Greece rejects the Smyrna offer

The British chronology of the war records under 14 April 1915 that the Greek government rejected the offer of the Entente, which two days earlier had promised Greece Smyrna and its hinterland in return for taking part in the war against Turkey. Strictly speaking, Athens did not say “no”. That day, 1 April by the Julian calendar, the foreign minister Georgios Zografos sent the Greek minister in Paris a proposal of its own from the government of Dimitrios Gounaris. Greece was ready to enter the war, but on terms the Entente had no intention of accepting. In practice this meant rejecting the offer in the form in which it had been made.

The Greek conditions

The most important condition concerned the security of Greece itself. The Allies were to give a formal guarantee of the integrity of its territory for the duration of the war and for some time after it ended. In return Greece would enter the war against Turkey with all its land and naval forces. The aim of the war was to be the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, because without it, it was argued, the Greeks would not be able to hold Smyrna. The Entente was also to specify exactly the territorial gains, as well as the financial aid and supplies of equipment that would allow Greece to wage the war effectively.

The military details were to be settled by the general staffs in a separate convention. The Greeks stipulated, however, that as long as Bulgaria stayed out of the war, their army would not operate outside European Turkey. In an explanatory note added a few days later at the request of the general staff, they went further. The Allies would have to field enough troops so that, together with the Greeks, they would equal the combined forces of Turkey and Bulgaria, and the Greek army would operate west of the Gallipoli peninsula. It could support the Allies on the peninsula itself, but only after their troops had landed there.

Fear of Bulgaria

Behind the demand for a guarantee lay fear of Bulgaria. For months the Entente had been courting it to enter the war and was ready to pay for this with lands won by Serbia and Greece in the Balkan Wars. In January, in response to the British offer, the then prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos had himself proposed to the king that Kavala be given to the Bulgarians. King Constantine I and the new government would not hear of it. At first they considered making Bulgaria’s simultaneous entry into the war a condition of Greek participation. When it turned out that Sofia was making unacceptable demands, they replaced this condition with a guarantee of the borders.

The Entente stays silent

The Allies did not reply officially. At the end of April the French foreign minister Théophile Delcassé told the Greek minister unofficially that since Athens saw the Dardanelles question differently from the Allies, an agreement was impossible and discussion pointless. The operation was by then going ahead without the Greeks, for on 25 April British and French troops had landed at Gallipoli. In May the Greeks still tried to negotiate, offering the participation of the fleet alone. Delcassé, however, demanded entry without conditions, and the President of France, Raymond Poincaré, explained to the king’s brother, Prince George, that the powers would not make a formal commitment so as not to alienate the Bulgarians, who would then regard Kavala as lost. The talks collapsed.

The Greek fears proved justified. At the end of May Athens learned that the Entente was promising Bulgaria Greek and Serbian lands, and on 3 August the British minister in Sofia formally offered Kavala to the Bulgarians. Bulgaria could not be bought anyway. In the autumn of 1915 it entered the war on the side of the Central Powers and attacked Serbia.