SEIZURE OF THE GREEK FLEET
On October 11, 1916, the patience of the Allies seems to have been
again exhausted with the wavering policy of the Greek monarch. On that
date Admiral du Fournier came to Athens and demanded the surrender of
the entire Greek fleet, except the cruiser _Averoff_ and the
battleships _Lemnos_ and _Kilkis_ (the latter two formerly the
American ships _Idaho_ and _Mississippi_). He further demanded the
transfer of control to the Allies of the Piraeus-Larissa railroad and
that the shore batteries should all be dismantled. These demands were
complied with at once, and all but the three vessels named were
surrendered and their crews landed. The ships so handed over consisted
of three battleships, one protected cruiser, four gunboats, three mine
layers, one torpedo depot ship, sixteen destroyers, twelve torpedo
boats, four submarines, and the royal yacht. The rest of the Greek
navy had already gone over to the Allies, as was mentioned, and was
now in Saloniki. The Piraeus-Larissa railroad, which the Allies also
demanded, runs for a distance of 200 miles in a winding course from
Piraeus, the seaport of Athens, to Larissa. The cause of this sudden
action, as explained by the British press, was that for some time
Greek troops had been concentrating in the interior near Larissa,
while other troops were gathering in Corinth, from whence they could
easily reach the force in Larissa.
An Athens division had been quietly moving along the railroad line,
leaving a regiment to intrench themselves before the king's palace at
Tatoi. Apparently the fear was that King Constantine was preparing, at
a favorable moment, to retire with his army and intrench himself in
the plains of Thessaly until he could there join hands with the
Bulgarians and the Germans and perhaps attack the Allies on their left
flank. The surrender of the railroad now made this impossible.
The result of this action was that large street demonstrations began
at once, supposed to have been instigated by the Reservists' League.
The French admiral thereupon landed a large force of marines and
occupied a number of public buildings whence he could control the main
streets with machine guns. By the 16th all Athens seemed to be in an
uproar, but the violence which took place was directed against
Venizelist sympathizers, while in their demonstrations against the
Allies the rioters contented themselves with jeering and hurling
insulting remarks. In these disorders the police remained absolutely
passive, and on some occasions joined with the rioters. This caused
the French admiral to demand that the command of the police force
should be practically turned over to him. A French officer was at once
established as chief inspector at the Ministry of the Interior.
Transfers or dismissals in the force could now not be made without his
consent, while he himself had arbitrary power in dismissing and
transferring. He was also empowered to appoint inspectors throughout
the rest of the kingdom. Naturally, the royalist press came out in
strong denunciations, but these were terminated when the French
established a press censorship.
On the 22d the Allied governments demanded that the Greek force
concentrated at Larissa be withdrawn from that point and scattered
throughout the southern part of the country, and this demand was also
promised. During the rest of the month there were reports of
conferences between King Constantine and the French admiral and the
representatives of the Entente, all tending to show that he was again
becoming intensely pro-Ally.