January i8, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
13 
A Study of King Constantine 
By Sir William M. Ramsay 
IN Turkey German diplomacy has, so far, been success- 
ful. It is there seen in its best form— hard, 
cruel, and unscrupulous, but far-sighted and instinct 
with big ideas, \vhic*i it is working out^ with 
extraordinary skill and energy. Moreover, the Turks, 
even the most corrupt of the officials, are with few 
exceptions, brave, and (ierm&n methods had to adapt 
themselves to this character. The best way to dominate 
the Turk was to impress him with the immense superiority 
of German ideas and powers of organisation and manage- 
ment. A difierent method is needed ^\■hen German 
diplomacy has to deal with a man naturally timid. 
Here the Kaiser's personal power comes in most con- 
spicuously in a style that is most repellent to the \A'estern 
mind. Undoubtedly the best example of the success 
of this side of his diplomacy is seen in the case of the 
present King of the Hellenes. 
The present writer has watched King Constantine for 
a period of thirty-iivc years, and has seen him grow up 
from early childhood and develop. At the time of the 
first Greco-Turkish war, in i8c)6, he was a young man of 
little ability, inadequate education, empty and selfish, 
who had not been brouglit up to recognise and to make 
any sacrifice for the duties of his position. His father 
was good-natured, kindly, easy-going, but not well suited 
to impress great ideas on his son. The war against . 
Turkey came to test the Crown Prince, and he was 
shown to be not merely selfish, but cowardly 
I remember well the explosion of indignation against 
him personally which was roused then. A chorus, 
indeed, of the champions of royalty protested that the 
(ireek people was prejudiced and unfair in judging liim, 
because, as a race, the ^ Greeks could not forgive ill- 
success. The accounts of his conduct, however, as I 
read them and heard them, were given not only by im- 
jjassioned Greeks, but by cool neutral observers, and 
they were unanimous. It was a right instinct which 
led the Greek people to protest against their destiny 
being allowed to pass under the conti^ol of such an empty, 
incomjX'tent and selfish individual. It was necessary 
to send him away for a time into a sort of genteel exile ; 
and a. belief in the efiiciency of (ierman education and 
German training determined that he should go to Berlin. 
It may well be doubted whether it would have been of 
any advantage to send Constantine to be influenced by 
the tone of English education and society. He was 
already easy-going, devoted to enjoyment, unused to 
work, and apt to consider no requirements except his 
own amusement. 
In (Germany the Kaiser took him and breathed a 
spirit into him, but it was a German spirit. It made him 
able to work, to sacrifice the present to the future, to 
form plans for a distant time, to conceal his intentions 
under a mask of bonhomie, and to aim steadily at auto- 
cracy, as well as to know something about the movement 
of soldiers in the field and the principles of modern war. 
Tliis training left him as selfish as before. His ideas 
were bigger, his outlook on the world was immensely 
enlarged on the intellectual side, but on the moral side 
tlieie was no improvement. He was almost hypnotised 
by the German diplomacy and militarism. Previously 
he had shown extremely little power of thinking or 
])ianning, and all that which he now acquired was breathed 
into him by the German mind. And so he has remained 
— little more than a clever automaton, which could be 
guided and influenced at will by the master in Berlin. 
In a previous article in L.-vkd & W.\TiiK I pointed 
out that his one mihtary success, which evinced real 
insight, was inspired from Berlin. At the beginning of 
the Balkan war the repeated Greek successes did not 
imply any real military skill, because the Turks, being 
fully engaged with Bulgaria and Serbia, liad entirely 
abandoned the attempt to stem the Greek advance ; 
but when the second Balkan war broke out and the Bul- 
garian army made a sudden attack against their former 
allies at the weakest point, where the separate f^irces 
joined, they found the Greek army fully prepared in 
anticipation of that treacherous assault, the truth beinji 
that, while Berlin and Vienna had arranged the whole 
plan of the Bulgarian campaign, the Kaiser communicated 
e\-erything to Constantine, and instructed him how 
to counter the sudden attack. His success was complete. 
He got the whole credit for it from his people ; and his 
former unpopularity, which had been diminished by 
time and by the earlier successes of the Balkan war, was 
changed into thorough popularity. He now ranked as 
the heaven-born Emperor who was to lead the Greek 
army into Constantinople, and fulfil the prophecy, which 
had long been believed by almost every Greek, that this 
victorious army will be led by Constantine. 
Venizelos 
Venizelos was' the only statesman who, as a personality, 
stood near Constantine in the estimation of the Greeks ; 
and even he could not for a moment compare in popu- 
larity and influence with the King. Constantine had 
been trained thoroughly to take advantage of this personal 
influence over the Greek mind. The lesson which he 
had learned from the Kaiser was exactly suited to the 
occasion. Just as he himself was a puppet directed 
from Berlin, so in- his turn he became the manipulator of 
the conduct of all the worst elements among the Greek 
people ; and he has shown the same cleverness in utihsing 
his opportunities which the Kaiser has possessed all 
along. His position as Commander-in-Chief of the army 
gave him great jjower. As soon as the army was mobilised, 
his orders became the law of life to all the soldiers ; and 
when this authoritative position was combined with the 
popular favour which he enjoyed as the heaven-sent 
general and leader, the advantages of his position were 
exactly of the kind which Berlin had taught him to use 
successfully and cle\'erly. And he has gradually brought 
it about that many of 'the (ireeks, and especially all the 
worst among the Greeks, belie\-e that the patriotic course 
is to resist demands imposed upon them by those whom 
they are taught to consider alien enemies. 
It is morally and psychologically impossible for the 
Greek King to act otherwise. The soul which was put 
into him was ti German soul. His thoughts and ideas 
and aspirations are wholly German. He knows that it 
is his German training which has made him a man ; and 
every word that issues from Berlin is to him sacred and 
all-powerful, as the full expression of the highest truth. 
He knows far better than we do how the Kaiser has 
succeeded in re-making the Turkish people. He. knows 
the fate of Serbia, and he is firmly convinced that Rou- 
mania will suffer equally. He believes that his only 
chance for salvation lies in declaring himself on the Ger- 
man side at the suitable moment. He sees how Ferdinand 
of Bulgaria succeeded in maintaining a pretended 
neutrality until the proper time came ; and he is imitating 
Ferdinand to the best of his ability. Finally, he under- 
stands , how he gained the reputation among his own 
people of a great and successful general ; and he trusts to 
a " plan of campaign," suggested by the Kaiser, to carry 
him safely through the next war. 
Why trouble about Greece ? Why all this talk about 
Greece ? Of what value is it ? To us it possesses in itself 
no value ; but to Clermany and her Asiatic plans, it is of 
enormous importance. "VVith Greece (iermany would 
command both sides of the .Egean Sea, and would stretch 
far into the Levant, and with those far-stretched fingers 
of the Morea touch the sea-path from Malta to Syria and 
to Egypt. It possesses a very long coast line, which 
is a great want in Germany, e\en in the greater Germany. 
It covers the Berlin-Bagdad Railway on the west, as 
Roumania with the Danube and Bulgaria protects that 
line on the east. In German hands Greece would im- 
mensely lengthen that' long sea-way which at present 
lies between Russia and the open Mediterranean. Those 
who ask about the value; of Greece to Germany can 
best answer their own (juestion by taking a map and 
indicating on it the railway artery that gives vitality 
to (ierman Asia, and then noticing how Greece 
protects that aa'tery. 
