is only
possible if we abandon our neutrality, and the demand that we should
resist is therefore in flagrant contradiction to the oft-repeated
protestations of the Entente Powers that they have neither the wish nor
the intention to force us into the War." Nor could he understand how
they could think of blaming Greece for receiving from the Central
Powers the same assurances of eventual restoration as those given by
themselves.[11]

M. Skouloudis spoke in vain. Paris had made up its mind to treat the
incident as indicating a new and malevolent orientation against which
it behoved the Allies to protect themselves. Accordingly, on 1 June,
M. Briand authorized General Sarrail to proclaim a state of siege at
Salonica.

General Sarrail, who had long sought to be freed from the trammels of
Greek sovereignty--"_et a etre maitre chez moi_"--but had hitherto been
denied his wish by the British Government, jumped at the permission,
and he improved upon it with a personal touch, trivial yet
characteristic. So far back as 27 April he had recommended that "we
must strike at the head, attack frankly and squarely the one enemy--the
King." Pending an opportunity to strike, he seized the occasion to
slight. He fixed the proclamation for 3 June, King Constantine's name
day, which was to be celebrated at Salonica as in every other town of
the kingdom with a solemn _Te Deum_. {101} The British General, Milne,
who had arranged to assist at the _Te Deum_, after vainly trying to
obtain at least a postponement of the date out of respect for the King,
found himself obliged to yield. And so on that festal morning martial
law was proclaimed. Allied detachments with machine guns occupied
various strategic points, the public offices were taken possession of,
the chiefs of the Macedonian gendarmerie and police were expelled, and
the local press was placed under a French censor. All this, without
any preliminary notification to the Hellenic Government, which
expressed its indignation that a French General, forgetting the most
elementary rules of courtesy and hospitality, thought fit to choose
such a moment for inaugurating a state of things that formed at once a
gratuitous affront to the sovereign of the country and a breach of the
terms of the Agreement of 10 December.[13]

But this was only a prelude, followed on 6 June by a blockade of the
Greek coasts, established in pursuance of orders from Paris and
London--_pourpeser sur la Grece