ad the Admiral acted on their prayer, than the
panic-stricken patriots implored him not to protect them, lest the
measures taken for their safety should cause their destruction.[11]
However, next day, the King assured the Admiral through his Marshal of
the Court, that neither the persons nor the {157} property of the
Venizelists should suffer, on condition that neither the Entente Powers'
detectives nor the detachments he was going to land indulged in arrests,
deportations, or disappearances of Greek subjects, and that the
Venizelists themselves abstained from acts calculated to provoke
reprisals.[12]

Such was the state of things created by the Admiral's Ultimatum. What
would happen when the time-limit expired? The inhabitants of Athens
debated this question anxiously, and their anxiety was deepened by the
sight of many disquieting symptoms: day after day Allied aeroplanes and
automobiles carried out reconnaissances over the capital, paying special
attention to the Royal Palace, intensifying the irritation of civilians
and soldiers, and stiffening their resolution to resist, come what might.

The Hellenic Government endeavoured to ward off the storm by
remonstrating with the Governments of the Entente direct. As the
Admiral's claim was presented exclusively in the name of France, it began
with Paris. The answer was that King Constantine had promised to the
French Government the war material demanded, and the French Government
had promised in exchange to relax the coercive measures: since the Greek
Government declared that it could not fulfil this promise, it must suffer
the consequences. Paris, in Admiral Dartige's words, "wanted to reap the
fruit of the Benazet negotiation without paying the price agreed to."
[13] Whatever London may have thought of this manoeuvre, it said that
the British Government was in full knowledge of the French Admiral's
steps and supported them. Petrograd was equally cognizant of the affair,
and, as it was a question of military measures with which Russia could
not interfere, advised Greece to comply, assuring her that "what was done
was for her good." [14]

As a last resource, Greece appealed to neutral countries, describing the
condition in which she had long found herself, because she was not strong
enough to impose respect for her neutrality, and protesting against this
latest demand as most injurious to her honour and {158} subversive of all
her rights.[15] The solicitation rem