Pacific blockade of Greece

The British chronology of the war records under 6 June 1916, that is, 24 May by the Julian calendar used by Greece, the beginning of a “pacific blockade” of Greece by the Entente powers. A pacific blockade (PL) was an old means by which the great powers put pressure on weaker states: a fleet cut off the seaborne trade of a country with which no war was formally being waged. In June 1916, however, the Allies neither proclaimed it nor warned Athens of it. The British official histories speak more cautiously of a “partial blockade of the Greek coasts”. A formal pacific blockade, proclaimed and far more severe, was imposed by France and Britain only in December 1916.

Ships stopped without a word

What exactly was done is best seen in the Greek government’s complaint. The Prime Minister, Stefanos Skouloudis, wrote on 15 June in a circular to Greek representatives in neutral states that since 24 May (6 June) the Greek coasts had in effect been in a state of partial blockade. Allied warships were stopping every ship under the Greek flag they met in Greek waters and escorting it to the naval bases that the belligerents had “arbitrarily established” on Greek territory. Most were later released, but they were allowed only to sail along the coast. Greek ships caught in the ports of Britain, France, Italy and Egypt could not put to sea. Several large vessels were sent to Bizerte in Tunisia to serve the Allies as transports. The British journalist Crawfurd Price, a correspondent in Athens and a supporter of the Entente, wrote that Greek shipping came to a complete standstill.

Athens received no explanation. On 8 June the American minister in Athens, Garrett Droppers, telegraphed Washington that the French had begun a general blockade of Greek ports without notifying the Greek government, and that the Entente legations claimed to know nothing about it. He supposed that the aim was to force the government to resign and to bring about new elections, but there was “the greatest uncertainty” as to the purpose and extent of the blockade. In his circular of 15 June Skouloudis called the stopping of ships unlawful and protested to the neutral states. The State Department replied only on 13 July, formally acknowledging receipt of the protest.

What the blockade was for

General Maurice Sarrail, who a few days earlier had declared a state of siege in Salonika, wrote later in his memoirs that the blockade was meant to “squeeze Greece and show her that she was at our mercy”. According to the British official history of the operations in Macedonia, it was also meant to keep food from reaching Kavala, which the Bulgarians might occupy any day. The country imported grain and coal, so cutting off its seaborne trade hit the whole of society. At the same time the Allies began preparing a naval demonstration off Athens. The British official naval history states that on 8 June the commander of the French Syrian squadron, Vice-Admiral Moreau, occupied the island of Thasos off the coast of Eastern Macedonia.

The initiative came from Paris. On 6 June itself the French Prime Minister, Aristide Briand, received the Greek chargé d’affaires Dimitrios Kaklamanos, who handed him a protest against the state of siege in Salonika. Briand replied that it was the result of the Greek decision not to oppose the Bulgarian invasion. He announced that if the Bulgarians went further, Sarrail would take whatever measures he considered proper for the security of his troops, but would not say what they were. That same day Kaklamanos warned Athens that the state of siege was in his view “only a prelude”. Briand, fearing the charge that he had been too lenient towards Greece, began to take the lead in harsh measures. According to Abbott, a publicist sympathetic to the king who used French parliamentary documents, Briand wanted to go even further and tried to persuade the Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, who had scruples, that the protecting powers had the right and even the duty to intervene in Greece. Otherwise, he argued, the Greeks would not understand why they were suffering from the blockade.

Athens defends itself

The Greek government denied that it had given up Rupel as a result of an agreement with the Central Powers. On 5 June Skouloudis said in parliament that such rumours were “unworthy of denial”, and that the fort had after all fired on the attackers. On 6 June he sent to the legations in Paris, London, Rome and Petrograd a circular instructing them to repeat that the accusations were a slander by the government’s opponents and foreign agents. He did not mention that a few days before the Bulgarians marched in he had accepted their and the Germans’ advance notice without protest. The explanations were not accepted. In Athens, meanwhile, tension was growing between the king’s supporters and the followers of Eleftherios Venizelos, and the Allies were preparing a note of demands, which the Greeks would have to wait for another two weeks.