ent the entire responsibility for the events that would ensue if
their just demands were not complied with at once.

As M. Briand had anticipated, the sight of our warships' smoke
quickened the Greek Government's sense of justice. King Constantine
promptly complied, the "demonstration," to the intense disappointment
of M. Guillemin and General Sarrail, was adjourned, and a Ministry of a
non-political character, under the leadership of M. Zaimis, was
appointed to carry on the administration of the country until the
election of a new Chamber.[17]

The event marked a new phase in the relations between {103} Greece and
the Entente Powers. Henceforth they appear not as trespassers on
neutral territory, but as protectors installed there, according to M.
Briand, by right--a right derived from treaties and confirmed by
precedents.[18] Concerning the treaties all comment must be postponed
till the question comes up in a final form. But as to the precedents,
it may be observed that the most pertinent and helpful of all was one
which M. Briand did not cite.

At the time of the Crimean War, Greece, under King Otho, wanted to
fight Turkey, and realize some of her national aspirations with the
assistance of Russia. But France and England, who were in alliance
with Turkey against Russia, would not allow such a thing. Their
Ministers at Athens told King Otho that strict neutrality was the only
policy consonant with the honour and the interest of Greece: while
hostilities lasted her commerce, as a neutral nation, would flourish,
and by earning their goodwill she could, at the conclusion of peace,
hope not to be forgotten in the re-making of the map of Eastern Europe.
For refusing to listen to these admonitions King Otho was denounced as
a pro-Russian autocrat, and the Allies landed troops at the Piraeus to
compel obedience to their will.

Once more a Greek sovereign had drawn down upon himself the wrath of
the Protecting Powers, with the traditional charges of hostile
tendencies in his foreign and autocratic tendencies in his domestic
conduct, for daring to adopt an independent Greek policy.

This time the three Powers were united in a common cause, which
necessitated unity of action on all fronts. But it would be an error
to imagine that this unity of action rested everywhere upon a community
of views or of ulterior aims. Certainly such was not the case in
Greece. France had her own views and aims in that part of the worl