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The Hellenic Crisis from the Point of View of Constitutional and International Law Part III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2017
Extract
The third part of the essay on the Hellenic Crisis, which has happily received a satisfactory solution, will deal with the incidents which are connected with the law of nations and inquire as to how far the European belligerents in their dealings with Greece, and the Greek Government in its relations with them, adhered to the tenets and usages of international law.
The points to be here discussed are of a manifold character.
First, it will be examined whether the serious charge made by the Entente Powers against Constantine, the ex-King of the Hellenes, that he violated the obligations arising out of the Treaty of Alliance between Greece and Serbia, by which the two states bound themselves to assist each other for the defense of their respective territories in case of attack by a third Power, and particularly by Bulgaria, is well founded according to the letter and spirit of the instrument of alliance.
Secondly, whether the military occupation of portions of the territory of the Hellenic Kingdom by both sets of belligerents, the seizure of its war material and other public property, and particularly the coercive measures employed by the Entente Powers against the Government and people of Greece and their forcible intervention in the internal affairs of that country, can be justified either by reason of treaty stipulations or on account of the unneutral conduct of the then King and his government towards the Entente Allies. The first point to be examined is the obligation arising out of the treaty of alliance between Greece and Serbia.
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References
1 See Parts I and II in this Journal for January and April, 1917.
2 The word “King” embodied, then, the government, because the two words during the short reign of that potentate — with the exception of the interval of the Venizelos Cabinet — were synonymous. See ibid., Parts I and II.
3 This apprehension became a conviction after the sudden attack in the beginning of May, 1913, of the Bulgarians against the Greek troops stationed at Mount Panghaion in eastern Macedonia.
See Greek White Book, Document No. 5. English translation in Supplement to this Journal, p. 101.
4 English translation of texts, Greek White Book, Docs. Nos. 2 and 4, in Supplement to this Journal, pp. 89, 96.
5 English translation of texts, Greek White Book, Doc. No. 4, Supplement, p. 96.
6 Speech of Mr. Venizelos in the Bouté on October 4, 1915, in supplement to Patris, pp. 8, 9.
7 It should be noted that there was always a friendly feeling between the Serbians and Greeks (unlike that between the latter and the Bulgarians) long before the existence of the Serbian and Greek states, as is attested by the history of both countries. As a matter of fact, had it not been for the murder of the Serbian hero, Kara George, in 1817, the ancestor of the present King Peter, the Serbian people at that time would have probably participated in the war against Turkey, during the war of Greek Independence, as an agreement had been reached at Bucharest between Kara George and the agents of the Greek revolutionary committee in that city. (I. Paparregopoulos, Istoria tou Hellenikou Ethitous, 1887, Vol. V. pp. 698–699.)
In 1867 an offensive and defensive alliance was concluded between Greece and Serbia with the view of waging war against Turkey in order to liberate from the Ottoman yoke some of the Turkish provinces inhabited by Serbians and Greeks, but the plan was not carried out on account of the military weakness of both states. (0. Popovic in New Europe, No. 22, March 15, 1917, p. 267.)
This friendly feeling was continued and maintained not only between the governments and people of Greece and Serbia proper, but also between the Serbians and Greeks in the Macedonian provinces of Turkey, where during all the troublesome times of that unhappy country, they lived in perfect amity and peace.
8 See interview of the London Times correspondent with Constantine in Times of December 7, 1915; also, “apology” of his brother Nicholas on the same subject in the Temps of February 20, 1916, and in the Daily Telegraph of April 7, 1916.
9 Mr. Venizelos has repeatedly admitted the binding character of the alliance upon Greece in the present war. See particularly his interviews with the London Times correspondent in the Times, December 11, 1915, and November 21, 1916; with the editor of Eleutheros Typos quoted by the Daily Telegraph and the Morning Post, November 7,1916; his speeches in the Boulé, October 4, 1915, in supplement to Patris, pp. 7 et seq., and August 27,1917, published in the original in supplement to Patris, Eleutheros Typos, Hestia, Ethnos, and Drassis, pp. 83, et seq., and in French entitled Cinq Ans d’Histoire Grecque, 1912–1917, by Léon Maccas, pp. 1 et seq.; also speech to the Athenians on January 4, 1918, in National Herald (Greek newspaper of New York) of February 24, 1918; see also Keryx, No. 4 (Mr. Venizelos’s mouthpiece), March 27 (o.s.) 1916, and numerous other instances.
10 Greek White Book, Doc. No. 12, Supplement, p. 109.
11 Ibid., Doc. No. 14, Supplement, p. 111
12 See Greek White Book, telegram of July 20, 1914, containing instructions from Mr. Streit to Mr. Alexandropoulos, Minister of Greece at Belgrade, Doc. No. 18, Supplement, p. 114. For further evidence that Greece was firmly committed to this policy, see declaration of Mr. Streit, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece, to Chargé d’Affaires of Germany at Athens, in telegram of July, 11, 1914, (o.s.) ibid., Doc. No. 11, Supplement, p. 108; also, declaration of Mr. Theotoky, Minister of Greece at Berlin, to Von Jagow, then Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, in telegram of July 12, 1914, ibid., Doc. No. 13, Supplement, p. 110; telegram of July 15, 1914, of Mr. Streit to Mr. Theotoky, ibid., Doc. No. 16, Supplement, p. 112; telegraphic circular of August 31, 1914, containing declaration of Mr. Venizelos to the Minister of Germany at Athens, ibid., Doc. No. 26, Supplement, p. 121; communiqué of the Gounaris Cabinet in Greece of February 25, 1915, declaring that Greece will carry out her treaty, obligations, ibid., Doc. No. 28, Supplement, p. 123; telegram of February 28, 1915, from Mr. Zographos, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the latter Cabinet, to Mr. Alexandropoulos, Minister at Belgrade, instructing him to assure Serbia that Greece is attached faithfully to the Treaty of Alliance, ibid., Doc. No. 29, Supplement, p. 123; telegraphic circular of July 20, 1915, sent by Mr. Gounaris, then Premier and Minister for Foreign Affairs, to the Greek legations of both the Entente and Central Powers, ibid., Doc. No. 31, Supplement, p. 124; telegram of August 21, 1915, by Mr. Venizelos, then Prime Minister, to Mr. Theotoky, Minister at Berlin, ibid., Doc. No. 32, Supplement, p. 125.
On October 18, 1914, Mr. Theotoky, the Minister of Greece at Berlin, in a dispatch to Mr. Venizelos, gave an account of an interview he had with Mr. Zimmermann, then Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs of Germany, who advised Greece not to intervene in the war even if Bulgaria attacked Serbia. In reply to the observation of Mr. Theotoky that Greece was bound to Serbia by a treaty of alliance, Mr. Zimmermann, in imitation of Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg’s famous expression “scrap of paper,” told the Greek Minister that treaties had very little value at the present time. Ibid., Doc. No. 27, Supplement, p. 122.
13 Ibid., telegraphic circular dated August 31, 1914, to the Ministers of Greece, accredited to the Entente Powers and to Roumania, Doc. No. 26, Supplement, p. 121.
14 See speech of Mr. Venizelos of October 4, 1914, in supplement to Patris, pp. 9–10; also “Greece in Her True Light,” speeches of Mr. Venizelos translated by Mr. Socrates A. Xanthaky and Nicholas G. Sakellarios, pp. 49 et seq.
15 See on this point, view of a British correspondent in “ Light on the Balkan Darkness “ by W. H. Crawfurd Price, p. 19.
16 See this Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, January, 1917, pp. 68–69.
17 Greek White Book, Doc. No. 26, above quoted.
18 Supplement to Patris, pp. 9 et seq.
19 Greek White Book, Doc. No. 30, Supplement, p. 124.
20 The deciphered telegrams discovered in Athens after Constantine’s departure leave no doubt about his guilt.
21 See this Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, January, 1917, p. 69.
22 Greek White Book, Doc. No. 34, Supplement, p. 126
23 Greek White Book, Doe. No. 34, Supplement, p. 126.
24 Greek White Book, Doc. No. 38, Supplement, p. 130.
25 Supplement to the newspaper Patris, speeches of Mr. Venizelos during the sittings of the Boule’ on October 4, 1915, pp. 6, et seq; also English translation of speech on “Greece in Her True Light,” by Socrates A. Xanthaky and Nicholas G. Sakellarios, pp. 49, et seq.
26 Greek White Book, Doc. No. 18, Supplement, p. 114.
27 See speech of Mr. Repoulis in Boulé, in supplement to Patris, etc., etc., 1917, p. 39; also in Cinq Ans d’Histoire Grecque (speech of Mr. Repoulis in French), p. 183.
That was evidently the reason why King Constantine and his Germanophile General Staff were moving heaven and earth, so to say, to persuade the people in Greece that it was contrary to the interests of the country to lay any claim to the coast of Asia Minor because under no circumstances did they wish to counteract the colonial plans of the Hohenzollern family.
The following incident, which was related to the present writer by a trustworthy person, shows that the royal family in Greece was working all the time for the King of Prussia. Queen Sophie visited at one time a mess room where Greek refugees from Asia Minor were served their meals at the public expense. The Queen, approaching the refugees, told them that now that the Germans were in their country they were undoubtedly well treated, when the spokesman of the refugees, a schoolmaster, seizing the opportunity, answered the Queen that the Greeks in Asia Minor would be better off and happier when the pearl of Ionia would be affixed to the Crown of Hellas. Sophie, on hearing this unexpected answer, said in response: “That will never, never happen,” and immediately left the place, much to the amazement of the bystanders.
28 See Crawfurd Price, Venizelos and the War, p. 53.
29 See excellent exposition of this double-dealing in Revue de Paris of June 1, July 1 and 15, 1917 by Auguste Gauvain, translated into English by Prof. Carroll N. Brown and published by the American-Hellenic Society.
33 See Article 4 of the Military Convention in Doc. No. 4, Supplement, p. 97; also, interpretation of Serbian Government in Greek White Book, Doc. No. 38, Supplement, p. 130.
34 A. Rivier, Principes du Droit des gens, Vol. II, p. 122.
35 Pradier-Fodéré, Cours de Droit Diplomatique; also Wheaton’s Elements of International Law, 5th English ed. (1916) p. 399, II, p. 489; also Pradier-Fodéré, Traité de Droit public International.
36 Pradier-Fodéré, II, No. 1174, with some qualifications; see, contra, Funck-Brentano and Sorel, pp. 123–124.
37 See Phillimore, Commentaries upon International Law (1871), Vol. II, pp. 89, et seq.; Vattel, Le droit des gens, ed. Pradier-Fodéré (1863), Vol. II, S. 269, p. 255; F. de Martens, Traité de Droit International, traduit du Russe par A. Leo (1883), Vol. I, p. 556; Merignhac, Traité de Droit public International, Deuxieme Partie, p. 679; Calvo, Le Droit International, Vol. I, p. 670, ed. 1880; Pradier- Fodéré, Traité de Droit Int. public, Vol. II, No. 1188, Heffter, Le Droit Int. de VEurope, traduit par J. Bergson, ed. F. H. Geffcken (1883), p. 214; Pinheiro Ferreira, in Vattel, ed. Pradier-Fodéré, p. 252, note 1; Bluntschli, Le Droit International codifié, traduit du Russe par Lardy, Art. 449.
38 Ibid., Vattel, translated by J. Chitty (1883), p. 247.
39 Lieber, F. , Legal and Political Hermeneutics (1880), pp. 80–81 Google Scholar, Ch. IV, S. IV.
40 Vattel, II, translated by J. Chitty (1883), p. 244.
41 Ibid., p. 245.
42 Yet hath the Oath God a son who is nameless, footless and handless; mighty in strength he approaches to vengeance, and whelms in destruction all who belong to the race or the house of the man who is perjured. But oath-keeping men leave behind them a flourishing offspring. Herodotus, Book V., Erato. Pythoness to Glaucus. Translation of G. Rawlinson, Vol. III, p. 168.
48 Supplement to Patris, etc., etc., 1917, p. 212,