fore, in order to assist the Serbians on the Danube
and Save in closing "the ring of steel."

Venizelos, the Greek statesman, who had been the Greek Bismarck in
the extension of the Greek domain in the Balkan War, had taken sides
with the Allies; and he favored concessions by Greece as well as
Serbia to Bulgaria, in order to satisfy Bulgarian ambitions and keep
her from striking hands with the Central Powers, while the King of
Greece, with the Queen, a sister of the kaiser, had decidedly
pro-German leanings. The Greeks had a most difficult part, even for
Levantine diplomacy, to play. If they cast their fortunes with the
Allies and the Teutons won, then they could count upon the Central
Powers not only taking Saloniki away from them, but bringing
themselves practically under Germanic domination. If they openly
espoused the German side, then as the country depended upon the sea,
their ports would be blockaded, if not bombarded by the allied
fleets. In the event of an allied victory over the Central Powers
they were certain that Saloniki would not be annexed by the Allies,
bitter as they were against Greece because she was supposed to have
broken her pledged word to assist them in the Gallipoli expedition.
Following a policy of drift and protest, the Greeks consented to the
British and French landing troops at Saloniki and to their making it
a base of action.

Certain forces were sent into Serbia before the Serbian army had
been completely driven back, and whatever the public thought,
certainly with no expectation of gaining a victory over the
Bulgarians. This obvious movement was only for the purpose of
gaining time for fortifying a line around Saloniki and bringing
sufficient men and guns to defend it.

German diplomacy and staff work had not in all of the war gained a
more important technical advantage for less cost in time, money, and
troops, than it had in the fall of 1915 in the Balkans when they
made the Bulgars to serve as they had the Turks, to secure their
ends. At last the British withdrew from Gallipoli with such small
losses that the evacuation of this position on an exposed coast is
undoubtedly one of the most brilliant pieces of military maneuvering
of its kind in all history. No credit is ever given for retreats.
But this was a good deal more than a retreat. It was withdrawing
from a beach in face of a well-armed enemy. The story of it--as yet
unwritten--will some day bring a tribute to British military