Blockade of Greece suspended

The British chronology of the war records under 22 June 1916, that is 9 June according to the Julian calendar used by Greece, the suspension of the “pacific blockade” of Greece. Entente warships had been stopping Greek ships since 6 June, and for two weeks Athens had not even been told what was expected of it. An explanation came only with the note of the three powers of 21 June. Once the government of Stefanos Skouloudis had fallen and King Constantine I had accepted the Allies’ demands, the blockade lost its raison d’être.

It did not, however, end at once. The American minister in Athens, Garrett Droppers, reported at noon on 22 June that the demands had been accepted but that the blockade had “not yet been lifted”. The British official history of operations in Macedonia states that Greek ships from British ports could sail to all the ports of Greece from 23 June. The chronology and the official history thus differ by one day. On the same 22 June the Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, refused in the House of Commons to give any explanation of the events in Greece, which the newspapers were already reporting, until he had consulted the allies.

The relief had its limits. Ships were still not allowed to sail to Kavala. The Allies feared that food reaching it would fall into the hands of the Bulgarians, who had been standing on the Struma since the end of May and could take the town at any moment. The fleet assembled off the island of Milos in case of a demonstration off Athens dispersed, but according to the British official history of naval operations everything was arranged so that it could be reassembled at any moment if necessary.

As in December 1915, economic pressure quickly had its effect, and once they had obtained concessions the Allies eased it. This time too the calm did not last long. In August and September the Bulgarians occupied Eastern Macedonia together with Kavala, and relations between Athens and the Entente deteriorated again. In December 1916 France and Britain proclaimed a formal pacific blockade of Greece, much harsher than the June one, which lasted many months and caused severe food shortages in the country, and in places famine.