The Chanak Crisis (also called the Chanak Affair) occurred in September 1922, when British and French troops stationed near Çanakkale (also called "Chanak") to guard the neutral zone of the Dardanelles were threatened with attack by Turkish troops after the
recapture of İzmir (Smyrna) following the Greek defeat. It partly led to the downfall of
British Prime Minister David
Lloyd George.
The British Cabinet met on 15
September 1922 and decided that British forces should maintain their positions. On the
following day, in the absence of Foreign
Secretary Lord Curzon, certain Cabinet ministers
issued a communiqué threatening Turkey with a declaration of war by Britain and the
Dominions, on the grounds that Turkey had violated the Treaty of Sèvres. On 18 September, on his return to
London, Curzon pointed out that this would enrage the pro-Turkish Prime Minister of France, Raymond Poincaré, and left
for Paris to attempt to smooth things over. Poincaré, however, had already ordered
the withdrawal of the French detachment at Chanak. Curzon reached Paris on 20 September,
and after several angry meetings with Poincaré, reached agreement to negotiate an armistice with the Turks.
The British public was alarmed by the Chanak episode and the possibility of going to war again. It did not help that Lloyd
George had not fully consulted the Commonwealth prime ministers. Unlike the case
eight years earlier, when World War I broke out, Canada in
particular did not automatically consider itself active in the conflict. Instead, Prime Minister Mackenzie King insisted that the Canadian Parliament should decide on the course of action the country would follow. By the time the
issue had been debated in the Canadian House of Commons, the threat at Chanak
had passed. Nonetheless, King made his point: Parliament would decide the role that Canada would play in external affairs.
Lloyd George's rashness was a major factor in the calling of the Carlton Club meeting on
19 October 1922, where Conservative MPs decided that they would leave the coalition and fight the next general election
as a single, united party. The ramifications of such a decision were dire for Lloyd George, as the Conservative Party made up the
vast majority of the 1918-1922 post-war coalition; indeed, they could have made up the majority government if it were not for the
coalition.
Lloyd George also lost the support of the influential Curzon, who considered that the Prime Minister had been manoeuvring
behind his back.
Following the Carlton Club decision, the MPs voted 185 to 85 in favour ending the Coalition. Lloyd George resigned as Prime
Minister, never to return as a major figure in party politics.
See also
References
- Canada A Nation Unfolding, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1994.
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