Identifier: constantineigree01hibb (find matches)
Title: Constantine I and the Greek people
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Hibben, Paxton, 1880-1928
Subjects: Constantine I, king of the Hellenes, 1868-1923 World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, The Century co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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he sendingof a nominal expeditionary force to Macedonia,Venizelos broached the matter to his sovereign.If the Entente will supply the 150,000 bayonetsrequired by the Greco-Serbian treaty to call theGreek army into operation, will King Constan-tine, as commander-in-chief of the Greek army,undertake to lead the army in a campaign againstBulgaria? was his fashion of putting the ques-tion. The king demurred that he could not de-cide unless he knew what quahty of troops theEntente proposed to send. Venizelos promisedthat they should be metropolitan, or line,troops, not colonials. The king objected thatso important a military matter should be thor-oughly threshed out with the general staff beforereaching any definite decision. His primeminister replied that time pressed, and urgedimmediate action. King Constantine main-tained, as he has always maintained, that theGreco-Serbian treaty was not in question,as it was conceived solely in reference topurely Balkan combinations and could not be 48
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CONSTANTINE IKing of the Hellenes THE SERBIAN TREATY operative in the case of a general European war.However, disposed in every practical way to beof aid to the Serbs, he declared his willingness toconsider any combination based upon the essen-tial military requirements of such a campaign aslaid down in the Greco-Serbian treaty. It wasnot the form that interested him, but the materialresult. On this assurance, and on the definite under-standing that the Entente force to be sent was tototal 150,000 men, or at least 100,000 bayonets,Venizelos left the kings presence at Tatoy andwent at once to the French and British lega-tions. The king consents, he informed the two di-plomatists. Let the troops come! Later in the evening King Constantine tele-phoned his prime minister to repair, to Tatoy thefollowing morning to discuss the details of theproposed arrangement with the officers of theGreek staff. It is too late, Sire, answered Venizelos.The French are already on the way. Article XCIX of t

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