We had not only backed the wrong horse in Greece,
but we had backed it in a way so devious and reckless that when the double clad* came, in the rout of the Greek troops and in the dismissal of Mr. Lloyd George, first by the Party that supported him in the House of Commons and then by the country at the General Election, it looked as though our prestige was, for the time, completely lost. It did not make matters easier that our relations with France had become difficult and delicate, that the new Dictator in Italy had introduced an unaccountable element, that the Greek Government had placed itself hopelessly in the wrong by the execution of the ex-Ministers and generals and, finally, that the whole of the Near Eastern atmosphere was befouled with " disclosures " and " revelations " of the obscurity, levity and recklessness with which Mr. Lloyd George had conducted our relations with Greece and Turkey. Out of this welter of ineptitudes and worse Lord Curzon, by his knowledge, his ability, and his straightforwardness, has literally re-established our prestige in the Near East, and made us not only respectable but respected. If he is honoured, as he certainly deserves to be, Patientia restituit rem might well be his new motto. It would fitly com- memorate his achievement.
