ABDICATION OF KING CONSTANTINE

SECOND SON AS SUCCESSOR

The arrival at Athens of M. Jonnart, High Commissioner of the Allies, and formerly Governor-general of Algeria, has been rapidly followed by dramatic developments which, in view of the events that have occurred since the war began, will create no surprise.

On Tuesday morning, as the result of the demands of the Protecting Powers (France, Russia, and Great Britain), put forward on the previous day, King Constantine abdicated the throne, which he had held since the assassination of his father, King George I, at Salonika on March 18, 1913. The Powers have expressly barred the Crown Prince George from the succession on account of his pro-german sympathies, and the ex-king has therefore nominated his second son, Prince Alexander, who is in his 24th year and is unmarried, to follow him.

So far as can be judged, ex-king Constantine accepts calmly a decision which has been brought about by his own policy and acts, and will give no trouble to the Protecting Powers. Should he attempt to do so, M. Jonnart has at his disposal forces with which to deal with the situation. Anglo-french troops have entered Thessaly from the north, and have occupied the town of Elassona, about twenty miles north of Larissa, and the same distance from the coast of the Gulf of Salonika. An Allied army has also been landed in Corinth.

An official communiqué of the French army of the East states that in Thessaly French cavalry entered Larissa (the scene of the disastrous Greek rout by the Turks in 1897) at six o’clock on Tuesday morning. Allied troops have also occupied the Piraeus, and are quartered in the northern part of the town. These military measures practically cut off the peninsula of Greece from the upper, or Continental, portion of the kingdom.

The dethroned Monarch, with his wife (the sister of the Kaiser) and the erstwhile Crown Prince, will leave the country. Their precise destination is not yet certain. The ex-king, it is stated, desires to go to Switzerland, via Italy. At present the ex-king has left Athens for his country palace at Tatoi, about eight miles by rail and by road from the capital.

Reuter’s Agency was informed yesterday that all the Allied military measures in Thessaly, the Gulf of Corinth, and elsewhere have been carried out satisfactorily according to programme and without any disturbance of order. It is reported that the ex-king has asked to travel in a British ship.

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