Chanak Crisis

The Chanak Crisis (also called the Chanak Affair) occurred in October 1922, when British troops stationed near Çanakkale (also called "Chanak"), on the Dardanelles, were threatened with attack by the Turks. In response, the British government issued a request for military support from its colonies. Unlike the case eight years earlier, when World War I broke out, Canada did not automatically consider itself active in the conflict. Instead, Prime Minister 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.

The Chanak Crisis was also a factor in the downfall of the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. Lloyd George claimed the Ottoman Empire had violated the Treaty of Sevres. By 1922, the Ottoman Empire had already disintegrated, The parliament in Ankara (Turkish Nationalists) formed in reaction to the conditions set in the treaty and had began a campaign against the Greeks at Izmir. The story of this period is explained under Turkish War of Independence. Lloyd George announced that Britain and her Empire would declare war on Turkish Nationalists for their aggressive actions in the Dardanelles. However, Lloyd George had not fully consulted the Commonwealth prime ministers, and such rashness, in the eyes of the Conservative party, warranted as a major factor in the calling of the Carlton Club meeting 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 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 presence of a coalition.

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

• Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)

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References

• Canada A Nation Unfolding, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1994.