Microsoft Word 1 Arif thesis cover final doc

CHAPTER 2 – HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 
67 
days of a gold standard reduced the reserves that had to be held against note issuance 
by half
138
. 
By standing aloof the British may have increased the chances of a chaotic collapse, 
as was to occur six months later, but their appraisal of the Greeks’ reluctance to 
withdraw was correct. This reluctance, though, was not accompanied by an 
alternative plan of action. A new allied proposal in March 1922 which aimed at “a 
peaceful evacuation of Asia Minor by the Greek forces” caused a storm in Athens. 
The government told the British envoy that publication of the plan would lead to a 
panic-stricken exodus of the Anatolian Christians; but it was prepared, nonetheless, 
since it could see no alternative to allied mediation, to accept an armistice pending 
the negotiation of terms. The Venizelists, for their part, withdrew from the chamber 
before the relevant vote, thus protesting but not opposing. In the event the Greeks 
were spared a negotiation at that stage because the nationalists demanded a 
withdrawal simultaneously with an armistice
139
. The allied proposals gave an 
impetus to a scheme initiated earlier by actors of Venizelist persuasion for an 
autonomous self-defence of a zone in Asia Minor. The scheme was fantastic and the 
principal assumption underlying it, that the allies would, on the analogy of 1916, 
support a Venizelist movement in Asia Minor, when they would not support a 
royalist government in Athens, was expressly declared false by the British
140
; they 
were equally to dismiss an officially proposed variant in the form of an autonomous 
zone to be created by the powers themselves
141
. The significance of the Venizelist 
138
Llewellyn Smith, 267 
139
Llewellyn Smith 254-257; Stratigos, 323-336 
140
Llewellyn Smith, 257-264 
141
Llewellyn Smith, 280-281 

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