ed good government at home, extended the boundaries of the
realm and laid the foundations of a regenerate State which might in
time reunite under the royal sceptre most of the scattered elements of
Hellenism. His personal relations with King Constantine were, however,
understood to be wanting in cordiality, but the monarch was credited
with sufficient acumen to perceive where the interests of his dynasty
and country lay, and with common sense enough to allow them to be
safeguarded and furthered. It was on these unsifted assumptions that
the Governments of the allied Powers went to work.

One redoubtable obstacle to be dislodged before any headway could be
made was Bulgaria's opposition. In order to displace it, it would be
necessary to acquiesce in her demands for territory possessed by her
neighbours. And in view of the intimate relations, political and
economical, which the military empires had established with Bulgaria
and their firm hold over Ferdinand, even this retrocession might prove
inadequate for the purpose. According to a binding arrangement
between Serbia and Greece, no territorial concession running counter
to the settlement of the Bucharest Treaty might be accorded to
Bulgaria by either of the two contracting States, without the consent
of the other. And now Venizelos was asked to signify his assent to the
abandonment by Serbia of a part of the Macedonian province recently
annexed. This point gained, he was further solicited to cede Kavalla
and some 2000 square kilometres of territory incorporated with Greece,
to Bulgaria, in return for the future possession of 140,000 square
kilometres in western Asia Minor. It was stipulated by him and hastily
taken for granted by the Governments of the Allied States that these
concessions, together with those which Serbia and Roumania were
expected to make, would move Bulgaria to follow Russia's lead and
enter the arena by the side of the Allies. But before Venizelos's
readiness to compromise could be utilized as a practical element of
the negotiations, the Bulgarian Cabinet had applied for and received
an advance of 150 million francs from the two Central empires on
conditions which, in the judgment of the Greek Premier, rendered
further dealings with that State nugatory.

At the same time King Constantine, yielding to German importunity and
to personal emotions, adopted a series of measures of which the effect
would have been to discredit in the eyes of the nation V