This statement came as rather a strong contrast to an official declaration made by the German Government to the effect that Germany would be established in Saloniki by January 15, 1916. Possibly the Teutonic allies may have planned at that time to initiate a campaign against Saloniki, but apparently pressure on their lines on the other fronts became so strong as to divert them from this object.
However, the year was not to close without some disturbance of the monotony of the situation that now set in at Saloniki. In the middle of the forenoon of December 30, 1915, an attack was made on the city by a fleet of the enemy's aeroplanes, which sailed overhead at a great height and dropped bombs, doing considerable damage. One bomb fell on a detachment of Greek troops, which was carrying on drill maneuvers outside the city in the presence of Prince Andrew of Greece. Attempts were made from the warships in the harbor to reach the aircraft with their antiaircraft guns, but as the aeroplanes were over ten thousand feet high they were not hit. French aeroplanes were sent up to engage them, but by the time they had circled up to the same high altitude, the enemy had disappeared over the mountain tops toward Monastir.
Less than six hours later the soldiers of the Allies suddenly descended on the German, Austrian, Bulgarian, and Turkish consulates and arrested the enemy consuls and vice-consuls, taking them prisoners together with their families and entire staffs. They were immediately marched down to the quays and sent aboard one of the battleships. The four consular buildings were then taken over by the Allies as barracks. On the following day the consuls and their belongings were on their way across the Mediterranean to some unknown destination, though, as developed later, they were landed at Marseilles in France, thence sent to, and liberated in, Switzerland. Later the Norwegian consul was also arrested on a charge of espionage.
One of the disadvantages under which the Allies labored in Saloniki was the comparative ease with which the enemy could spy on their movements. This had especially been the case when their lines had been advanced beyond the Greek frontier.
The Greek Government protested at this breach of neutrality, declaring that such high-handed proceedings undermined its sovereignty and the enemy Powers also protested and threatened reprisals.
Further proof of the decision that the Allies had made to remain in Saloniki was given by their occupation of Castellorizo, an island lying off the mainland of Asia Minor near Rhodes, commanding the Gulf of Adalia. Five hundred French soldiers had been landed, with a view to using the place as a base for operations in that part of Turkey, should that later become feasible. The Greek Government again protested, as it also did when, in the first week of January, the Allies arrested the German, Austrian, and Turkish consuls at Mitylene for the same reasons that had led to the arrests in Saloniki, and shipped these men away on a man-of-war. Greece was indeed kept quite busy framing protests during this period, for on January 11, 1916, a detachment of French soldiers took possession and military control of the island of Corfu, but the Greek garrison there offered no opposition. The place had some strategic value, but the main purpose for which it was to be used was as a sanitarium for the Serbian refugees, who were beginning to arrive from Albania, and many of whom were in miserable physical condition.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER XXXIX
ITALIAN MOVEMENTS IN ALBANIA—CONQUEST OF MONTENEGRO
While the French and British were strengthening their position in Saloniki in every possible way, the Italians were beginning a movement which was to have some influence in the Balkans.
Already, a year before, Italy had landed a small containing force in Avlona, Albania, on the Adriatic coast, because Greece had previously occupied a section of southern Albania, contiguous to her frontier. Albania, it will be remembered, had been declared an independent nation after the Balkan wars and William of Wied had been appointed its sovereign, by the consent of the Powers. But so turbulent had his subjects been that finally, when an uprising threatened his life, he fled on a foreign warship. The leader of the Albanians, in so far as they could be brought to respect any one general leader, was Essad Pasha, the Albanian commander at Scutari, who had defended that place so long and so valiantly against the attacks of the Montenegrins during the First Balkan War.