Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

BULGARIA ENTERS THE WAR. 27

his retirement. He declared his conviction that war . between Greece and Bulgaria was inevitable in the near future. If to-day Greece allowed Serbia to be ~ crushed, in three years’ time she herself would fall an easy prey. He pointed out, too, the results of a ~ Teutonic victory. It would mean the eradication

of the Hellenic element in Turkey, however loud ~ the German assurances to the contrary, and it would be the end of Greece’s hopes of expansion on the /gean littoral. Indeed it would in all likelihood be the end of Greek nationality altogether. Every reason of policy was in favour of Greece’s adherence to the cause of the Allies. There was, further, the obligation to Serbia under the Treaty of 1913, but when on 11th October Serbia formally asked Greece for the help for which that treaty provided she was refused. The Greek argument seems to have been that since Serbia had shown herself willing to concede certain tracts of Macedonia to Bulgaria, the purpose for which the treaty was made had disappeared, and that in any case the treaty referred only to an attack on Serbia by Bulgaria, and not to an invasion by other Powers. These were obviously quibbles, and that they should have been used by the Greek Government showed the strength of its determination to cling to neutrality.

The motive of that determination was fear. The King, himself allied by marriage with the Kaiser, was oppressed by the evidence of German power. The General Staff had seen their advice in the spring neglected, and the futile result of the summer campaign in the Dardanelles. It had witnessed Russia being driven from post to pillar, while the French and British armies were held in the West. Had the