Britain, France and Italy had met in Paris and issued a proposal they had drafted for an armistice and scheduled withdrawal of the Greek armies from Anatolia. While the Greek Parliament debated irrelevant constitutional matters, Gounaris and Baltazzi responded on March 26 that they would accept the proposed armistice despite their concerns for its lack of protection for the Greek civilians to be left in Turkey, not to mention the political repercussions of any refugees in Greece.
As Gilbert wrote, although Gounaris had lost the confidence of the nation at large, he was still in control of Parliament, and wanted peace at any price.