and constables serving in the Cretan Gendarmerie. Of the officers, five second lieutenants were physicians and one a pharmacist, while another pharmacist was a senior NCO. Some of the officers were attached from the Greek Army, including the commander, Colonel Andreas Momferratos. Army officers constituted the entire Greek mission that replaced the Italians in December 1906. As a direct result of the Cretan Gendarmerie's success in its duties, the organization of the Greek Gendarmerie was also assigned to Italian officers in July 1911. Some of them, like Arcangelo de Mandate, had also participated in the organization of the Cretan Gendarmerie. The Balkan Wars On 4 October 1912 the Christian countries of the Balkans (Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia) declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The advance of the Greek Army was rapid and on 26 October the Turks surrendered Thessaloniki (Salonika). Eleftherios Venizelos, forecasting the problems of law and order that would be presented after the liberation of the city and knowing that the Bulgarians and other European nations would like to promote a picture of chaos and a Greek state incapable of imposing order, ordered Cretan Gendarmerie units to be transported to the city. Thus, on 24 October 1912 the commander of the Cretan Gendarmerie with four officers, two senior non-commissioned officers and 150 constables left from Chania for Athens and thence to Thessaloniki aboard the steamer Arcadi. This force was strengthened and eventually almost the whole of the Gendarmerie was shipped to Thessaloniki. On the 14 October 1912, the Governor-General of Crete Stefanos Dragoumis mobilised the reservist non-commissioned officers and constables enlisted in the 1880s and 1890s. Thessalonica was then an international city. Apart from the Greeks, it was also inhabited by many Turks and Western Europeans, a very large Jewish community, and a substantial Bulgarian minority. Most of them did not welcome the Greek flag flying over the city. The Western Europeans considered that they would lose their commercial privileges; the Jews for commercial reasons would have preferred an Austrian administration or the internationalization of Thessalonica; whilst the Bulgarians, Turks and Austrians wanted the city for their own countries. The composition of population in the city of Thessalonica, according to Turkish authorities a short time before its liberation, was: Jews - 61,000 Turks - 43,000 Greeks - 40,000 Bulgarians - 6,000 Other nationalities - 5,000 The reader should notice that the population of the suburbs and the