without a Romanian guarantee. Bulgaria remained neutral, and in mid-December Radoslavov argued in parliament that for neutrality alone the country could obtain only minor concessions. The urgency of the matter soon diminished, however, because the Serbs themselves defeated Potiorek’s armies on the Kolubara and by mid-December had driven them out of the country.

The Entente returned to the matter in January 1915, when the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, promised Greece gains on the coast of Asia Minor in return for help to Serbia, counting at the same time on an agreement with Bulgaria over Macedonia. This attempt also failed. The rivalry over Macedonia, which had divided the Balkan states in 1913, proved stronger than their common fear of Austria-Hungary. In the autumn of 1915 Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers and, together with them, attacked Serbia.