w days of March. The Council, together with the king,
decided against supporting the Allies actively on such terms. On the
morning of March 6 Venizelos called at the British legation in Athens
to say that the opposition of the king made it impossible to fulfill
his promise. That night he resigned.

The fall of Venizelos was, naturally, a heavy blow to the Allies. He
was succeeded by Gounaris, an ex-Minister of Finance, who announced
his policy as one of strict neutrality. Venizelos was so deeply
mortified that he declared that he would withdraw permanently from
public life, and then left Greece.

April, 1915, opened with an occurrence that seemed to throw a strong
light on the attitude of Bulgaria. On the night of the second day of
the month a large force of Bulgar Comitajis made a raid over the
southeastern frontier of Serbia, and, after attacking successfully the
Serbian outposts and blockhouses, in an attempt to cut the railroad,
by which Serbia was getting war supplies from the Allies, they were
repelled by the Serbians, though only after severe fighting.

Serbia and Greece both protested loudly, but Bulgaria affirmed that
she had had nothing to do with the matter.

As has developed since, Bulgaria had by this time definitely decided
to strike for the Teutonic allies when the right moment should come.
Already back in January, 1912, a secret treaty had been negotiated
between Bulgaria and Germany. This was signed a little later by Prince
Buelow and M. Rizoff at Rome. There were more reasons than one for
keeping this secret. For within the Bulgarian Parliament there was a
strong opposition to the German policy of Ferdinand and Radoslavov,
led by Malinoff, chief of the Democratic party, and Stambulovski,
chief of the Agrarian party, an opposition so bitter and determined
that the king had good reason to fear an open revolution should he
openly declare himself for the Germans.

On May 29, 1915, the Allies again sent a note to Bulgaria, making
proposals which comprised the results of their efforts to obtain
concessions from the other Balkan States. On June 15 Radoslavov sent a
reply, asking for further information, obviously drawn up in order to
gain time.

Meanwhile, on June 11, Venizelos had again appeared in Athens, where
he received a warm welcome from the populace, with whom he was the
prime favorite. Within a few days he resumed the leadership of the
Greek Liberal party and, at a general election, which was