Adventures in cultural exchange

Anglo-Hellenism was a Liberal construct, with its roots in the 19th century, but it became recognizable as such only after the Balkan Wars. Many British Liberals were impressed by Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos at the London Conference in 1912-1913, and showed a strong desire to keep his government aligned with his British counterpart H.H. Asquith's Liberal government. As a consequence, the pro-Greek principals of King's College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science, Ronald Burrows and William Pember Reeves, founded the Anglo-Hellenic League in 1913. The League attracted strong support from the Greek community of London and started to raise funds for the resettlement of Greek refugees, creating a network of political and cultural links between Athens and London.

In some ways, the Second World War represents the high-water mark of Anglo...