government. But there remains the task to keep the Germans from Egypt,
to menace the railroad at Adrianople, and to prevent Roumania from an
attack upon the flank of Russia. The Allies are in Salonika until this
war is ended."

In Salonika you see every evidence that this is the purpose of the
Allies; that both England and France are determined to hold fast.

Reinforcements of British troops are arriving daily, and the French are
importing large numbers of ready-to-set-up wooden barracks, each capable
of holding 250 men. Also along the water-front they are building
storehouses of brick and stone. That does not suggest an immediate
departure. At the French camp, which covers five square miles in the
suburbs of Salonika when I visited it to-day, thousands of soldiers were
actively engaged in laying stone roads, repairing bridges and erecting
new ones. There is no question but that they intend to make this the
base until the advance in the spring.

A battalion of Serbians 700 strong has arrived at the French camp. In
size and physique they are splendid specimens of fighting men. They are
now road building. Each day refugees of the Serbian army add to their
number.

At four o'clock in the morning of the 14th of December, the Greek army
evacuated Salonika and that strip of Greek territory stretching from it
to Doiran.

From before sunrise an unbroken column of Greek regiments passed beneath
the windows of our hotel. There were artillery, cavalry, pontoons,
ambulances, and thousands of ponies and donkeys, carrying fodder,
supplies, and tents. The sidewalks were invaded by long lines of
infantry. The water-front along which the column passed was blocked
with spectators.

As soon as the Greeks had departed sailors from the Allied war-ships
were given shore leave, and the city took on the air of a holiday. Thus
was a most embarrassing situation brought to an end and the world
informed that the Allies had but just begun to fight. It was the
clearing of the prize-ring.

The clearing also of the enemy's consulates ended another embarrassing
situation. As suggested in a previous chapter, the consulates of the
Central Powers were the hot-beds and clearing-houses for spies. The
raid upon them by the French proved that this was true. The enforced
departure of the German, Austrian, Bulgarian, and Turkish consuls added
to the responsibilities of our own who has now to guard their interests.
They will be efficiently served. Joh