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CHAPTER 2 – HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 
70 
before receiving a request in cipher, for the first time, with the exception of New 
Zealand and Newfoundland, refused to come to the assistance of the mother country. 
A stand-off between British and Turkish troops on 23 September did not lead to 
open hostilities; on the same day, coincidentally, the allies conceded in principle the 
reversion of Eastern Thrace to Turkey. The way to armistice talks was thereby 
opened; but another brush with disaster on 29 September was avoided only by dint 
of the British general disregarding his orders to deliver an ultimatum
153
. Armistice 
talks began at Mudanya on 3 October concluding on 10 October, coming into effect 
on 15 October and providing for a Greek withdrawal from Eastern Thrace within 15 
days, followed by a 30-day allied occupation
154
. On 19 October the Conservatives 
withdrew their support for Lloyd George and he resigned
155
. This was another, if 
oblique, victory of Mustafa Kemal, whose influence on British politics is 
commemorated for a mostly oblivious public in the name borne to this day by the 
committee of Conservative backbench MPs. 
The withdrawal of the Greek army from Eastern Thrace was accompanied by the 
flight of the Christian population westwards taking with it what be carried on the 
back or loaded onto carts. The scenes were immortalised by the pen of the young 
Hemingway and captured in short clips by Pathé newsreels
156
. The population had at 
least a month or so to leave their homes, and in its relative order the exodus 
resembled the much smaller exodus from Cilicia which accompanied the French 
153
Llewellyn Smith, 316-318; Mango, 351-354 
154
Llewellyn Smith, 318; Mango, 354-355 
155
Llewellyn Smith, 318; Mango, 356 
156
Llewellyn Smith, 319-321 

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