Επιστολή του Σ. Βενιζέλου προς τον Γ. Τσώρτσιλ σχετικά με τους λόγους της παραίτησής του από την πρωθυπουργία.

Sir: His Majesty, at the time when he entrusted to me the formation of a Government, told me that before his departure from London you had spoken of me in friendly fashion; and your Ambassador here, when I assumed my duties as Prime Minister, told me that he was instructed on your behalf to give me all possible support. I can- not be wrong in believing that your interest in me is partly the result of the old friendship which existed between you and my beloved father, who, as long as he lived, made alliance with England the very foundation of his policy, the same policy which I, too, am determined un- swervingly to pursue. I should like to take this opportunity to express to you my unbounded gratitude for the assistance rendered by the British authorities here in quelling the mutiny in our Navy. The operation itself was carried out wholly by Greek forces under the command of Admiral Voulgaris, to whom I had personally entrusted it. The result of this initial action was the surrender of the remaining ships, and of the Brigade, as well as of other disaffected units. All this occurred during my tenure of the premiership. Since it seems possible that you may not be fully informed about the reasons for my resignation, which has created a good deal of confusion, please allow me, sir, to make you familiar with the course of events. After the suppression of the mutiny, I had a con- versation with Ambassador Leeper, during which he gave me to understand that it was desirable that Mr. Papandreou should become Prime Minister, so that he might preside at the forthcoming conference of representatives of the Greek political parties and organizations. He explained that Mr. Papandreou had the special qualification of having lately come from Greece, where he had actually lived under the yoke of the invader. I was much troubled at this, and asked him why I had been asked to accept the heavy responsibility of quelling the mutiny, with its in- evitable attendant bloodshed, only to be replaced by someone else the next day. In the end, I explained to the Ambassador that as a result of this conversation I felt that I must forthwith submit my resignation to the King. And this I did. Lest I lay myself open to the charge of talking too much about myself, I will not here attempt to analyse what may lie behind the policy adopted by your Ambassador, nor will I discuss the merits of his solution. But I am still, today, unable to understand this ill-timed inter- vention on his part. For he knew, from my public declara- tions of program (to which, indeed, he had given his approval in advance), that my Government would consider its