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.
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 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 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 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.