The Greek army, which had been concentrated at Larissa, entered
Macedonia by the Meluna Pass and the valley of the Xerias River. {50}
The Turks met the advancing force at Elassona, but retired after a few
hours' fighting. They took their stand at the pass of Sarandaporon,
from which they were driven by a day's hard fighting on the part of the
Greek army and the masterly tactics of the Crown Prince. On October 23
the Greeks were in possession of Serfidje. Thence they pushed forward
on both sides of the Aliakmon River toward Veria, which the Crown
Prince entered with his staff on the morning of October 30. They had
covered 150 miles from Larissa, with no facilities but wagons for
feeding the army and supplying ammunition. But at Veria they struck
the line of railway from Monastir to Saloniki. Not far away was
Jenitsa, where the Turkish army numbering from 35,000 to 40,000 had
concentrated to make a stand for the protection of Saloniki. The
battle of Jenitsa was fiercely contested but the Greeks were victorious
though they lost about 2000 men. This victory opened the way to
Saloniki. The Turkish armies {51} which defended it having been
scattered by the Greek forces, that city surrendered to Crown Prince
Constantine on the eighth of November. It was only three weeks since
the Greek army had left Larissa and it had disposed of about 60,000
Turks on the way.
On the outbreak of war Greece had declared a blockade of all Turkish
ports. To the usual list of contraband articles there were added not
only coal, concerning which the practice of belligerent nations had
varied, but also machine oil, which so far as I know was then for the
first time declared contraband of war. As Turkey imported both coal
and lubricants, the purpose of this policy was of course to paralyze
transportation in the Ottoman Empire. Incidentally I may say the
prohibition of lubricating oil caused much inconvenience to American
commerce; not, however, primarily on its own account, but because of
its confusion, in the minds of Greek officials, with such harmless
substances as cotton seed oil and oleo. The {52} Greek navy not only
maintained a very effective blockade but also took possession of all
the Aegean Islands under Turkish rule, excepting Rhodes and the
Dodecanese, which Italy held as a temporary pledge for the fulfilment
by Turkey of some of the conditions of the treaty by which they had
closed their recent war. It will be seen, therefore, that the navy was
a most important agent in the campaign, and Greece was the only one of
the Allies that had a navy. The Greek navy was sufficient not only to
terrorize the Turkish navy, which it reduced to complete impotence, but
also to paralyze Turkish trade and commerce with the outside world, to
embarrass railway transportation within the Empire, to prevent the
sending of reinforcements to Macedonia or the Aegean coast of Thrace,
and to detach from Turkey those Aegean Islands over which she still
exercised effective jurisdiction.
{53}