great his popularity still was. True, in 1910 he had obtained 146
seats out of 182, and now only 185 out of 314. But the majority,
though diminished, remained substantial enough to show that he still
was, for most people, the man who had cleansed Greece. Nor did M.
Venizelos imperil his popularity by revealing his differences with the
King. On the contrary, in his own country, his attacks were carefully
confined to the statesmen and soldiers opposed to him: the King, M.
Venizelos proclaimed, far from sharing their narrow, unpatriotic,
pro-German views, "did not exclude exit from neutrality under given
conditions, but accepted it in principle as imposed for the serving of
the national rights." [1] By his organs, too, the King was described
as "a worthy successor of the Constantines who created the mighty
Byzantine Empire--imbued with a sense of his great national
mission--Greek in heart and mind." [2] So anxious, indeed, was M.
Venizelos not to lose votes by any display of ill-feeling against the
popular sovereign that he even took some pains to have himself
photographed calling at the Palace to inquire after the King's health.

As to policy, it is difficult to determine the part which it played in
the contest. M. Venizelos refrained from publishing any sort of
programme. His opponents asserted that a vote for Venizelos meant a
vote for war. But his most prominent supporters declared that such was
by no means the case: although, at a certain moment, he was ready to
participate in the Gallipoli enterprise, circumstances had changed, and
his future course would depend on the situation which he would find on
returning to {51} power. This vagueness, though not very helpful to
the voters, doubtless helped the voting; for there was hardly any
pro-war feeling among the masses. The noble ideals emblazoned upon the
Entente banners produced little impression on their minds. The
experience of two thousand years has taught the Greeks that Governments
never fight for noble ideals, and, if they relieve a small nation from
a foreign yoke, it is, as often as not, in order to impose a new one.
To them the War was a struggle for power and plunder between two
European groups. It was matter of common knowledge that Constantinople
had been allotted to the Russians, and the Greeks were not particularly
keen on shedding their blood in order to place a Tsar on the Byzantine
throne. Nor did the Smyrna bait attract them greatly, sinc