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King's College London College Archives

Anglo-Hellenic League


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0100 KCLCA Anglo-Hellenic League

Held at: King's College London College Archives

Title: Anglo-Hellenic League

Date(s): 1915-1948

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 2 boxes and eleven volumes.

Name of creator(s): Anglo-Hellenic League

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Anglo-Hellenic League was founded in London in 1913 by Dr Ronald Montagu Burrows, Principal of King's College London, William Pember Reeves, Director of the London School of Economics, and two prominent Anglo-Greeks, D J Cassavetti and A C Ionides. Reeves was appointed Chairman with Burrows as Vice Chairman. The main aims of the League were the defence of the `just claims and honour of Greece', the removal of existing prejudices and the prevention of future misunderstandings between the `British and Hellenic races' and also between the `Hellenic and other races of South Eastern Europe'. It also sought to spread information on Hellenic matters in Great Britain and the improvement of `the social, educational, commercial and political relations of the two countries', together with the promotion of travel between Great Britain and Greece. The offices of the League were situated in the Aldywch, London. The League quickly came to be identified with the aspirations of Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece, and acted as a source of pro-Venizelos political propaganda during the period between Venizelos' forced resignation in 1915 and the formal recognition of Venizelos as Prime Minister of the whole of Greece in Jun 1917 by the Entente powers, arguing particularly for the recognition of Venizelos' provisional government established at Salonica in 1916. Members of the League, including prominent philhellene British and wealthy members of the Greek community in Great Britain, subscribed to the endowment of the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, established at King's College London in 1919. The League held an annual meeting and periodic receptions in London to which eminent British philhellenes and Anglophile Greek dignitaries were invited. A sister branch of the League existed in Athens.

Publications: The League published numerous pamphlets on Greek issues, particularly relating to politics. The following are a selection, all published in London (the League pamphlet number is given with the year of publication): Albania and Epirus by William Pember Reeves (no 7, 1914); The New Greece by Ronald Montagu Burrows (no, 14, 1914); Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - Report of the International Commission into the causes and conduct of the Balkan Wars by Burrows (no 15, 1914); The Northern Epirotes by C S Butler (no 16, 1914); The Near East and the European War. Address delivered ... on January 15th, 1915 by Andreas M Andreades (no 17, 1915); Greece and to-morrow by Z Duckett Ferriman (no 23, 1915); Speech of M E Venizelos to the people. Delivered in Athens August 27, 1916 (no 28, 1916); The abdication of King Constantine, June 12, 1917 by Burrows (no 34, 1917); England's welcome to Venizelos at the Mansion House, November 16, 1917: speeches by the Right Hon A J Balfour, Earl Curzon of Kedleston, M. Winston Churchill, Mr Venizelos, Mr J Gennadius, and Dr R M Burrows (no 35, 1917); The Anglo-Hellenic Alliance. Speeches of Mr. Winston Churchill, the Greek Minister (Mr. Gennadius) and Viscount Bryce at the Mansion House June 27, 1918, The anniversary of the entry of re-united Greece into the war, etc. (no. 36, 1918); The Retirement of M. Gennadius. Speeches of Monsieur Venizelos ... and others at a valedictory dinner ... on November 18, 1918 in honour of M. Gennadius (no 38, 1919); The Turks, Cardinal Newman, and the Council of Ten by William Francis Barry (no 40, 1920); The Settlement of the Near East by Sir Arthur Henry Crosfield, Bt (no 45, 1922); The National Claims of the Dodecanese by Michael D Bolonakes (no 46, 1922); The Treatment of the Greek Prisoners in Turkey. Report of the International Commission of Inquiry appointed at the request of the Greek Red Cross (no 51, 1923); The Janina Murders and the occupation of Corfu by George Glasgow (no 53, 1923); Correspondence of Commodore Hamilton during the Greek War of Independence by Gawen William Hamilton (no 57, 1930).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Seven volumes of newspaper cuttings from British newspapers concerning Greece, 16 Nov 1915-2 Aug 1919, particularly the political repercussions of events of World War One in Greece; four volumes of newspaper cuttings from British newspapers concerning Greece, 2 Feb 1938-27 Mar 1948, mainly relating to the German occupation of and Allied liberation of Greece during World War Two, and subsequent Greek Communist military operations; manuscript and corrected typescript of 'The perfidy of Constantine - a history of Greece, 1912-1917' by Leonard Arthur Magnus, presented to the Anglo-Hellenic League by Magnus in 1919; Greek vocabulary by R A Bickford Smith.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English.

System of arrangement:

Arranged as described in scope and content.

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services of King's College London.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

This collection level description available online.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented by the Anglo-Hellenic League to the Library of King's College London.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Sources: Ronald Burrows - a memoir by George Glasgow (Nisbet and Co, London, 1924); Politics and the academy - Arnold Toynbee and the Koraes Chair by Richard Clogg (Frank Cass, London, 1986); British Library OPAC. Compiled by Robert Baxter

Rules or conventions: National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997. ISAD(G), Second edition, 2000.

Date(s) of descriptions: May 2000.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Greek Civil War, 1944-1945, 1947-1949 | Civil war | Political movements
Press cuttings | Newspaper press | Press
War | International conflicts
World War One (1914-1918) | World wars (events) | Wars (events)
World War Two (1939-1945) | World wars (events) | Wars (events)

Personal names
Magnus | Leonard Arthur | fl 1919 | historian

Corporate names
Anglo-Hellenic League

Places
Greece | Western Europe | Europe