ABSTRACT
In December 22, 1920, Lloyd George declared that the friendship of the Greek people in Asia Minor was "vital to Great Britain, more vital than to any other country in the world". Balfour, Curzon, and the Foreign Office too were pro-Greek oriented. Characteristic was a memorandum by Harold Nicolson, a member of the Central European Department of the Foreign Office, the son of Sir Arthur Nicolson. Nicolson seemed oblivious that the period of empire building was over and, was subsequently to discover, that Greece had become a burden rather than an asset. In the final analysis, it was Briand that was right, not the British policymakers. The French were a war-weary nation, and they had no interest in supporting Greek adventurers, whom, in any case, they regarded as British clients. In Constantinople, newspapers, sympathetic to the Nationalist cause, made no secret of their gratification.
