Venizelos becomes Prime Minister of Greece again

On the afternoon of Sunday 22 August 1915 the new government of Eleftherios Venizelos was sworn in before King Constantine I. So the Italian minister in Athens reported to Rome. Greek lists give the start of the cabinet’s term as 10 August by the Julian calendar, which Greece then used, that is, 23 August by ours. Whatever this one-day discrepancy, it marked the return to power of a politician who less than six months earlier had resigned when the King rejected his plan for Greek participation in the Dardanelles operation.

A long wait

Venizelos’s Liberals won the election of 13 June 1915 (31 May by the Julian calendar), taking, according to most studies, 187 of the 316 seats. Their victory was secured above all by Crete, Epirus, the Aegean islands and “Old Greece”. In Greek Macedonia they lost, because the minorities there voted en masse for Venizelos’s opponents. The government of Dimitrios Gounaris nevertheless remained in power for another two months. The official reason was the grave illness of the King, who in the spring had fallen ill with pleurisy complicated by pneumonia and for several weeks was close to death. Without his signature neither could the chamber be convened nor a new government appointed. Venizelos’s supporters suspected that the delay suited the court.

During this time Gounaris continued the policy of neutrality. On 3 August the Entente ministers informed him of the offer made to Bulgaria, which was to receive part of Macedonia, and announced “pressure” on Greece to cede Kavala to the Bulgarians. The Greek press received this with indignation, and the government replied with a note that the Allies considered sharp and full of complaints about the violation of the country’s independence.

On 16 August the new parliament finally met. The Venizelist candidate for Speaker received 182 votes, the government candidate 93. Gounaris at once announced the cabinet’s resignation. The next day the King entrusted Venizelos with forming a government, and Venizelos asked for four or five days to consider.

Money and conditions

Venizelos used this time for talks with the British. The Greek treasury was empty and, according to the Italian minister, the Liberal leader hesitated whether to take power at all without assured sources of money. He therefore asked the British minister, Francis Elliot, whether Britain would help Greece financially. The answer from London was positive, but with reservations. The help could not come at once, so as not to alarm Bulgaria, with which the Entente was still negotiating. Edward Grey also set two conditions: Greece was to undertake that the Aegean islands would no longer serve as bases for German submarines, and not to close the way to talks about Kavala for good. Venizelos considered this sufficient.

The new government was an almost exact reproduction of the cabinet that had left office in March. Venizelos also kept the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for himself. The most important change was the appointment of General Panagiotis Danglis, deputy for Ioannina and one of the best Greek commanders, to the War Ministry. It was said in Athens that in return for being given power Venizelos had accepted the King’s conditions: the maintenance of neutrality and of the inviolability of Greek territory. The Italian minister could not confirm this, though he thought it likely. In those days Venizelos kept complete silence about his intentions.

A month and a half

Venizelos’s second government lasted less than seven weeks. In September Bulgaria announced mobilisation, and Venizelos, invoking the 1913 alliance with Serbia, brought about the mobilisation of the Greek army and agreed to the landing of Entente troops at Salonika. The King decided that the Prime Minister had gone too far, and at the beginning of October forced him to resign for the second time in a year. The conflict between the two strongest personalities of Greek politics flared up again.