DEMETRIOS GOUNARIS
Leader of the Neutralist Party, who Succeeded
Venizelos as Premier of Greece
Greece is in suspense. The Kairoi, an independent daily of Athens, said on June 22 that, while Greece does not forget her debt to the three protective powers, France, England, and Russia, she must nevertheless weigh the promise of Germany to give full protection to Greek interests in the event of her continued neutrality. "Just how Germany keeps her promises," this paper says, is "shown by Cavalla, the Macedonian city allotted to Greece after the second Balkan war at the express instance of the Kaiser;" and it notes that the Entente Powers are now eager to cede this territory to Bulgaria. The Embros, an independent daily of Athens, prophesied on June 22:
We can afford to follow events with growing solicitude and remain neutral as long as we may. Whether or not we maintain this neutrality to the end our action can change neither the fortunes of Greece nor the position of other Powers. It is to be presumed that the power driving this giant conflict to the conclusion has more remote motives and that to all appearance, the war will end without any of the participants suffering a crushing defeat.
While Russian aspirations are generally considered to be in harmony with those of the Balkan kingdoms, the following extracts from Russian papers representing varying shades of Muscovite opinion show now an unfavorable or critical attitude. Thus the foremost organ of the Panslavist Party, the Russian weekly Slavianski Izvestija, April No. 8, disapproved the Bulgarian plea to give Thrace and Adrianople through Russian influence. Of the Macedonian question this paper said:
Bulgarians expect that Russia will get for them Macedonia Thrace, and Dobrudja, to reward their honest labors. Alas, they must learn that not every day, but every hour, Macedonia is receding from their grasp. For Russia the Macedonian question hardly exists. If Macedonia finds it hard to be under heroic and benevolent Serbia, what would become of her on the day when she should fall into the hands of Bulgaria? And should we Russians, in order to assure Macedonia such a future, grieve now our dear ally Serbia?
The semi-official Novoye Vremya of Petrograd commented on May 27, on the statement of the Bulgarian Premier Radoslavoff published in Vienna, that Bulgaria cannot engage to intervene without a formal treaty, a policy, it believes, that says but one thing, namely: "You Russians tricked us Bulgarians once; you shall not trick us again." This attitude of Bulgaria shows, the Novoye Vremya thinks, "how thick-headed and insensate its people are." The Birjevaja Viedomosti, a standpat Russian daily of Petrograd, on May 23 warned Serbia that, whereas the war began in her behalf and on her account rivers of blood are flowing, her complaints of the allotment of Dalmatia to Italy should not "assert principles which have nothing to do with actualities." The same newspaper says of the whole Balkan situation:
The German policy of von Buelow, having failed in Rome, is courting failure in Bucharest. In fact, all the German promises to Rumania seem to go no further than sharpening the Rumanian appetite for Russian Bessarabia, while holding out as a last bait the cession of a small parcel of Bukowina—supposing the Hungarians never consent to yielding Transylvania to Rumania.
On the other hand, Germany promises Bulgaria the Turkish province of Thrace and Serbian and Greek Macedonia; but these compensations have as much value as the cessions of Corsica and Nice and Tunis in the early days of the war.
But Germany cannot give to Bulgaria Serbian Macedonia so long as the Austrian armies are not masters of the whole of Serbia; she cannot give her Thrace because Turkey objects to such cession, and Turkey is her ally; and, finally, she cannot urge Greece too closely to cede Cavalla to Bulgaria, because such a pressure may bring a contrary result, i.e. make Greece to declare herself openly an ally of the Entente. Therefore both Bulgaria and Rumania must perforce side with the great European Alliance. Had Italy remained neutral matters would be different, but as it is now Bulgars and Rumanians, and the Balkan peoples in general, have to fight with us, unless they want the diplomacy of the Entente to disappoint utterly the ever-growing appetite of these small nationalities....
It will be noted that all the opinions quoted concerning the Balkans relate to the division of territory as the price of neutrality or intervention.