- Project Runeberg -  Diplomatic Reminiscences before and during the World War, 1911-1917 /
449

(1920) [MARC] Author: Anatolij Nekljudov - Tema: Russia, War
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i9i6] PRINCE NICOLAS OF GREECE 449

myself with recommending him not to lose sight of one
thing only, i.e. that Greece had no enemies more bitter
and more irreconcilable than the Bulgarians, and that if
the Bulgarians got the best of the struggle which was
beginning in the south of the Balkans, Greece would
lose all the acquisitions purchased with Greek blood in
1912 and 1913. Prince Nicolas replied that he himself
was imbued with that idea.

I visSd the Prince’s passports, but I considered it
necessary to warn our Foreign Office that His
Highness—as far as I could see—was being sent by King
Constantine to make his defence against the accusations
of our Allies.

A few weeks later Prince Nicolas, who in the
meantime had been received at Tsarskoe and at Mohilev,
wrote to me from London to express his intense surprise
at my "behaviour" to him; for he knew from "reliable
sources" that I had represented him as an opponent of
the Entente and of Greece’s participation in the war. I
answered by return of post that the " reliable sources "
of which the Prince had availed himself were lying ones,
and that if I had held the opinion ascribed to me about
his sentiments, I should certainly not have hesitated to
tell him so quite frankly during our conversation in
Stockholm.

I realised without any effort that it was from our
Foreign Office—perhaps from M. Sturmer himself—that
the Greek Prince had heard what he asserted in his
letter. And the proceeding did not surprise me in the
least.

I knew perfectly well that if the Sturmer regime
continued I should sooner or latter have to give up my
post in Stockholm, and to retire from the service.

Already in May, 1916, two months before Sazonoff
retired, the Foreign Office had sent out a certain
M. E- to work side by side with me as a
supernumerary counsellor. I was well aware that this
gentleman, who was very intelligent, was the worst of

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