[2] Zalocostas to Greek Ministers abroad, 12/25 March; The _Nea Himera_, 8/21 March; Exchange Tel., Athens, 16 April, 28 May, 1917.
[3] General Sarrail mentions the punishment (Sarrail, p. 235), but not the provocation. This, together with other atrocities, is the subject of a Note from M. Zalocostas to the French Minister at Athens, 9/22 March, 1917.
[4] Le Temps, 11 April, 1917; Sarrail, pp. 236-7.
[6] "La Grèce Vénizeliste," in the _Revue de Paris_, 15 Dec., 1919.
[7] Such a project is only discussed in some of the messages exchanged between Athens and Berlin in December, 1916 (_White Book_, Nos. 177, 183, 186)--before the definite acceptance of the Allies' terms by the Lambros Cabinet. But there is absolutely nothing to show that the idea ever materialised.
[9] See telegrams, dated Salonica, 29 March, published in the London Press by the Anglo-Hellenic League; letter from _The Times_ correspondent, dated Syra, 23 April, 1917, etc., etc.
[11] For details of this apocryphal scheme see a report from Salonica, dated 16 May, disseminated by the Anglo-Hellenic League; _The Times_, 8 and 30 May; the _Daily Mail_, 9 and 30 May, 1917.
[12] _The Times_, 14 May, 1917, dispatch dated Salonica 11 May.
[13] _The Hesperia_, 11, 18, 25 May, 1917.
At the end of May, M. Ribot, accompanied by M. Painlevé, Minister of War, came to London and laid before the British Government his solution. Again our allies found on this side of the Channel "_des scrupules_"; and again they set themselves to demonstrate that "_des scrupules, si légitimes soient-ils_," weigh light against interests. Even when the principle was conceded, there still lingered some disquietude regarding the practicability of bringing about the King's dethronement without bloodshed. But the French did not share this disquietude, and, after three days' hard talking, they converted the English Ministers to their point of view. It was agreed that the operation should be carried out without war. The only measures of a military nature to which the British Government consented were the establishment in Thessaly of outposts for the control of the crops, and the occupation of the Isthmus of Corinth, should King Constantine attempt to move his army out of the Peloponnesus: unless the King committed acts of hostility, no violence should be used. Having thus satisfied their conscience, the British Ministers abstained from any closer scrutiny.[1]