to abandon neutrality and enter the war in favour of the Allies. This group, the Committee of National Defence, was led by D. Ligas, Periklis Argyropoulos, Alexandros Zannas, K. Aggelakis, N. Manos, Pazis, Grekos, Pamikos Zymvrakakis, Th. Koutoupis and others. The leadership was offered to the now ex-Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who strongly believed that Greece should enter the war in favour of the Allies. Venizelos agreed on condition that military units should be committed on all fronts and not only in Macedonia. In March 1916 the German and Bulgarian forces started occupying Greek territories in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Bulgarian forces, intent on expelling the Greek population from the area, started a campaign of terror, slaughtering civilians, burning villages, raping women and children, and robbing the population. The Germans objected to these atrocities, but did not wish to displease their allies too much. Once again refugees, Greeks this time, began flooding into Thessaloniki. Cretans and other Greek soldiers who could not tolerate the occupation of Greek soil by the Bulgarian army started volunteering for the Allied armies in order to fight against the Central Powers. The Greek high command started transferring units from Thessaloniki to Southern Greece in order to maintain discipline and avoid provocative actions against the Allied forces who were in Thessaloniki. The National Defence coup d'état On 21 May 1916, the day of King Constantine's name-day, the French forces of General Sarrail imposed martial law in Thessaloniki (despite British opposition), occupying the post office, the telegraph office, the telephone office, the railway facilities, the power station, and the gasworks. Simultaneously they imposed censorship in the press, forcibly closed two newspapers and expelled five Greek officers with whom they considered that could not work: Colonel Troupakis, commanding the constabulary, Lieutenant-Colonel Nidriotis, commanding the police, Colonel Messalas, commanding Fortress Thessalonica, his chief of staff Lieutenant-Colonel Gouvelis, and Colonel Bouklakos, commanding the artillery. Any form of Greek sovereignty in the Allied-occupied Greek territories had been eliminated. The French naval attaché Lieutenant-Commander de Rokfeill reported in September 1916: "There is not any question of concern for the sovereign rights of Greece because no-one remains in this country that has not been violated". In April 1916 the new Serbian Army of 120,000 men was transported to the Macedonian front. Simultaneously the King of Serbia and his government arrived in Thessalonica. In this situation and with the danger that the Allies would