Entente protest over Fort Rupel

A British chronology of the war records under 31 May 1916 that the Entente governments protested in Athens against the Bulgarian occupation of the Greek Fort Rupel in the Struma valley. No joint Allied note of that date could be found. The surviving documents rather show a series of representations made by France, Russia and Britain in the last days of May and the first days of June, in Athens and in their own capitals. Paris spoke most sharply. According to the British official history of operations in Macedonia, on 1 June the French minister in Athens, Jean Guillemin, warned the Prime Minister, Stefanos Skouloudis, that if the Bulgarians continued to advance deeper into Eastern Macedonia and the Greek army offered no resistance, the consequences for Greece would be very serious.

Paris: the end of benevolent neutrality

The same day in Paris the position of the French government was set out by the director of political affairs at the Foreign Ministry, Pierre de Margerie, in a long conversation with the Greek chargé d’affaires, Dimitrios Kaklamanos. The Greek diplomat reported on it in a telegram dated 1 June. Margerie said that French public opinion was convinced that Greece had come to an understanding with the Central Powers, and that German sources confirmed it. The French government was prepared to accept that the Bulgarians had occupied the Rupel Pass for defensive reasons. But when their troops were advancing deep into Macedonia, occupying the surroundings of towns Bulgaria had long coveted, and might move on Kavala, Paris had to conclude that Athens had been assured of the return of these lands. Greece’s passivity in the face of an invasion that might weaken the position of the Allied armies meant, according to Margerie, the abandonment of the policy of benevolent neutrality. The Entente therefore regained its freedom of action, both military and in matters of internal order, and General Maurice Sarrail had received orders giving him wider powers than before.

The change was significant. Sarrail, the commander-in-chief of the Allied armies in Salonika, had long wanted to proclaim a state of siege in the city, that is, to take over authority from the Greek administration. Until then General Joseph Joffre had not allowed him to do so. According to the British official history, based on the French one, as soon as the surrender of the fort became known in Paris, the French government changed its mind and authorised Sarrail to take whatever steps he considered necessary for the safety of the troops. The British were more cautious. The official history observes that Sarrail was far more inclined to repressive measures than the new British commander, General George Milne, the French admiral Louis Dartige du Fournet, or the governments in Paris and London.

Petrograd and Rome

Similar voices came from other capitals. On 3 June the Greek minister in Petrograd reported that the Russian director of political affairs, in constant contact with the Minister, Sergei Sazonov, had told him of great irritation with Greece in France and Britain. In Russian government circles the conviction prevailed that the occupation of Rupel and the Bulgarian march into Macedonia, to which Greece had consented, proved a prior agreement with Bulgaria. The minister learned that the Allies were deliberating on withdrawing the guarantees given to Greece when they occupied her territory, and advised that coercive measures should be expected. As early as 30 May the Greek minister in Rome had reported that the Italians were asking what Greek assurances were worth.

Skouloudis’s reply

Skouloudis rejected the accusations. In a circular to the legations in the Entente capitals he called the claims of a prior understanding with the Entente’s enemies slanders by its opponents. On 3 June he instructed the chargé d’affaires in Paris to reply that Athens did not understand how it could be reproached for receiving from the Central Powers the same guarantees of integrity and of the return of occupied lands that the Entente had given it earlier. According to the British publicist George F. Abbott, the Prime Minister answered the French threat by saying that resistance was possible only at the price of abandoning neutrality, and that the demand for resistance contradicted the Entente’s assurances that it did not wish to drag Greece into the war. He did not mention that on 22 May he had accepted without protest the German and Bulgarian announcement of the advance.

What June brought

Words quickly turned into deeds. On 3 June, the name day of King Constantine I, Sarrail proclaimed a state of siege in Salonika and took control of the post, telegraph, railways and press. Soon the Allies imposed a partial blockade of the Greek coast and began preparing a naval demonstration off Athens. On 21 June the ministers of the three protecting powers, Britain, France and Russia, handed Greece a note which listed among its charges the surrender of Fort Rupel “with the consent of the government”. They demanded the demobilisation of the army, the replacement of the cabinet by a caretaker government, the dissolution of parliament and new elections. Skouloudis resigned, and his successor Alexandros Zaimis accepted all the demands.