the poor old
gentleman got back he found himself compelled to start a lawsuit
against the Germans, since they were unwilling to pay his costs. The
Consul-General at Pest disowned all knowledge of him, but the broker
called in the police as witnesses; for they had summoned him, on more
than one occasion, to explain why he was so much in the Consul's
company. The German Government said also that he was a perfect
stranger to them; but finally they settled with him for a sum which is
believed to have been 35,000 crowns.

GREEK TRANSACTIONS

One reason why the Entente had dissuaded the Serbs from attacking
Bulgaria was to prevent the _casus foederis_ with Greece being
jeopardized. This treaty between Greece and Serbia would become
operative by a Bulgarian aggression--and the fox-faced M. Gounaris
when he was Prime Minister of Greece in August 1915 assured the
Allied Powers that Greece would never tolerate a Bulgarian attack upon
Serbia. It was largely on the strength of this assurance that, when, a
little later, the attitude of Bulgaria grew menacing and the Serbian
General Staff suggested marching upon Sofia and nipping the Bulgarian
mobilization in the bud, the then Russian Foreign Minister, M.
Sazonov, supported in this by Sir Edward Grey, warned Serbia not to
take the initiative. Serbia yielded to the demands of her great
Allies, only to see herself abandoned by the Greeks. King Constantine
and probably the greater part of his people were anxious to remain
outside the war. And to free himself from the embarrassing Treaty with
Serbia he declared that it would only have applied if Serbia had been
attacked by the Bulgars. [We may say that it was doubtful whether the
_casus foederis_ arose when Serbia was attacked by Austria; but it
clearly and indubitably did arise when she was attacked by Bulgaria.
When Venizelos spoke of the obligations of Greece towards Serbia, a
certain Mr. Paxton Hibben, an American admirer of Constantine, said in
his book, _Constantine I. and the Greek People_ (New York, 1920), that
Venizelos was making an appeal to the sentimentality of his
countrymen!] So Constantine proclaimed that Greece was neutral--"Our
gallant Serbian allies," he declared some five years later, when he
returned from exile, "Our gallant Serbian allies"; and the Athenian
mob--

August Athena! where,
Where are thy men of might, thy grand in soul?
Gone.[92] ...

--the Athenian m