Our relations with Turkey have been strained for some months. But after the negotiations of Bucharest some agreement was reached regarding the refugees. Those in Europe will learn that the Greeks expelled two hundred thousand persons from Thrace and Asia Minor. One portion of them we have settled in the islands. Besides those there are about fifty thousand Turkish refugees—though not persecuted—in Macedonia. A mixed committee was to arrange the exchange of these refugees at the beginning of the war. As to the question of the ownership of the Aegean islands, the Hellenic Government considers the question settled from an international standpoint, not only by the treaties of London and Athens, but also by the unanimous decision of all the European powers.
The Government declared that it was ready to satisfy Turkey regarding this question, under the sine qua condition that the islands would continue to be occupied and administered by Greece in the same way as all the other provinces of the Hellenic Kingdom. After an exchange of views on the subject, it was decided that I should meet the Grand Vizier in Brussels, but the war prevented this.

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