For the sacrifice demanded of Greece in Epirus the Great Powers
permitted her by way of compensation to retain all the Aegean Islands
{123} occupied by her during the war, except Imbros, Tenedos, and the
Rabbit Islands at the mouth of the Dardanelles. These islands,
however, Greece is never to fortify or convert into naval bases. This
allotment of the Asiatic Islands (which includes all but Rhodes and the
Dodecanese, temporarily held by Italy as a pledge of the evacuation of
Libya by the Turkish officers and troops) has given great
dissatisfaction in Turkey, where it is declared it would be better to
have a war with Greece than cede certain islands especially Chios and
Mitylene. The question of the disposition of the islands had, however,
been committed by Turkey to the Great Powers in the Treaty of London.
And Turkish unofficial condemnation of the action of the Powers now
creates a dangerous situation. Mr. Venizelos declared not long ago,
with the enthusiastic approval of the chamber, that the security of
Greece lay alone in the possession of a strong navy.
For Mr. Venizelos personally nothing in all {124} these great events
can have been more gratifying than the achievement of the union of
Crete with Greece. This was consummated on December 14, when the Greek
flag was hoisted on Canea Fort in the presence of King Constantine, the
prime minister, and the consuls of the Great Powers, and saluted with
101 guns by the Greek fleet.