Report discussing the Greek war debt to England.

we had their support we were in a position to carry out successfully the mandate, we were entrusted with, is proved by the course of the hostilities waged there from May 1919 to November 1920. The ruin which befell Greece was brought about through her abandonment by her former allies which followed the elections of November 1st 1920, and the subsequent restoration of King Constantine. These elections undoubtedly constituted a political error on the part of the Greek people. But how many extenuating circumstances cannot be pleaded in favour of this people?. It has been in an almost uninterrupted state of war since 1915. while all the other allies were through with the war as early as November 1918, for the Greek people war was still going on in November 1920, and when, on an electioneering tour I was asked as to when the war would end and demobilisation be proceeded to, I had to answer that I was not in a position to give a date but I would do my best. Are there many nations much more experienced in political life than the Greek people who would, under such circumstances, give a different and a sounder vote than the one cast by the Greek nation?. Moreover the mistake of the Greek people on this point should be judged with sympathetic indulgence, since one of the aims repeatedly proclaimed in the Great War was to secure the independence of the small nations. But the main feature of such independence is the right of any people to have a government of its own choice. -10-