Constructing Ionian identities: the Ionian Islands in British official ...

who did not obey with exile and confiscation of property. 69 The greatest worry,
however, was a rebellious outbreak of the population against British rule. Frederick
Adam, the Chief Commander of the British forces in the Mediterranean, acting as
Maitland’s right hand man, [he later succeeded Maitland as Lord High
Commissioner (1824-1832)] clearly highlighted this fear in a number of reports. He
demanded additional British navy personnel be sent to the Septinsula to “preserve
the tranquillity of those states” and to demonstrate British “naval superiority” while
protecting their possessions against the “irritable fancies and feelings of a Greek
population”. 70
For Adam, the ‘enemies within’ were powerful families acting as leaders of the
‘ignorant’ masses in their effort “to undermine British interests” based on “doctrines
of Ionian Nationality”. 71 Adam believed their main purpose was to combine the
success of the Greek revolution with the overthrow of the British Protectorate. Adam
believed it was difficult for many Ionians to ignore the “mistaken notion of [their]
national dignity” even through they knew their interests lay with British protection. 72
In the few months following the outbreak of the Greek insurrection, British officials
69 Message of the LHC to the Ionian Senate, 3 June 1821, CO 136/1085.
70 Adam to Bathurst, 26 June 1821, CO 136/1085.
71 Those “persons of influence” were members of the Capodistria family. Adam to Bathurst, 6 June
1821, CO 136/1085. See also Woodhouse C. M., “Kapodistrias and the Philiki Etairia 1814-21” in
Clogg R., The Struggle for Greek Independence, (London, 1973), pp. 103-134. This split was a
feature internal to Corfiot society but became stronger in relation to the conditions prevailing in the
different Islands. For example, in Cephalonia, the largest and the poorest of the Islands, “many acts
have been used to inflame the minds of the peasantry and to raise … enthusiasms in favour of the
insurrection of the main land”.
72 Adam to Bathurst, 26 June 1821, CO 136/1085.
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