surrender of nearly 8,000 Greek troops under General Hatsopoulos with nearly all the war material accumulated by Greece in Eastern Macedonia. Most of these troops had reached the sea coast and were preparing to embark on English boats for transportation to the Greek mainland, under instructions of the Greek Minister of War (General Yanakitsas), when they were suddenly ordered by their commander, General Hatsopoulos, to move to the interior of the country, behind the Bulgarian troops. Thus, while the War Minister was ordering the troops to return to Greece, King Constantine was giving secret orders to their commander to surrender them to the Germano-Bulgarian Army.10 The only action that the Greek Government took was to make a perfunctory protest to Germany and demand the return of the troops, which was, of course, not complied with. This action of Germany in making prisoners of war of troops of a neutral country was entirely unprecedented, but was undoubtedly done at the suggestion or with the acquiescence of Constantine, who feared' that these soldiers, if left free, would join the Salonika movement. On August 30, 1916, a revolution, headed by some Greek officers and a few civilians, broke out in Salonika. The revolutionists immediately repudiated the Government of Constantine and formed a Committee of National Defense, whose purpose was to eject the Bulgarian invaders from Greek Macedonia. This revolutionary junta later developed into the Provisional Government of Greece, under the leadership of Mr. Venizelos, Admiral Countouriotis and General Danglis, with headquarters at Salonika. The Provisional Government, under the eyes of the three protecting Powers of Greece, soon began to increase in power and influence, to the detriment of the Royal Greek Government attached to the Central Powers. As the King still continued to temporize and evade in the fulfillment of the promises made to the Entente, on September 1, 1916, 23 Allied warships, with 7 transports of troops, appeared a few miles off the port of Piræus. The next day the ministers of Great Britain 10 The German Minister at Athens, in a note to the Greek Minister under date of August 28, 1916, stated that the Greek troops surrendered voluntarily the forts and Cavalla, as well as the war material. Greek White Book, Doc. No. 68 in SUPPLEMENT, April, 1918, p. 160. and France, in a note to the Greek Government, informed it that they had learned that information about their military movements was being sent to their enemies by Greek officials over the Greek telegraph lines. They therefore demanded: 1st, the control of the posts and telegraph lines, including the wireless system; 2nd, the immediate expulsion from Greece of enemy agents employed in corruption and espionage; 3rd, that the Greek Government take the necessary measures against Greek subjects guilty of complicity in corruption and espionage.11 Upon receipt of this note the Greek Government immediately acquiesced in the demands.12 On September 10th, some ruffians, instigated by the German propaganda, entered the garden of the French Legation, while the Entente ministers were holding a conference, and shouted "Long live the King, down with France and England." 13 French sailors were landed to protect the legation, and on September 11th the Zaimis Cabinet resigned, its position having become unbearable on account of the popular clamor due to the Bulgarian invasion of Macedonia,14 On the 16th of the same month, Constantine induced Mr. Calogeropoulos, a politician of the old school, to form a Cabinet, ostensibly to conciliate the Allies, but really in order to placate them, while he continued to carry out the royal policy. The pro-German sympathies of some of the members of this new Cabinet were known to the Entente ministers and they refused to have any dealing with it. On September 25th, Mr. Venizelos left the Hellenic capital and proceeded to his native land, Crete, where he raised the standard of rebellion, which he characterized as being not "anti-dynastic," but "anti-Bulgarian," namely, for the expulsion of Tsar Ferdinand's army from Greek Macedonia. On October 16th, the Provisional Government was created in Salonika, consisting, as previously stated, besides the Cretan Statesman, of Admiral Countouriotis and General 11 London Times, September 4, 1916, and other London papers of that date. Also Crawfurd Price, Venizelos and the War, pp. 185-186. 12 London Times, September 5, 1916. 13 Ibid., September 11, 1916. 14 Ibid., September 13, 1916. Danglis. This triumvirate exercised the power of a regular and orderly de facto government, and in a short time extended its authority to nearly all the islands and to that part of Macedonia which was under the control of the army of the Entente Powers. The Provisional Government at Salonika had both the moral and material support of Great Britain, France and Russia. The Royal Government, on the contrary, was unable to get efficient help from the Teutonic Powers, except money for purposes of corruption and the maintenance of a secret army. Therefore, Constantine, in order to prevent the further extension of the authority of the Provisional Government to the rest of Greece, and to propitiate public opinion in the Entente countries, offered to the Allies most of the remaining war material of Greece, to counterbalance, as he stated, a similar favor which he was accused of having shown to the Central Powers and to Bulgaria. This offer was made to the French Deputy, Mr. Benazet, during a visit to Athens in the autumn of 1916, but was subsequently repudiated by Constantine on the pretext that it was not ratified by his so-called government, as we shall presently see.15 While the King was secretly playing his game of double dealing, Admiral Dartige was presenting notes on the part of the three Entente Powers, making various demands on the Greek Government, such as the expulsion of enemy agents, the control of the police by the Allies, the surrender of the Greek fleet and the expulsion of the ministers of the Central Powers and their Allies from Athens, to which the Government of Constantine reluctantly acquiesced.1o But what was most strange was that while the French Admiral was presenting peremptory notes to the Greek Government and employing coercive measures against Greece, the people, at least the majority of them, did not seem to resent the attitude of the Allies towards them. Thus, on October 28th, Admiral Dartige was received with ovations by the Mayor, the Municipal Council and the people at Piræus, and on November 16th, the same popular demon 15 Official report of Mr. Benazet, communicated to the Greek Government by the French Foreign Office on April, 1918, in London Times, April 22, 1918. 16 See notes presented during the months of October and November, 1916, in London Times of October 7, 12, 13, and November 23, 1916. stration was shown during his visit to the Mayor and Municipal Council of Athens.17 Pursuant to the above-mentioned preliminary understanding between Constantine and the French Deputy Benazet, Admiral Dartige, on November 16th, presented a note to the Greek Government in which it was stated that the surrender of the Roupel Fortress and the port of Cavalla to the Bulgarians, and particularly the abandonment to the invaders of the important war material, had disturbed the equilibrium to the profit of the enemies of the Entente; that the French Government desired to re-establish this equilibrium, and to that end demanded from the Greek Government the surrender of all the remainder of the war material which the demobilization of the army had rendered useless. Compensation was offered for the value of the war material to be surrendered. On November 21, 1916, Professor Lambros, the then Greek Premier, answered that so far as the rupture of the equilibrium was concerned, the war material and guns belonging to Greece which had been seized by the Allies were not only superior to those taken by the Bulgarians, but more modern; that if the Greek Government acquiesced in the demands contained in the note, it would commit a flagrant violation of neutrality; that, furthermore, the stripping of the country of its arms, thus making the nation impotent to defend its vital interests if they should be jeopardized, would not be tolerated by Greek public opinion. For these reasons, the Greek Government refused categorically to comply with the demand of the Entente Powers. The French Admiral on November 24, 1916, rejoined with an ultimatum the substance of which was that the Greek Government should deliver ten mountain batteries by the 1st of December (1916) and the remainder not later than the 16th of the same month, and that in case of non-compliance with this demand, the commander of the Allied fleets would take all the measures required by the situation.18 On November 30, 1916, the Greek Government refused to surren 17 London Times, October 30, and November 20, 1916. der arms.19 That night about 2,500 Allied blue jackets were landed at Piræus, the majority of them coming from the French men-of-war. The next day the Allied contingents marched towards Athens, and were suddenly attacked by Greek troops stationed on the hills near the road. The Allied sailors returned the fire, and about 200 persons on both sides were killed and wounded. The attack against the Allied contingents had evidently a double object: first, to cause a split between the Allies and the Greek people so as to preclude their subsequent cooperation against the Teutonic Powers in the event of the assumption of power by Mr. Venizelos and his party; and secondly, to extirpate the Venizelist movement by the massacre of the adherents of the Cretan "Rebel," and by this act of frightfulness to terrorize the people and compel them to cling to Constantine, who, it was hoped, would be looked upon as the defender of the independence of Greece. In further compliance with this prearranged plan, during the same day (December 1) and the next day, hundreds of peaceful citizens of Athens were arrested, a number were murdered in cold blood, and many, after being brutally treated by the royal police and "Reservists," were put in jail. Similar acts of terrorism were perpetrated in other parts of Greece against the adherents of Venizelos or those who disapproved "the royal policy." 20 These acts of lawlessness committed by the agents of Constantine and the German propagandists provoked the indignation not only of the representatives of the Allies, but also those of the Neutral Powers. The American minister, seconded by the minister of Holland, made representations to the Greek Government severely condemning the acts perpetrated on December 1st and 2nd against innocent persons by agents of the Greek Government.21 The American minister furthermore demanded that the Greek Government grant redress for the grievance of a naturalized citizen of the United 19 London Times, December 2, 1916. 20 See details of these events in London Times, December 9, 1916, and other London papers of that date. Also in Le Temps, December 19, 1916, Journal des Débats, January 8, 1917, and Revue des Deux Mondes, March 1, 1917, in article by L. Maccas. 21 London Times, December 9, 1916. |