ft 'A' 00T18 1922
LI BRAKY
-ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
* OF THE
ANGLO - HELLENIC

LEAGUE

^^,''i WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1922.

If . ;^'5 1

plFAL REPORT, BALANCE SHEET,
p;.kLicTION OF OFFICERS, ETC.

hi T:jiU\ ANGLO-HELLfiNIC LEAGUE,
'ir' 'S3 & 54 ChancerttLane, W.C. 2.
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THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE.

OFFICERS, COUNCIL and COMMITTEE for 1922.
Presidents.
Sir Francis Elliot, Q.C.M.G., G.CV.O.
His Excellency J. Gennadius, G.CV.O.
Vice-Presidents.

Comdr. C. Bell AIRS, R.N., M.P.
Mrs. Ronald Burrows.
Commander H. S. Cardalb.
John Dillon, M.P.
Sir Arthur Evans, D.Litt., P.SA.

G. A. Macmillan, Hon. D.Litt.
Ronald M'Neill, M.P.
Gilbert Murray, Ll.D., D.LUt.
F.B.A.
Madame Veniselos.

chairman.
The Hon. W. Pember Reeves.
Vice-Chairman.
Sir A. H. Crosfibld, Bart.

Council.

Professor A. M. Andr^ades.
Mrs. Philip Baker.
D. J. Cassavettl
Canon W. C. Compton.
*S. Delta.
Mrs. Embiricos.
Professor Ernest Gardner.
Mrs. Lambrinudi.
Dr. A. Manuel.
L. M. Messinesi.
Z. G. MichAlinOS.
Professor J. L. Myres.

A. Pallis.
Miss M. Pallis.
D. P. Petrocochino.
Alex. Ralll
Mrs. Pkmber Reeves.
E. M. Rodocanachi.
Mrs. Sachs.
P. Teofani.
Mrs. Vlasto.
Sir C. Walston,
Mrs. Watson-Taylor.
G, B, ZOCHONIS.

• Chairman of the Athens Executive Committee,
together with the members of the Executive Committee.
Executive Committee.
Chairman— The Hon.-W. Pember Reeves.

SirWRvLAND Adkins,K.C.,M.P.
Mrs. Ronald Burrows.
Sir A. H. Crosfield, Bart.
Lady CrOsfield.
N. EUMORFOPOULOS (//o«. See.)
G. Glasgow.
A. C. Ionides.
G. Marchetti.

J. Mavrogordato.
Lady Meiklejohn.
T. P. O'Connor, M.P.
Mrs. W. Pbmber Reeves.
H. Spender, M.A.
Sir J. J. Stavridi.
A ZyGOURAS (Jim, Treasurer).

Office.
S3/S4 Chancery Lane, W.C. 2. Telephone: Holborn 2266.
Bankers.
The London County Westminster & Park's Bank,
36 St. James's Street, S.W. i.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
OF THE
AN GLO-H ELLEN IC LEAGUE.

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Anglo-Hellenic
League was held at 12 Stratford Place, London, on Wednesday,
June lith, 1922, at 5 p.m. The Hon. W. Pember Reeves
presided, and was supported by Sir A. Crosfield, Bart., Sir
J. Stavridi, and the Rev. J. A. Douglas.
The Chairman : Ladies and Gentlemen, I have to apologise
for the absence of Sir Ryland Adkins, M.P., and Mr. Harold
Spender, who both were anxious to come and have been kept
away at the last minute. Mr. Spender has sent us a rather
interesting communication. He has had an interview with
Dr. Ward, the American medical gentleman who has just
returned from Northern Asia Minor and whose dreadful reve
lations of the Kemalist atrocities were read to some extent by
Mr. Chamberlain in the House of Commons the other day.
Mr. Spender has made some notes of it which he has sent on
to us, and I think it would interest you if the Secretary read
them out now.
The Hon. Secretary (Mr. N. Eumorfopoulos) read out
Mr. Spender's notes : —
" Dr. Ward informed me that his record was as follows : —
" In 1915-16 he served the Turks in the Red Crescent
Service, and carried out relief work among the Turkish poor
in Constantinople. In 1917, when the United States came
into the war, he went to America and joined the army. In
1919, after his discharge from the army, he was sent to Khar-
put and served there for three years as chief relief worker.
" On his return to Turkey in 1919 he was at first welcomed '
by the Turks who were, at that time, in great misery and
distress. Of the Turkish soldiers who had gone to the war
only 20 per cent had returned. The rest had either died in
battle or perished of typhus. Hence there was great want in

the villages. The Turks had incurred the same losses as the
rest of Europe, but lacked almost entirely the machinery of
relief, medical and otherwise, possessed by other countries.
At that time the villages were filled with the remnants of the
Armenian race who had been massacred during the war.
There were 4000 Armenian orphans directly under the care
of the American Relief Organisation, and there were 1000
more orphans wandering loose in the surrounding country.
Out of 150,000 Armenians existing in that district before the
war, only 30,000 survived. All the males had been killed,
except a few mechanics following key industries useful to the
Turks, such as carpenters, farriers, etc. But at that moment
the Turks were glad to help the Americans, even with the
Armenians, because they felt that they had massacred too
many. The people then in control belonged to the old Turkish
order, and the Committee of Union and Progress, along with
the Young Turks, had practically disappeared. Their defeat
in the war had deprived them of prestige and power.
" This state of affairs went on for a year, up to the summer
of 1920. Then came the revolution of Mustapha Kemal, who
set up a Government at Angora. The Kemalists immediately
introduced an entirely new order. Their first step was to pro
hibit any Christians from leaving the country. They locked
the door.
" Then the persecutions began. They commenced with a
series of interferences and provocations directed against the
remnant of the Armenians. The old organisers of massacre
became more powerful at Angora. The members of the Com
mittee of Union and Progress returned, and the Committee of
National Defence was set up. It was a strange organisation.
They did not dismiss the old authorities, but they set up
behind them a series of revolutionary controllers. The Vali
of Kharput district, for instance, remained, but he was con
trolled by a secret Committee behind him. The centre of that
control was with a Kurdish chief who had been a great
massacrer of Armenians, having slain many with his own
hand. The system was simple. If any official refused to
submit to the new control his behaviour was reported to
Angora, and he was then removed. Thus quite insensibly the
country feU beneath the reign of the massacrers.

" At first their activities were directed against the Armen
ians. But after the Greeks had landed in Smyrna in August,
1920, the persecutions began to be directed against the Greeks
also, and the policy of white massacre was resumed. This
policy took an acute turn when the Turkish war crime
prisoners were returned by the British Government from
Malta in return for the British war prisoners still in Turkey,
illegally detained gfter the Armistice. Those war criminals
were put in power, and, returning with enhanced prestige,
they obtained control even over Mustapha Kemal. They
were out for vengeance, and several of them were promoted
to the Turkish revolutionary cabinet. Their new policy was
to exterminate the Greeks as well as the Armenians. The
Greeks of Asia Minor had suffered somewhat already during
the war, especially when mixed up with the Armenians, but
there was no deliberate policy of extermination adopted
towards them. But the landing of the Greeks in Smjona
changed aU that, and from that moment the policy of white
massacre by deportation was adopted towards the Greeks.
" The first proof of this that reached the American workers
at Kharput was the arrival of convoys from the coast. The
first convoy came from Eshkeshir. There were 125 Greeks
and 187 Armenians. They were driven through Kharput,
going eastward. Many of them perished by the way. The
Americans were not allowed to take the orphans. Children as
well as men were to be exterminated. The policy was to keep
them moving — not only not to feed them, but to prevent the
Americans from feeding them. After this many convoys
arrived, and the same policy was adopted. The Relief Organ
isation gave them bread and shoes. The Turks would aUow
this for some time, but then they would collect the un
fortunate Greeks and Armenians and send them on to perish
in the mountains. Later on they would wait till there were
snowstorms and then, after the Americans had fed and
clothed them, they would drive them out into the snow to
perish. Altogether about 30,000 came in this way from Sivas.
About 10,000 perished on the way, some 10,000 escaped and
scattered, and the other 10,000 were driven across the bridge
to Bitlis and Van and disappeared into the wUd country to
the east, where they probably perished.

" This process has been going on for a whole year, and is
going on now.
" On the 15th of March, just before I (i.e. Dr. Ward) left,
two fresh convoys came down from Malatia to make room for
new deportations from the Pontus. Those have probably by
now mostly perished. At first the convoys consisted for the
most part of men. Then came the women and children and
the old men. A few of them had ox-carts* and donkeys, but
for the most part they had only their beds on their backs.
The children had to walk. They had been mostly two months
on the road to Kharput and had used up all their food and
money. They had sold their clothes and were mostly dressed
in cheap sacking, the object being that they should perish by
the road. None of these things disturbed the Turks !
" In December I came from Malatia to Kharput, some
sixty mUes, in an automobile. We passed some 150 dead on
the road, mostly women and children. There had been no
attempt to bury them, and it was difficult to avoid driving
over their bodies. Some had camped without shelter by the
roadside and had simply not waked up in the morning. They
were lying as they had slept. In Malatia the Turks had
ordered the refugees to bury their own dead. So great was
the death-rate that they were four days behind in the burials,
and the place was strewn with dead bodies, the dead and the
living mixed up together. Ten thousand in all died around
where I was stationed.
" These convoys included all classes. They were mostly
peasants, but there were also many wealthy men from the
towns of the coast, lawyers, business men, doctors, and so
forth. Some of the wealthy men just survived by a singular
species of slavery. They would pay a considerable sum of
money to Turkish masters, to whom they would hire them
selves out. They would work aU day, and even then they
would have to feed themselves. They would pay £4 and £5
a week, but they preferred that to being sent to certain death
in the mountains. The families were scattered and divided,
and very rarely were the wives allowed to be with their
husbands. Only the very old men were allowed to be with
their families.

" These Greeks begged us to kill them. They told us they
wanted their agony to be ended. They would be driven to
eat grasses and herbs, and then they would swell up in a
terrible manner and die in great agony after three or four days.
That has been going on for a whole year. But the Turkish
censorship has been so close that it has been impossible to let
Europe know of it.
" In fact it was that which, in the end, led to our leaving.
We some of us felt that we could not stand it any longer, and
that the world ought to know of these things, although we
quite realised that it might mean that all relief measures
might be stopped and our people suffer. But our idea was to
stop the massacres. But that wiU only happen if Europe acts
quickly and acts together. For if they delay it will be too
late. The reason why we are speaking out now is that it
seems to us the only way to stop these murders.
" In the end, our leaving was quickened by the action of
the Turks. Major Yowell was the first to go. He refused to
allow the Turks to direct the American relief work, and
insisted on giving relief to the Greeks. The Turks declared
that he was hostile to their Government. They said that his
action was political. We denied that it was political, and
declared that it was humanitarian. The result was that the
Turks ordered Major YoweU to leave the country, arrested
him and sent him under guard to the Syrian frontier.
" In my own case there has been an order out for four
months telHng me to go. But I was sick with typhus through
those months. As soon as I recovered the Turks arrested me,
and said that I would have to go under guard. For the sake
of the work, I left the following week.
" Two other Americans, both missionary ladies, were
ordered to go because they were told they had too great a
sympathy with the Christians. They were forced to travel
on pack mules, in January, for five days through the snow
over the mountains to Diarbekir. Thence they rode to
Aleppo. Eight Americans are left behind, but none of them
know the country or the language.
" Just before I left the Turks had begun to interfere with
our 4000 orphans. They ordered us to send away all orphans

over fifteen years of age. We had allowed some of the older
boys to go, hoping that they would be able to find work in
the fields. But we absolutely refused to allow any of the girls
either to work in the fields or in the Turkish houses. They
forced us to close our schools, and they would not allow us to
admit any into our hostel except from sickness. They forbade
us to distribute clothes, except with their permission. Finally,
they wanted to take over the directorship of our work. The
Americans were to subscribe the money and the Turks were
to carry on the work ! We refused. We had a budget of some
30,000 dollars, and we refused to allow them to touch it."
The Chairman : Before we say anything more about the
country, and other matters, I think we had better get the
formal business of the meeting through ; we had better have
the Committees and Executives re-elected.
The Hon. Secretary : You may remember that last year
you voted a new Rule, to hold only for one year, in virtue of
which the Executive could add to its own numbers. We
found that very useful and, on behalf of the Executive, I
want to ask you to vote that Rule again for another year.
In addition to this motion, we propose that the Executive
should consist of the following : —
The Hon. W. Pember Reeves A. C. Ionides.
{Chairman). G. Marchetti.
Sir A. H. Crosfield, Bart. J. Mavrogordato.
{Vice-chairman). Lady Meiklejohn.
Sir W. Ryland Adkins, K.C., M.P. T. P. O'Connor, M.P.
Mrs. Ronald Burrows. Mrs. W. Pember Reeves.
Lady Crosfield. H. Spender, M.A.
N. Eumorfopoulos {Hon. Sec). Sir J. J. Stavridi.
G. Glasgow. A. Zygouras {Hon. Treasurer).
You understand that this number is already beyond the
number allowed by the Rules, so that you cannot vote for the
Executive until you have first passed the Rule allowing us to
have an increased number.
The Chairman : As a matter of form, I would ask you to
re-enact the Rule which empowers us to add Members to the
Executive if we think they will do service to the cause. —
Agreed,

The Chairman : We took it for granted and added several
to the Committee duringjthe last year, and some of them have
done very good work indeed for us. Our latest recruit is our
friend Mr. T, P. O'Connor, who, as you know, has been raising
his voice for Greece very courageously against the anti-
Hellenic element in the House of Commons. I thanked him
on the part of the League for Greece, and I am quite sure that
in doing so I have your full approbation. (Hear, hear.) I
beg to propose that the Officers, Presidents, Vice-Presidents,
Council and Committee of the League be re-elected en bloc.
Mr. A. Zygouras (Hon. Treasurer) : I beg to second that.
(The Chairman then read the names of the Officers and
Members of the Council and Executive Committee.)
Ladies and Gentlemen, is it your pleasure that these be re
elected ? — The motion was carried.
The Chairman : Then I wUl a.sk you to re-elect Mr.
Eumorfopoulos as Hon. Secretary. I would like to say that
I wish particidarly to thank him for the extraordinary amount
of time and trouble that he has given to our affairs. He
always did so, but during the last eighteen months, since our
last meeting, the work has been very tiresome and in some
ways very depressing owiag to the changed state of things in
Greece and the great troubles and afffictions that have be
fallen Greece in Asia Minor and the opposition to Greece
particularly in Italy, in France, and in this country. The
Secretary never spares time or trouble or makes the faintest
objection when I saddle him with all the disagreeable duties
which I lay on his shoulders and which I carefuUy avoid dis
charging myself, when I can. (Laughter.) I never knew a
man who grumbled less and who went about his work m more
methodical, cheerful and unfaiHng fashion, and as a Secretary
never gets any thanks from anybody unless somebody wiU
particularly draw a Society's attention to the work that he
does, I propose to do that, and I hope that in re-electing Mr
Eumorfopoulos, as you will do— you wUl second it. Sir John .
Sir John Stavridi : With the greatest pleasure.
The Chairman : You will just signify that you do agree
with what I have said to you and that you do desire to thank

him very cordially for the valuable work that he has done.
(Cheers.) — Agreed.
Then I want you to re-elect our friend, Mr. Zygouras, as
Hon. Treasurer. Mr. Zygouras' functions are not so vast and
complex and troublesome as those of Mr. Eumorfopoulos, and
they are not on such a huge scale as I wish they were, but
if he has not a gigantic revenue to take care of he makes up
for that by being doubly careful of the modest sums that we
have at our disposal ; and the fact that we have kept out of
the Bankruptcy Court — (Laughter) — ^we have managed to
pay our way for some nine years — is largely due to the care
and attention and prudence that my friend, Mr. Zygouras,
has shown. I wUl ask you to re-elect him as Hon. Treasurer.—
Agreed. I understand now that the Officers and' CouncU and Com
mittee are re-elected.
Now I would like, before we separate this afternoon, to say
a few words. I do not intend to inflict a long speech upon you.
In the first place, those of you who are not on the Committee
or Council and who are not behind the scenes would Uke to
know, and I am sure would accept my assurance, that we
have not been asleep during the past year, and that, although
you see traces of our work in the papers and elsewhere, that
only represents part of what we have reaUy done. We have,
as far as our funds have permitted, kept up the usual supply
of pamphlets and leaflets and circulated them. We have,
either as a League or individually, written to the papers re
peatedly. We have also done a good deal of what I may call
diplomatic work in interviewing and discussing the affairs of
the Near East vnth persons whom we thought it would be
desirable to approach and see. In addition, we have held
various meetings of our own at which lectures and addresses
have been given. So far they have been quite well attended
and the audiences have seemed to like them, and we propose
to carry on the process this year and have more of these.
In addition to that, we organised — we did nearly the whole
of the work, I think — the most important meeting on Near
Eastern affairs which has been held in this country for years
past ; that is, the meeting at the Mansion House, which the
8

Lord Mayor was good enough to put at the disposal of the
friends of the Near Eastern Christians, and at that meeting
we co-operated with our friends, the Armenians, with perfect
cordiality. I should hke on that point to say to you that I have always
felt that if the Near Eastern Christians— especially those in
Asia, or any of them— are to be preserved from destruction
itis absolutely necessary that the friends of Greece and the
friends of Armenia should sink any differences in view or
approach that they have and co-operate heartily together in
defence of the populations for which they have real sympathy.
Otherwise it is perfectly obvious that in the course of a very
few years there will be no Near Eastern Christians in Asia
Minor or the Ottoman possessions to save or to defend. Their
end is threatened. But I am happy to say that co-operation
between us and the friends of the Armenians is by no means
impossible, and that we shall be able to carry it on. We on our
part will do aU we possibly can to keep up the most cordial
and most effective relations with the friends, any friends, of
the Near Eastern Christians. We wiU never lay unnecessary
stress on our own particular interest or our own particular
poHcy when it is possible to co-operate in any common policy.
(Cheers.) Then I have to express on this occasion our bitter and deep
regret at the loss of such a leading champion of the Near
Eastern Christians as the late Lord Bryce. (Hear, hear.) He
was not a member of our League, but he was a very mighty,
brave, and persistent champion of the Near Eastern Christians
and a very outspoken and fearless critic and enemy of Turkish
misrule and wickedness. (Hear, hear.) I know of none of the
Old Guard of Gladstonian Liberals who kept the faith more
warmly and brightly than Lord Bryce. I was working with
him up to the very last. A few days before I left I received
from him what must have been one of the last letters he wrote,
on this very subject, and, while justice was done in the public
Press to many of his achievements, qualities and public
services, I hardly think that fuU justice was done to the fear
less, unflinching, and untiring fashion in which he took up the
very thankless burden — because it is a thankless burden in
this country for a politician to take — of striving to save the

remnant of the Near Eastern Christians. We have lost him,
and bitterly do we regret it.
On the other hand, we have had one stroke of luck in the
disappearance from high office of Mr. Montagu — (Hear, hear,
and laughter) — the late Secretary for India, who was — I shall
put it in the gentlest way I can — probably one of the most un
tiring and dangerous opponents that we had occupying any
leading public position in this country. He has gone, and for
the sake of our cause I cannot hope that he will return to
office for some time to come. (Cheers.)
To return to our friends : I cannot let this occasion pass
without laying some stress upon the steady, unbroken, and
most able championship of the Christian cause in the Near
East which we have seen day after day and month after month
in the columns of the Daily Telegraph. (Hear, hear.) I
suppose I have read almost everything that has appeared in
the English Press for at least twelve years past on the Near
East. A great deal of it does not show any very great pro
fundity of knowledge or any very high humanitarian aim.
But where we might have hoped that the Liberal newspapers
would have led in making a stand against the horrible and
barbaric doings of the Kemalist Turk, we have found our
leading champion in a newspaper which some of us were
irreverent enough to associate in the old days with merely
respectable Torj/ism. (Laughter.) I was in my younger days
a bit of a journaUst myself, and fancy I can form an opinion
of the merit of newspaper work. I do not think that in all my
life I have ever seen a newspaper which, over a period of many
months, has made a more solid contribution to public opinion
on a very debatable subject than the Daily Telegraph has
made upon the politics and position of the Near East. The
amount of work that must have been put into its articles, the
amount of patient investigation in the collection of informa
tion, and also the intelligent discernment that has been shown
in sorting it out, in arranging it, in laying it before the public,
and in discriminating between fact and nonsense, is something
quite unusual in journalism, and I cannot allow this occasion
to pass without expressing my personal gratitude for some
thing which has been a stay, a comfort, and a source of most
valuable information to me- — and which must have been the
zo

same to you — and which has done real service to the cause
which we all have so much at heart. (Hear, hear.) I do not
say the Telegraph is the only paper that has helped us ; other
papers have too. The Pall Mall Gazette has had good stuff in
it, and the Manchester Guardian, a paper not usually given
to indulging in exaggerated and exuberant enthusiasm on
behalf of the Hellenic cause in the Near East, has latterly been
publishing some extremely clear, temperate, and straight
forward articles showing that the Turks have really gone too
far for reasonable or humane people to tolerate. (Hear, hear.)
The average unconverted and politically unenlightened
Englishman, at any rate, when he talks to me, seems to think
that he can put me two posers which dispose of the entire
Hellenic and Armenian case in the Near East. In the first
place, he wishes me to deny, if I can, that atrocities are the
common method and instrument of all nationalities in the
Near East, and that the least that can be said is that one
nation is as bad as another. Can I deny that ?
The next question he puts to me is, " Very well, suppose
that all you say is true, suppose that these miserable Armenians
and wretched Greeks are being massacred by hundreds and
thousands every week or every month : What do you propose
to do ; how do you propose to stop it ; what is your policy ;
and if you have not got anything to suggest, why bother
us?" Now, my answer to the first statement need not be at all
long. It is this, that we have overwhelming evidence which
shows that in the Near East one race is not as bad as another.
To sum it up in the words of The Times Correspondent in
Constantinople— Mr. Graves, I think— a very able and
honourable gentleman, who is, moreover, not a contributor
to a phU-Hellenic journal, but to The Times, and who is there
fore not likely to exaggerate in our favour— after discussing
and reviewing this whole question of who did the massacring
in the Near East and who was mainly to blame for it, and how
the blame ought to be apportioned, said he had no hesitation
in saying, in conclusion, that as far as massacre as a policy
was concerned it was a case of " Eclipse first and the rest no
where." The Turk when massacring absolutely put every
thing else done by any other nation in the shade.

II

That is the position. The massacring by the Turk is not a
thing of to-day, it is not a thing of yesterday, or of the week
before, last year, the year before last, or ten years ago or
twenty years ago. It is a thing they began centuries ago.
The Turk has one policy, and that is, his reply to armed revolt
or war on behalf of the Greeks in one part of his dominions or
one frontier of his dominions, is to massacre the unarmed and
defenceless Greeks in the other part of his dominions. That
is his reply always to armed and open defiance — to massacre
the unarmed and the helpless and defenceless.
That has been his policy. He began it 150 years ago in
Serbia ; he began it long before that, not with Christians but
with Mohammedans, in Mesopotamia and Persia. He carried
that out, as you know, systematicaUy on a gigantic scale
during the Greek revolution one hundred years ago ; because
the Greeks took up arms and attacked his rule in one part of
his dominions he murdered the Greeks wholesale by thousands
and tens of thousands where they were unarmed and not
threatening his rule. That has been his policy.
As regards the more modern developments of his murdering,
I would remind you that the Turkish anti-Christian Movement
had been systematically organised in the days of Abdul Hamid
between 1880 and 1890. The whole policy of extirpating, of
persecuting, of driving out, or killing out the Christians was
systematically preached by Mussulman preachers and Mussul
man propagandists all over Asia Minor and in Thrace and
Constantinople, beginning about the year 1882. It went on
until the great Armenian massacres of 1894 and 1895 and the
horrible slaughter in Constantinople in 1896 broke out, and
it received encouragement when that callous scoundrel, the
ex-Kaiser of Germany, took occasion, because England and
Russia and France showed some signs of abhorrence of those
atrocities committed in Constantinople and elsewhere, to go
to Constantinople and grasp the hand of the arch-murderer,
the great assassin Abdul Hamid, and encourage the Turks by
that to go on with their hideous policy. (Cheers.)
The later Greek massacres did not begin in Asia Minor then,
nor they did not begin, by the way, as a result of any revolt
or any threatening movement by the Greek Christians in Asia
12

Minor. The persecution of the Greeks began about 1906 and
1907 by trade boycott, terrorism, iUegal and unfair exactions
of money, and a number of other proceedings of that kind.
The terrorism came to a head in 1913 and 1914, again not as
the result of anything done by these wretched Asiatic or
Thracian Greeks, but as the result of the Balkan War, in
which Greece declared war against Turkey and carried on a
legitimate war, and carried it on, as far as the Turks were
concerned, in an extremely humane manner. (Cheers.)
Then came the expulsion, carried out under German tuition
and German advice, of the Greeks of Thrace and North-west
Asia Minor, and any Greeks which could be found within, say,
100 or IW miles of Constantinople particularly. It was the
policy to extirpate, to root out the Greek population from all
the dangerous strategic districts near the centre of the Mussul
man rule and Constantinople particularly. These wretched
people had given no provocation. As for threatening armed
rebellion they had not got a gun amongst a hundred of them
to rebel with, but we know how they were treated and how
the systematic extirpation went on.
At a later stage, when the European War broke out, and
massacre of Greeks on a considerable scale was carried on in
Western Asia Minor, it was not a question of mere expulsion
or confiscation, trade boycotting or terrorism. It was a
question of wholesale massacre. Also deportations began,
deportations on a large scale, which meant sentence of death
to at least 50 per cent of men, women and chUdren who were
swept away from their homes into the interior ; swept away
from homes which they never saw again.
At the risk of wearying you, I have laid stress on all this
because you constantly hear the untruthful argument used
that these massacres of Greeks in Asia Minor only began after
the landing of the Greeks in Smyrna. They had been going on,
as Mr. Austen Chamberlain himself had to admit, for years
and years before. There was a fresh impetus given to them
after the landing of the Greeks in Smyrna, because, as I say,
it is the unchangeable tradition of the Turk that the counter-
stroke to an armed attack on behalf of the Christians m any
part of his dominions is to massacre the unarmed and the
13

defenceless in some other part of his dominions, and he simply
carried out on this occasion the policy that he carried out
150 years ago, and that he wUl carry out 150 years hence if he
is allowed to stop there, and has not made an end of the
Christians there long before, as he more probably wilL
That is the answer to the suggestion that the presence of
the Greeks in Smyrna was the cause of the Turkish massacre,
and that there is the slightest probabflity that the retirement
of the Greeks from Smyrna would ensure safety for the
Christians in Asia Minor. On the contrary. Ladies and
Gentlemen, Mr. Gerard, the American Minister at the Court
of BerHn during the war (whose friendly offices on behalf of
our race and nation in Germany during the war were things
that we Englishmen can never forget), Mr. Gerard, who spent
years in Constantinople and whose active S5mipathy with the
Armenians is known to all friends of Armenia — (Hear, hear)—
how does Mr. Gerard sum up the position ? The position in
Asia Minor is this, that the only place where the life of Christian
men, the property of citizens, the honour of women, the safety
of children, are safe for a day or an hour is in the parts of Asia
Minor occupied by the Greek forces. (Cheers.) It is no use
wearying you by reiterating a thrice-worn truth, but that is
the simple position, — that there is only one place in Asia
Minor where Christians are safe, and that is where they are
behind the Greek lines.
Now we are asked what is our policy ? Our answer is that
that is the position : that there is one part, and one part only
of the Turkish dominions where the Christians in Asia Minor
are safe, and that is where the Greeks are guarding them,' and
that it lies with our opponents, who claim and argue that the
Greeks must be withdrawn, to show us a proof, to England
and the world, that this safety to which these wretched people
are clinging in their despair is not to be lost. It is for them
to show that if the Greek army is withdrawn some other means
of guarding them takes its place.
And what other means have these opponents of ours to
suggest ? No other means whatever. There is the position
at the present time. We can at least say that in North-west
Asia Minor the Christian population is safe. And we say to
14

the Powers — you want to take their stay, their prop, their
defence away. It lies with you to tell us what policy you are
to carry out, and what means of securing it you have to offer.
And when I ask anyone that question, any man I have spoken
to utterly fails to answer ; he does not know. Of course,
there would be a very simple way of doing it, and that is to
send Western European troops to guard those Christians.
But we are told that is the last thing they think of, and any
talk of France and England sending troops to protect the
Christians of the Near East is really too much a travesty and
burlesque of what we know to be the realities of politics for
me to dwell upon it even for thirty seconds. (Hear, hear.)
Seeing that we are told by our opponents that the last thing
England must do is to spend a shilling on the Near East, I
presume that the notion of England undertaking to defend
these wretched people against the KemaHst armed forces must
be reckoned out of the question.
Very well, what do they propose ? They propose that the
military defence of these doomed people is to be withdrawn,
and that you are to trust to the moderation of the triumphant
Turks not to make a clean sweep of them. Now the Turks
are in a position to-day which they have never occupied in
my Hfetime until the last year or two, that is, they have
learned that they can defy International Law, they can defy
diplomatic pressure, they can defy the humanitarian sym
pathies of Western Europe on Near Eastern questions, and
that nobody will punish them ; that they can do exactly what
they like, and that as far as France and Italy are concerned
the only punishment they wifl receive from them is a desire
to make friendly treaties with them and enter into commercial
relations with them, while a great French 'official thmks it a
great thing to hail Mustapha Kemal as a^ statesman and a
military leader.
This, therefore, is the position, that the only defence the
only stand between these hundreds and thousanas of Christians
in the Near East and death is the Greek force m Smyrna and
in Asia Minor. Are we asking too much when we say that it
is an absolute moral duty incumbent on England to see tha^
that force is not withdrawn until somethmg definite that can
be trusted takes its place, and that even if it does cost a little
15

to aid the people by backing up the protecting force in Asia
Minor that cost ought to be paid ? I do not hesitate to ask
that. (Cheers.)
For the rest, I do not want to dwell upon the politics of
France and the politics of Italy. From our point of view they
are utterly indefensible. They are incapable of apology to
one who in his youth, as I did, sympathised very much with
the rising for freedom in Italy, for I am old enough to re
member the day before Italy completely gained her freedom,
and I know how our hearts beat in S5mipathy with Garibaldi,
Mazzini, and Victor Emmanuel. To me it is a sickening thing
that Italy should have played such a part as she has played
for the last ten years in the Near East, first as the enslaver of
Christian Greeks, then as the eager commercial partner of
Turkey after Turkey's iniquitous and infamous murders, the
commercial partner of Turkish murderers, robbers and tjnrants.
As to France, it is almost equally deplorable that the great
country which could send forth in the Middle Ages St. Louis,
hero and saint, to rescue the Christians of the Near East from
Mohammedan tyranny should be able now to do nothing
better than send Mr. Franklin Bouillon to the Near East to
sell the Christians of the Near East into slavery and death in
return for valueless commercial concessions. Good Heavens,
what a fall is there. Ladies and Gentlemen !
If one did not know how, arrant, how unteachable human
folly is when the gUttering bait of some so-called financial or
commercial lure is held out before it, one would marvel that
generation after generation, and decade after decade, men go
on being led away by this bait of Turkish concessions in the
Near East. Just as friends of mine, and I daresay friends of
yours, go on for ten, twenty or thirty years taking tickets in
some gigantic sweep on some famous race where they never
draw a wimier and hardly ever draw a horse, where they must
know they never will draw a vnnner, but they go on backing,
drawing, paying and losing their money, so generation after
generation do men go on asking for, preaching for, cringing
for, touting for, lying for these wretched commercial con
cessions from Turkish Governments in the Near East.
What is the explanation ? There is only one. The mass of
i6

the public are ignorant, and the clever financiers who do these
things know that these concessions must end in disappoint
ment, loss and ruin, but they think they will be clever enough
to unload these things on trustful, ignorant people, and that
the loss, disappointment and ruin will not come on them but
on men who are bigger fools than they are. (Cheers and
Laughter.) It is for things like that that the thousands and
milhons of Christians in the Near East lose liberty, lose
property, lose hope, lose honour, and lose life. Can anything
be more dismal, more disappointing, more humiliating ?
Now, thank you very much for listening to me. I cannot
pretend that the position is full of hope of security at the
present moment for our cause, but I never give up hope. We
have friends and we have sympathisers in places not without
influence in this country. There is a healthy pubHc feeling,
not so awakened as it was in Gladstone's time, but stiU not
dead in England, and as an old politician, I never give up
hope, because I know in politics it is only the unexpected that
happens. (Loud cheers.)
Sir John Stavridi : Ladies and Gentlemen, I have been
asked to propose a vote of thanks to our Chairman. Before
doing so, I should like to take up one or two of the points that
he has made in his speech, and, if I can, add a few facts with
which I am acquainted and which, perhaps, are not so well
known to all of you. In the first place, our Chairman men
tioned the Mansion House meeting at which Lord Bryce pre
sided and made a speech. It was a magnificent meeting —
(Hear, hear) — and I should like to bring to the notice of the
members of the Anglo-Hellenic League the excellent work
done by one of its members which has perhaps not had the
recognition that it deserves. If the meeting was a success — ^it
was got up in a tremendous hurry — I think that success is
due in a very particular manner to a member of the Executive
Committee, Mr. George Glasgow. (Cheers.) He worked day
and night, and it is to him that we owe a number of the
speakers and that we reaUy owe the success of the meeting.
Coming now to the present conditions in Asia Minor, one
thing that I was rather expecting and hoping to hear from
our Chairman was a reference to the responsibUities of the
17

Allied Powers. In my opinion there has been a betrayal both
of the Greek Nation and of Humanity in general ; a betrayal
we have not seen mentioned in the Press nor have we heard
mentioned on the platform. (Hear, hear.) It should be
borne in mind that Greece had never made any claim to
Smyrna or to the region of Asia Minor inhabited by Greeks.
The first mention, the first suggestion that Greece should be
entitled to any portion of Asia Minor was made in a despatch
of Sir Edward Grey sent to the Greek Government, in January,
1915, stating that England, France and Russia would willingly
consent to Greece receiving very important concessions in
Asia Minor if we entered into the war. Greece had never
thought of it. The proposal came from England. That is the
first point.
In 1919, when I was at the Peace Conference — I remember
it to-day as if it were a few hours ago — I received a telephone
message from Mr. Lloyd George — ^would I go round to No. 3
Rue Nitot immediately ? I went round. Mr. Lloyd George
was alone. He said to me, " I have just returned from a
meeting of the Supreme Council, where it has been decided
that the Smyrna region is to be aUotted to Greece ; as it is
necessary for arrangements to be made immediately for the
transport of the Greek troops, I must see M. Venizelos." (I
learned subsequently that at that meeting of the Supreme
Council, M. Clemenceau, President Wilson and Mr. Lloyd
George were present ; M. Orlando and the whole Italian
Delegation having left Paris owing to President Wilson's
attitude over the Fiume question.) I forthwith arranged an
interview between M. Venizelos and Mr. Lloyd George at
which I was present, and at which the immediate despatch of
the Greek troops was discussed. M. Venizelos asked whether,
if we had not sufficient transport, France and England would
lend us ships. The Prime Minister said, " No, they must not
go under the English or French flag ; but they must leave
immediately." M. Venizelos arranged to move forthwith as
many of the troops as his transport would allow and the rest
in a few days. The suggestion for this landing did not come
from M. Venizelos or the Greeks. It was undertaken at the
special request of the AUied Powers then in Paris and for their
own purposes. i8

You know that we landed in Smyrna, and you know what
happened. Our hands were tied behind our backs, the troops
were not aUowed to move beyond a radius of three kUometres
beyond the line that had been traced for us. The Turks knew
that they could attack us, as they did constantly, then retired
outside the three kUometre radius, and sat down and laughed
at us, and we were unable to attack them. At that time,
had we been free, it would have been an easy task for the
Greek army completely to destroy the army of Kemal.
Then came the CouncU of June, 1920. The Treaty of Sevres
had been signed, but Kemal had no intention of accepting its
terms. One afternoon I received a telephone message asking
me to go and see the Prime Minister immediately. I went, and
he said : " We have very disquieting news from the Ismid
Peninsula ; can the Greek troops come to our assistance ? "
I said : " What is it ? " " The French have withdrawn all
their white troops and have left nothing but black troops
there. The moment the black troops, who are Mussulmans,
come into contact with the Turks they melt away and dis
appear, and we see them no more. The Itahans have with
drawn aU their men, and there is only one English division at
Ismid that is defending Constantinople. If that division is
beaten, Constantinople is open to Kemal, and we shaU be
thrown out of Constantinople." Can you imagine England,
France and Italy being thrown out of Constantinople by
Kemal ? I said : " What is to be done ? " He said : " There
is only one thing to be done ; the Greeks must come to our
assistance." I promised to communicate immediately with
M. Venizelos. The Prime Minister suggested that I should go
first to the War Office and see Sir Henry WUson, who was then
the Chief of the General MiUtary Staff and who would give
me the latest news from Constantinople. I went to the
War Office and saw Sk Henry WUson, who showed me the
telegrams that they had received within the last few days,
showing that the English troops had been obliged to retire a
few mUes every day before the advancing Turks, who had by
that time reached a point on the Asiatic shore of the Dardan
elles from which they could close the Straits, and had already
began firing on the AUied Fleet. Sir Henry WUson said to me :
" We can hold out for a few weeks more, but if the Greeks do
19

not come to our assistance within a very short time we shall be
thrown out of Constantinople." I thereupon immediately
telegraphed to M. Venizelos and he came over to London.
The Prime Minister invited us to go down to Hjrthe, where he
was to meet M. MUlerand. I accompanied M. Venizelos to
Lympne, where the meeting took place. M. MUlerand and
Mr. Lloyd George saw us first and gave us the latest news of
the plight of the AUied troops, and then asked Venizelos :
" Are you prepared to move your troops ? " M. Venizelos
said : " On one condition, that I am given an absolutely free
hand and that the troops are commanded by Greek officers."
They agreed. Once they agreed to that, the Prime Minister
said : " WUl you now go into the next room ; the military
officers are there awaiting you and you wiU prepare a plan of
campaign." I do not know if I am wearying you ; it is getting
rather late. (Cries of " Go on.") We went into the next room.
We found Sir Henry WUson, Marshal Foch, and General
Weygand. They brought an enormous map, about half the
size of this room, which they laid on the floor, because there
was no table big enough. Sir Henry Wilson laid flat on the
ground ; M. Venizelos laid flat on the ground next to him, and
Marshal Foch bent down very closely. AU the three men
prepared the plan of campaign. They took about half an
hour ; they mapped the whole route that the Greek troops
were to follow, leaving Smyrna to join hands with the British
division at Ismid, and when it was aU over. Sir Henry WUson
said : " Now M. Venizelos, we can hold out for a fortnight ;
we may be able to hold out for a month. In how many weeks
can your troops, leaving Smjnrna, join the British at Ismid ? "
These were M. Venizelos' words : " I am not a soldier, but my
mUitary adviser. General Paraskevopulo, has telegraphed to
me that he can be at Ismid within a fortnight." Sir Henry
WUson said : " It is impossible ; I give you six weeks ; can
you do it in six weeks ? " M. Veruzelos said : " I teU you
my information is we can be there in a fortnight." Marshal
Foch interrupted, and said : " My dear Marshal, they cannot
do it under three months." M. Venizelos said : " Let me try ;
give me a free hand, and I wUl see what I can do." This was
on Sunday. He telegraphed to Smjn-na, the troops began to
move on the Monday, and within ten days, not a fortnight,
20

they had joined hands with the British division at Ismid,
and they saved the AUies from bemg thrown out of
Constantinople. I come back to the point. As I said, it is England and the
Allies that put us in Asia Minor ; it is England and the Allies
that have put us in the position in which we are, and because
Constantine has been brought back to the throne — I hold no
brief for Constantine ; my ideas of Constantine are as well-
known to you as to most people in Greece — the AUies threw
over the whole of their indebtedness to the Greek nation,
saying ; " Do what you like ; we wUl give you not one penny,
not one man." That is dishonest. (Cheers.) It is a betrayal
of Greece.
I am sorry that it should be a Greek who should have to say
this. I should have preferred that our Chairman should have
said it, and he would, but probably it has escaped his memory.
The Chairman : I have said it very often.
Sir John Stavridi : There is another betrayal, and that
is perhaps even a more serious one. During the war, the
Armenians were told over and over again in statements as
solemn as any nation can make, that they would be freed from
the yoke of the Turks. The Greeks were told, when we were
sent to Asia Minor, that they would never be replaced imder
the yoke of Turkey.
Now, what happened ? At a meeting which took place in
Paris in the month of March last, the Foreign Ministers of the
Great Powers decided that Asia Minor is going to be given
back to the Turks. I say that it is a betrayal of Humanity.
That is the second betrayal.
Our Chairman said that England or the AUies should do
something, even if it costs them a little. I say even if it cost
them much both in men and in treasure. (Cheers.) They
have to redeem their honour and, whatever the cost, the
nation should pay that cost to redeem their promises both
to the Greek nation and to the Greek and Armenian un
redeemed in Asia Minor.
WeU, Ladies and Gentlemen, I see the Chairman is looking
21

at his watch — (Laughter) — I shaU not go on. I got up to
propose a vote of thanks to our Chairman. You aU heard his
most enlightening address this evening, and I am sure you all
enjoyed it. But he was preaching to a converted assembly.
I only wish that his words could be heard by a much larger
audience. I should hke to see them printed and spread broad
cast, because it is not the members of the Anglo-HeUenic
League who have any doubt as to the rights of the Greeks and
the rights of the unredeemed Christians in Asia Minor, it is
the general public that requires to be enlightened, and I
should like to see his words carried broadcast throughout this
country and abroad. (Hear, hear.)
He spoke of the German Emperor shaking hands with the
bloody Abdul Hamid. I am afraid the French have placed
themselves in exactly the same position by entering into their
pact with Kemal. There is very little to choose between their
conduct and that of the German Emperor.
Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, just one word more : The
services that have been rendered, that are being rendered,
every day by our Chairman to the Greek cause are so great
that it would take hours, if I were to appraise them at their
real value, to bring them to your notice. I cannot do so. But
I tell you I have seen him at work, I know what he has done,
and I know what he is doing, and I would ask you now to
pass a vote of thanks to him, not only for presiding to-night,
not only for being Chairman of our League, but for the
enormous work he has done for us and for the cause we aU
have at heart. (Cheers.) I would ask somebody to second
that resolution.
Sir Arthur Crosfield, Bart. : Mr. Chairman, Ladies
and Gentlemen : I have been asked, at very short notice, to
second this vote of thanks to my friend, the Chairman. If I
had known I was to have this honour, perhaps I could have
discharged my duty with more satisfaction to you and to my
self. In any case, I am sure you wiU aU sympathise with any
one who gets up to follow two speakers like those who have
just addressed you.
AU of us are famUiar with the addresses that we have had
again and again from our respected Chairman. I have heard
22

him many a time, and I think we are aU of us impressed more
and more every time that he speaks with the extent to which
his addresses are saturated with information and fuU of
instruction. Let me also say in that connection that I think
one of the most vitaUy important addresses that we have had
deUvered at these annual gatherings is the speech that you
have just heard from my friend. Sir John Stavridi. (Cheers.)
If I am not using too unparliamentary language, I must say
that a more damning indictment of the Western Powers
could not be heard, nor a more unanswerable statement than
we have had from Sir John, giving, as he always does, chapter
and verse for every charge and every statement made. It is
certainly a fearful thing that the powers-that-be at the head
of civUized nations in the West should tolerate these unheard-
of cruelties in the Near East. TraveUers who go from these
nations to Spain and the Low Countries, teU us that their
blood runs cold when they meet there with the evidences of
hideous torture as practised in the Middle Ages. Do they
realize that Democracies in Western Europe are tolerating,
if not encouraging, in Asia Minor, torture as infamous, as pro
longed, and as diabohcal as any of these calculated agonies
that were inflicted in the Middle Ages ? (Shame.) That, in
itself, is surely a sufficiently damning indictment, but when
you get this linked with the odious and shameful bad faith to
which Sir John has referred, and which is known to aU of us,
it reaUy out-Herods Herod. (Cheers.)
The Chairman said, at the close of his comprehensive and
masterly address, that he could not feel very hopeful in
envisaging the present political outlook. I do not suppose
there is one of us in this room that can feel very hopeful about
it either, because we know these devilries are going on at the
present moment, from hour to hour, day to day, and week to
week in regions so remote that it takes only too long for any
information of these atrocities to get here., '-' It certainly is a
frightful thmg to contemplate. The only; comfort that we
have is that no doubt public opinion is at long length beginning
to be formed in this country and even across the Channel.
There is a good deal of bitter irony, I must say, in the
thought that it had tolbe necessary for the French to reahze
the alliance between Bolshevism and Kemalism to get any
23

considerable revulsion of feeling in France, but we must make
the best of an iU-contrived and Ul-conditioned world, and be
thankful that that fact has helped to set in motion streams
and currents of opinion in France that may very weU bring
about a pretty drastic change, not only of opinion, but of
pohcy, let us hope, in France in a comparatively short Space
of time.
I think it is infamous, all the same, that we have to speak
even now of waiting weeks — perhaps months — before a
revulsion of general public opinion and public policy takes
place. Let us, at any rate, be thankful that this Anglo-HeUenic
League, as far as its influence goes, does its bit to help to
formulate public opinion in this country ; and, if that is so,
every one of us, every man and woman who takes any active
part in the League at aU, knows, as Sir John so admirably
said just now, what we owe to the Chairman's leadership, to
his splendid mastery of the whole question of the Near East,
to the acumen of his mind, and to his natural political abUity
and sagacity. It is for these reasons. Ladies and Gentlemen,
that I have indeed very great and whole-hearted pleasure in
seconding the vote of thanks that has been proposed by Sir
John Stavridi. (Cheers.)
Sir John Stavridi put the resolution to the meeting, and
it was carried unanimously, amid cordial cheers.
The Chairman : Ladies and Gentlemen, it is always a
pleasant thing to have a vote of thanks to one's self carried
unanimously, whether one deserves it, or whether one does
not, but it has been particularly pleasant to me this afternoon
for various reasons. In the first place, it drew from Sir John
Stavridi one of the most interesting speeches on the subject
that I have listened to for many a long day. (Cheers.) I
thought I knew a good deal about what had been going on
for the last two or three years, but he told me several things
that I had never heard before, and I need hardly say how
admirably and picturesquely he told them. It appears to me
that some Eng'ish newspaper has missed a tip-top reporter —
(Laughter)— in aUowing our friend to bury his talent in the
legal profession, and it may not be too late to see whether a
political writer of considerable picturesqueness and influence
24

may not be yet exploited. (Cheers.) If Lord Northcliffe had
heard that speech, 1 cannot imagine him letting him escape.
(Renewed cheers and laughter.)
To come back to the resolution, the seconder said to you
that I had mentioned that I could not regard the position as
fuU of hope. I cannot, but at the same time I do not want you
to go away thinking that I regard it as hopeless. I do not.
(Cheers.) It is not good, but it is not as hopeless by any
means, in my opinion, as it seemed to me six months ago.
I would like to say, speaking as one who has been a bit of a
poUtician in my time, and one who thinks that he has got a
kind of feeling at the tips of his fingers about pohtical events,
I think, on the whole, we have got a fighting chance, and six
months ago, to teU you the honest truth, I did not think we
had. I wUl not teU you why I think that, but I do. (Laughter
and cheers.)
Sir John has been good enough to refer to my humble
efforts to serve the cause. When I look round and see other
gentlemen on my right hand and my left, when I think of the
ceaseless and very important work which Sir John, for
example, does for the cause of Greece, work which very
few people except a few friends of his, and one or two impor
tant people, know much about, and for which he never claims
publicity, I feel rather ashamed that anything I have done
should be made the subject of thanks to-day. When I take
my friend, Mr. Marchetti, here, who never grudges time nor
trouble in our cause, always one of the most patient and most
cheerful of backers of me ; when I think of all that Mr. PaUis
has' done for his country, and what he has done for our League
in helping it on to its feet for many years ; when I think of our
young friend, Mr. Glasgow, and the exceUent work he has
done, not only for the Mansion House Meeting, but in a dozen
other ways, I do not know why I should have been picked out
except as a kind of symbol for the work which the Anglo-
HeUenic League does as a whole. (Cheers.)
Sir John in his modesty would probably say that his
services to Greece were due to the fact that he is a Greek
and that he is only doing his duty to Greece, and he would
probably, if I would let him, which I vriU not, say it is some-
25

thing for me, an Englishman, to go out of my way and try to
do something for Greece. But it is not anything at aU. As an
EngUshman, belonging to a country now educated and
civilised, I owe almost all knowledge of truth, beauty, litera
ture, science, and civilisation which I possess, to that great
and glorious Greek nation, of which the modern Greeks are
the heirs and the descendants, and anything that I can do for
the country of Greece and for the Greek race is little enough,
seeing that I owe to Greece and Greeks so much that to me
makes life worth living. (Loud cheers.)
{The Meeting then terminated.)

26

SECRETARY'S REPORT
For the Year ending December 31st, 1921.

The year under review has been one of exceeding difficulty
for those who feel convinced that the cause of civUization wUl
benefit by the strengthening of Greece's position in the Near
East. The ghastly massacres of Greeks and Armenians, no
less than the intimate relations between Angora and Moscow,
aU point in the same direction. In fighting the Kemalists
Greece would seem to have the right to claim the help of her
past Allies who in the stress of the Great War were only too
glad to have her on their side. Despite this, Greece was left
to fight Angora unaided — was indeed refused the rights of an
ordinary belUgerent in such matters as the right of search at
sea. An attempt to crush Kemal led the Greek forces too far
from their base, and resulted in their retirement ; but the
punishment inflicted on the Kemalists has been severe enough
to prevent, hitherto, the latter from undertaking seriously to
drive the Greeks out of Asia Minor. The Kemalists have,
therefore, resorted to the Hamidian poUcy of playing off one
Power against the other : promises of concessions have
attracted to their side the less desirable elements of inter
national finance. Lip-service to high principles was rendered
by M. Clemenceau when the Treaty of Sevres was under dis
cussion ; this has not prevented Europe from learning noth
ing from past history — from the treatment of the Kut
prisoners — as to the mentahty and civUization of the Turks.
Under such circumstances it wUl be evident that the work of
the Executive Committee of the League has been such that
no very tangible result can be shown. It is, nevertheless,
hoped that very useful information has been brought before
the thinking pubhc. From this point of view the chief place
must be given to the Mansion House meeting held in aid of
the Christians of Asia Mmor on December 12th, with the
Lord Mayor in the chair. Notwithstanding the short notice
27

avaUable, the seating capacity of the haU was used to its ut
most, whUe for a large number of the audience, only standing
room was obtainable. The Archbishop of Canterbury, absent
through Ulness, sent a message of support. The speakers at
the meeting included the late Lord Bryce (his last appearance
in public in support of a cause he had so much at heart), the
Bishop of Winchester, Lord Gladstone, Sir V. Chirol, Sir R.
Adkins, M.P., Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., the Rev. R. C. GUlie,
and the Rev. Dr. Horton.
The following resolutions were passed unanimously and
forwarded to the Prime Minister :
Resolution 1.
" That this meeting of the citizens of London, held in the
Mansion House under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, calls
the attention of the Allied Governments and of the civiUzed
world to the imminent danger now threatening the Christians
of Asia Minor and of Armenia, to whom protection was
solemnly promised by the AUied Governments, and who are
now left at the mercy of the Kemalist Turks ; and to the
danger which threatens also the peaceable and orderly portion
of the Moslem non-Kemalist population of CUicia."
Resolution 2.
" That this meeting reminds the AUied Governments of their
repeated and solemn pledges to secure safety and freedom for
the menaced populations, and deplores the fact that no effectual
steps have been or are being taken to carry out these promises,
more especiaUy because large numbers of those now en
dangered were induced, and in some cases even required, to
settle in CUicia after the Armistice under direct and official
assurances of protection from France and England."
Resolution 3.
"That inasmuch as the experience of the past has amply
shown the futUity of trusting any Turkish assurances of
justice and humanity, this meeting urges that no further
reliance be placed on paper guarantees, but that real and
adequate protection be afforded against the systematic ex
pulsion or extirpation with which the whole Christian and a
portion of the Mohammedan population are now menaced."
28

Warm cables of thanks and gratitude were received from
the foUowing: the locum tenens of the Patriarchate, Con
stantinople, the Armenian Patriarch Zaven, the Central
CouncU of the Pontus Greeks, the Armenian Community of
Greece, the University of Athens, the League of Epirotes, the
Metropohtans of Smyrna, of Kydonise, of Krene, and of Aneon,
Tourian Bishop of the Armenians, the Pastor of the Evangelical
Greeks, the Chambers of Commerce of Athens, Piraeus, and
Smyrna, the Town CouncUs of Athens and Pirseus, the
Corporations of Sm3n:na and many towns in Asia Minor, many
communities and refugees in Asia Minor, the PanheUenic
League of Stragglers for Liberty, the Central Committee of
the Political Associations of Greece, the Mayor of Chios, the
Agricultural Products Society, Athens, the Clerks Confedera
tion, Athens, the Commercial Union of Athens, the Greek
Artizans' Confederation, the Association of CivU Servants of
Greece, the Greek Manufacturers' League, the Cabdrivers and
Carmen's League, the Greek Shop Assistants' Union, the
Cercle d'Alexandrie, and the Centre Populaire HeUenique
of Alexandria.
As regards the membership of the League, the increase in
the subscription and financial reasons have caused several
resignations. Further, eight deaths have occurred among
our members, whUe thirteen members have been elected.
The League now numbers 510 members.
Mr. A. W. Gomme gave a lecture on the " Scenery of Greece,"
which was very much appreciated.
The foUowing publications have been issued by the League
since our last Report : —
43. Annual General Meeting of the Anglo-Hellenic League,
December, 1920.
44. The Resurrection of Greece, by Harold Spender.
In addition, the Manifesto of the League sanctioned at the
last General Meeting was printed and widely circulated.
Many members of our League have written articles in
magazines and newspapers defending the Greek cause. We
may especially draw attention to the foUowmg : the Chair
man's letters to The Times published on June 30 and Nov
ember 4, 1921 ; the Vice-Chairman's letters to The Ttmes,
29

February 21, July 11, and November 14; letters from Mr.
T. P. O'Connor, M.P., to The Times, November 7 and 15, and
to the Nation and Athenceum, December 17 ; Mr. Spender's
letter to The Times, July 8. Sir J. J. Stavridi pubhshed an
article on " Revision of the Turkish Treaty" in the Contem
porary Review, May, 1921 ; from the Rev. J. A. Douglas there
appeared in the March number of Eastern Europe an article
entitled " Shall the Turkish Treaty Stand ? " Mr. J. Mavro
gordato wrote an article on " Greece, Constantine and Veni
zelos," which was pubUshed in the Edinburgh Review for
January, 1921 ; Mr. W. MiUer sent to the Morning Post an
article on " The Freeing of Greece," which was pubhshed in
the issue of AprU 7. We may also draw attention to Professor
J. L. Myres' two articles on " The Dodecanese," which were
published in the November and December, 1920, issues of
the Geographical Journal. A special interview with Venizelos
on " The Future of the Near East " was pubUshed in the
Observer of February 6, 1921, and was reprinted and widely
circulated by the League.
Attention may also be drawn to the fact that from America
we have received increased demands for our .publications to
be sent regularly to Universities and PubUc Libraries.
The Athens Branch of the League held its Annual General
Meeting on AprU 4, 1922. The list of officers for 1922 and
1923 is given below.
Executive Committee : Ladies Committee :
Chairman : S. Delta. President : The Hon. Mrs. G. Nazo.
Hon. Sec: D. M. Kalopothakis. Hon. Sec: Mrs. D. Dragoumis.
Hon. Treas.: D. P. Petrocochino. Members :
Assist. Hon. Sec: G. A. Ziffo. ^.^^ jjon. Mrs. Aubrey Smith.
Members : ^^- Y^!?^ Calligas.
T, r- Mrs. A. DiOMEDES.
p. CaLOGEROPULO. jyts. GuiNIS.
L. Calvocoressi. Mrs. Marino.
R. Cumberbatch. Mrs. C. Pappadakis.
A. A. Pallis, Jun. Mrs. Photiadis.
A. Paspatti. Council :
E. C. Rawlins. j, Athanasakis.
Ph. Chryssovelonis.
B. Hill.
Prof. Menardos.
L. NiCOLAlDES.
30

The Athens Branch have special Evening Classes for teach
ing English. These classes are doing admirable work in pro
pagating the knowledge of EngUsh, and must tend to draw
the two nations together.
Our financial position has not improved since our last
Report, notwithstanding the increased annual subscription.
One factor affecting this is that a fair number of members
have not paid their subscriptions for the last year.
The most serious point, however, is the faUing-off in dona
tions for 1921 ; whUst in previous years we received on an
average £450, as donations, for the year 1921 we only received
£169 18s. 8d. In 1920 our income exceeded our disbursements
by £16 17s. 5d., but in 1921, notwithstanding the strictest
economy exercised, our expenditure exceeded our income by
£186 15s. 5|d. Had the usual donations been given us, we
should have closed the year 1921 comfortably.
Rates, taxes, etc., in 1921 amounted to £154 14s. 6d., as
against £91 7s. 6d. for 1920. The reason is that for two
quarters of 1921, being unable to find suitable accommodation,
we were obhged to pay an exorbitant rent for the old office ;
in this respect the cost of our present office is very reasonable.
It should, however, be borne in mind that unless some
generous patrons come to our assistance, as in former years,
most of the remaining capital of the League will by the end of
the current year have been spent, and, consequently, a very
serious position wiU arise. Those who can help us should
therefore come to our assistance.

31

ANGLO-HELLENIC
Balance Sheet as at

1919.

LIABILITIES.

£ s.
d.
Capital Account : —
Balance at 1st January, 1920
Add subscriptions of Life Members
received to 31.12.20
£
350 20
s. 0
0
d. 0
0
£
s.
d.
350 0
0
Scholarship Account : —
-370
0
0
100 0
0
Balance at 1st January, 1920
Prize Account : —
100
0
0
5 0
0
Balance at 1st January, 1920
5
0
0
13 8
0
Sundry Creditors . .
27
V
0
£468 8 0
£502 7 0
2)r.
Income and Expenditure Account for
£ ^¦
d.
166 0
0 T
16 13
2
52 12
ii
18 17
5
171 9
0
13 8
n
14 14
6
79 6
0
16
4
—
£533 17
5
EXPENDITURE.
To Salaries . .
Stationery Postages, Telegrams and Telephone
Other Office Expenditure
Literature and Printing
Library . .
Lectures and Public Meetings
Rents, Rates and Taxes
Sundries Excess of Income over Expenditure
^ s.
d.
171 0
0
29 1
0
52 14
8*
19 5
7
138 16
5
4 15
10
9 17
2
91 7
6
3 16
8*
10 17
5
£537 12 4
The item of £118 12s. 6d. for subscriptions includes £3 5s. not paid into
Balance Sheet, being shown as a
32
LEAGUE.
3 1 St December, 1920.

1919.
£ s. d.

309 3 2

50 34 4

0 9
14

13 14 3

56 6 3
£468 8 0

ASSETS.
Office Furniture Account
Less Amount written off . .

£ s. d. £
38 7 6
38 7 6

Investments : —
£210 10s. 6d. 5% War Loan at Cost

199 6

8

103 War Savings Certificates

at

15/6 each at Cost

79 16

6

£30 5% National War Bonds

at

Cost 
30 0
0
Cash : —
On Deposit Account
, ,
—
On Current Account
. .
151 3
8
In hand
2 11
4
309 3 2
Donation received for publication of
" Some English Phil-Hellenes."
Balance at 1st January, 1920 . . 13 14 3
Less further donation received during
year  13 14 3
Income and Expenditure Account: —
Debit Balance at 1st January, 1920 56 6 3
Less excess of income over expendi
ture for year ended 31.12.20 as
per account herewith .. .. 16 17 5
153 15 0
—39 8 10
£502 7 0
Year ending 31st December, 1920.
dr.
1919.
INCOME.
£ s.
d.
£ s.
d.
66 0
0
By Subscriptions* . .
118 12
6
403 7
6
,, Donations
406 6
4
11 11
6
,, Interest on War Loan
11 11
6
4 6
1
„ Interest on Deposit at Bank . .
1 2
0
48 12
4
,, Excess of Expenditure over Income, 1919 .
—
£533 17 5
£537 12 4
the Bank until the beginning of January.
deduction from Sundry Creditors. 33
This appears as an asset on the
ANGLO-HELLENIC
Balance Sheet as at

1920.

LIABILITIES.

£ s.
d.
Capital Account : —
£
s.
d. £
s.
d.
Balance at 1st January, 1921
370
0
0
Add subscriptions of Life Members
received to 31.12.21
30
0
0
370 0
n
,
-100
0
0
Scholarship Account : —
100 0
0
Balance at 1st January, 1921
Prize Account : —
100
0
0
5 0
0
Balance at 1st January, 1921
5
0
0
27 7
0
Sundry Creditors . .
46
14
4
£502 7 0
£551 14 4
2)r.
1920.
£ s. d
171 0
29 1
52 14
19 5
138 16
4 15 10
9 17 2
91 7 6
3 16 8
16 17 5
Income and Expenditure Account for
EXPENDITURE.
To Salaries . .
,, Stationery
,, Postages, Telegrams and Telephone
,, Other Office Expenditure
,, Literature and Printing
„ Library . .
,, Lectures and Public Meetings
,, Rent, Rates and Taxes
,, Sundries
,, Excess of Income over Expenditure
£537 12 4
/:
s.
d.
163
0
0
12
5
0
56
9
3*
23
10
10
115
13
2
11
7
3
18
5
8
154
14
6
3
11
5
£558 17 li
34
LEAGUE.
3 1 St December, 1921.

1920.
£ s. d.

309 3 2

151 3
2 11

39 8 10
£502 7 0

£

s.

d.

38

7

6

38

7

6

ASSETS.
Office Furniture Account
Less Amovmt written ofi

Investments : —
£210 10s. 6d. 5% War Loan at Cost 199 6 8
£30 5% National War Bonds at
Cost

Cash : —
On Current Account
In hand

Sunday Debtors
Income and Expenditure Account: —
Debit Balance at 1st January, 1921 39 8 10
Add Excess of Expenditure over
Income for year ended 31.12.21 186 15 5J

d.

30

0 q

76 2

17 11
5 gj

229 6 8

79 3
16 19

-226 4 3i
£551 14 4

Year ending 3 I si December, 1921.

Cr.

1920.

INCOME.

£ s.
118 12
406 6

d. 6
4

By Subscriptions . .
,, Donations

£

s.

11 11

6

,, Interest on War Loan

11

11

—

,, Interest on War Savings'
Certificates 23
3
1 2
0
,, Interest on Deposit at Bank . .
—
d.
,, Excess of Expenditure over Income. .
£ s. d.
167 8 0
169 18 8
- 34 15 0
186 15 5i
£537 12 4
£558 17 li
35
Printed in Great Britain at
The Mayflower Press, Plymouth.
William Brendon & Son, Ltd.

3 9002 08954 i

THE

ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAOfE

Was founded in 1913 with the-
following objects: — ~ '

^-^>^

,?

IM'

.E.''

To defend the just dlaims arid '4ml3Uf3»

of Greece.
To remove existing prejudices. ati^'^e-s/.
vent future niisunderstariding-s'jiie^r^
tween the British and Helleiiic rages, -¦
as well as between the HelleniC;^hd
other races of South-Eastfern Europe.
To spread information concerning .Greeces,^
and stimulate interest in Hellenic . t, -; ^
matters. *
To improve the social, educational, coni-i'Jj^
mercial, and political relations, t)f:lth^'^ '^
two countries.

-*<*Vft

To promote travel in Greece and secirrei
improved facilities for it. - '-

m

Inquiries and applications for MBn^ersh^'%^.
should be addressed to the Secretary of this J ^^
Anglo-Hellenic League, at the Qffic^jMf^^
the League, 53/54 Chancery Lcke, W^.C a^%

'.^"^