It was this Cretan question, even more than the Macedonian question,
which in 1897 had driven Greece, single-handed and unprepared, into a
war with Turkey in which she was destined to meet speedy and
overwhelming defeat. It was this same "accursed Cretan question," as
Mr. Venizelos called it, which now drew the country into a military
alliance against her Ottoman neighbor who, until too late, refused to
make any concession either to the just claims of the Cretans or to the
conciliatory proposals of the Greek government.
{43}
Lying midway between three continents, the island of Crete has played a
large part both in ancient and modern history. The explorations and
excavations of Sir Arthur Evans at Cnossus seem to prove that the
Homeric civilization of Tiryns and Mycenae was derived from Crete,
whose earliest remains carry us back three thousand years before the
Christian era. And if Crete gave to ancient Greece her earliest
civilization she has insisted on giving herself to modern Greece. It
is a natural union; for the Cretans are Greeks, undiluted with Turk,
Albanian, or Slav blood, though with some admixture of Italian. The
one obstacle to this marriage of kindred souls has been Turkey. For
Crete was taken from the Venetians by the Turks in 1669, after a twenty
years' siege of Candia, the capital. A portion of the inhabitants
embraced the creed of their conquerors, so that at the present time
perhaps two-thirds of the population are Christian and one-third
Moslem. The result has been to make Crete the {44} worst governed
province of the Ottoman Empire. In Turkey in Europe diversity of race
has kept the Christians quarreling with one another; in Crete diversity
of religion plunges the same race into internecine war as often as once
in ten years. The island had been the scene of chronic insurrections
all through the nineteenth century. Each ended as a rule with a
promise of the Sultan to confer upon the Cretans some form of local
self-government, with additional privileges, financial or other. But
these promises were never fulfilled. Things went from bad to worse.
The military intervention of Greece in 1897 led to war with Turkey in
which she was disastrously defeated. The European Powers had meantime
intervened and they decided that Crete should be endowed with autonomy
under the sovereignty of the Sultan, and in 1898 they appointed Prince
George of Greece as High Commissioner. Between the political parties
of the island and the representatives of the Powers {45} the Prince,
who worked steadily for the welfare of Crete, had a difficult task, and
in 1906 he withdrew, his successor being Mr. Zaimis, a former prime
minister of Greece. The new commissioner was able to report to the
protecting Powers in 1908 that a gendarmerie had been established, that
tranquility was being maintained, and that the Moslem population
enjoyed safety and security. Thereupon the Powers began to withdraw
their forces from the island. And the project for annexation with
Greece, which had been proclaimed by the Cretan insurgents under Mr.
Venizelos in 1905 and which the insular assembly had hastened to
endorse, was once more voted by the assembly, who went on to provide
for the government of the island in the name of the King of Greece. I
have not time to follow in detail the history of this programme of
annexation. Suffice it to say that the Cretans ultimately went so far
as to elect members to sit in the Greek parliament at Athens, and that
Turkey had {46} given notice that their admission to the chamber would
be regarded as a _casus belli_. I saw them on their arrival in Athens
in October, 1912, where they received a most enthusiastic welcome from
the Greeks, while everybody stopped to admire their picturesque dress,
their superb physique, and their dignified demeanor.
If Mr. Venizelos excluded these delegates from the chamber he would
defy the sentiments of the Greek people. If he admitted them, Turkey
would proclaim war.