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

illegal methods employed by Ward and Young, with support from the Colonial
Office, to subvert the constitutional reforms enacted by Seaton and strengthen British
authority over the Islands. The debate about the Ionian character, so important in the
discussions of Gladstone, as well as the governors and officials within the Colonial
Office throughout the period of the protectorate, is not considered by Knox. There is
no indication in his work of the constant comparisons between the Ionians and
British that occurred during the whole period of the protectorate, comparisons which
were often used by officials when considering the fitness or unfitness of the Ionians
for free rule.
Robert Holland and Diana Markides’s The British and the Hellenes: Struggles
for Mastery in the Eastern Mediterranean 1850-1960 offers a wider examination of
Anglo-Hellenic interactions. 29 For the purposes of this thesis, the book has been most
useful in its first three chapters, which focus on Gladstone’s mission and the cession
of the Islands. In their examination of Gladstone’s mission, Holland and Markides
trace in great detail Gladstone’s movements and travels in the Islands and his
encounters with different authorities, which they believe introduced Gladstone to
nationalist sentiment throughout the Islands. They discuss the expectations of the
mission from both the British and Ionian viewpoints and the background diplomacy
and politics that occurred, providing an interesting and thorough picture of
Gladstone’s overall presence in the Islands. They examine Gladstone’s reports,
drawing conclusions regarding Gladstone’s opinions about constitutional reforms.
29 Holland R. and Markides D., The British and the Hellenes: Struggles for Mastery in the Eastern
Mediterranean 1850-1960 (Oxford, 2006).
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