The end of the Russian Civil War brought only temporary relief to the Mediterranean Fleet. The situation was relaxed enough in late February 1921 for Admiral de Robeck to conduct tactical exercises with four battleships and all available destroyers in the Sea of Marmora. Nevertheless, the Turkish Nationalists, ably led by Mustafa Kemal, refused to accept the punitive terms of the Treaty of Sèvres and stoutly resisted Greek attempts to expand inland from smyrna. The Greeks were confident and ready to launch an offensive towards Angora but de Robeck was less certain of their chances in the long run. Moreover, if they were defeated the British would face the dilemma of what to do if the Kemalists reached the Marmora and Dardanelles and defied the treaty provisions establishing neutral zones along the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. Furthermore, whatever the tendencies of Prime Minister Lloyd George in London, opinion in the Fleet was not uncritically pro-Greek. This was largely because the death of King Alexander in October 1920 had resulted in elections that ousted Venizelos and his party and led, after what has been termed a ‘rigged plebiscite’, to the return of King Constantine whose seemingly anti-entente and neutralist stance during the war was not forgotten [168]. Moreover, politically inspired purges of pro-Venizelos officers did little to strengthen the Greek army.

A Nationalist force under Ismet Pasha repulsed a Greek advance at Iönü in January and the Kemalists improved their diplomatic position in March at an ultimately unsuccessful peace conference in London by reaching a separate provisional agreement with the French ending the fighting in Cilicia. The Italians also agreed to evacuate the zone in Anatolia conceded to them in the Sèvres Treaty in return for economic concessions and completed their withdrawal by the end of June. In addition, of potentially great importance, the Kemalists also concluded, on 16 March in Moscow, a treaty of friendship with Soviet Russia. French and Italian forces remained with the British in occupation of Constantinople and the Dardanelles, at least for the moment, but the implications for the future were clear. The British were likely to be left on their own should the Kemalists prevail over the Greeks.