Admiral, by a notice put up at the Piraeus town-hall, warned the
inhabitants to close their shops and retire to their homes by 4 p.m. in
view of an impending bombardment of Athens.

The Hellenic Government acceded to the contents of the Ultimatum, and
immediately gave orders for the removal of troops and war material.[7]
This prompt compliance was received by the people of Greece with {166}
loud disapproval. They criticized vehemently their rulers' readiness
to yield as pusillanimous and injudicious. The Government, they said,
instead of profiting by the events of 1 December to clear up the
situation, drifts back into the path of concessions which led to those
fatal events: it encourages the Entente Powers to put forward
increasingly exorbitant pretensions, and, forgetting that it is for us
to complain and claim better treatment, it creates the impression that
they are in the right and we in the wrong. For some time past such had
been the tone even of moderate critics; and upon this fresh submission
there was a general outcry of alarm. It is true, the Allies in their
Note averred that they demanded the removal of troops and guns simply
and solely "in order to secure their forces against an attack." But
the Greeks were less inclined than ever to treat the alleged danger to
the Allied army in Macedonia as anything more than a pretext: the true
object, they maintained, was to secure M. Venizelos's return and the
expulsion of King Constantine.

The conduct of the Entente representatives hitherto had given only too
much ground for such bitter suspicions, and the search of Venizelist
houses had recently produced concrete evidence, in the form of a letter
from the Leader to one of his adherents stating, among other things,
that a definite agreement concluded between him and the representatives
of the Entente Powers assured his speedy domination of Athens through
the whole strength of the Entente. The publication of this document,
with a photographic facsimile,[8] had confirmed the apprehensions which
had long haunted the popular mind. Nor did M. Venizelos's indignant
denial of its authenticity, or the Entente Ministers' emphatic
protestation that never, since the Cretan's departure from Athens, had
they done anything to facilitate his return, shake the conviction that
the big coup was planned for 1 December.

If any doubts as to the Allies' ulterior aims still lingered, they were
dispelled by their Press, the most ser