On September 11th the Zaïmis Cabinet, which was moderately pro-Entente, fell and was succeeded by that of M. Kalogheropoulo, but as the Allies refused to treat with the latter, it too fell on October 4th. Professor Lambros then became Premier, with a frankly anti-Ally policy, and thus we come to the catastrophe of December 1st. The Greek Government, after having undertaken to withdraw the troops from Thessaly and to hand over the fleet and war material, failed to do so. After endless shuffling, the Allied fleets were sent to the Piræus and a policy of coercion was decided on. As a pledge for the cession of war material, the Government was to hand over 10 mountain batteries at once. Admiral Dartige had certain strategic points in Athens and the road between the capital and the Piræus occupied by detachments of French seamen with machine guns. Then he went himself to Athens, and communicated his plan of operations to the King.[27] Suddenly there was a general burst of rifle fire. The detachment at the Zappeion and those along the Athens-Piræus road were surrounded by Greek soldiers, as were also the Allied legations. The French seamen had fallen into a regular ambush, and 200 of them were killed. Admiral Dartige and several detachments of seamen were taken prisoners and escorted to the Piræus. Both he and the Foreign Ministers then agreed to accept six batteries instead of ten, while the rest of the material was to be handed over on December 15th. General Sarrail received the most contradictory instructions (which he quotes textually in his memoirs). Whereas the French G.H.Q. and the Government ordered him to take the military measures necessary to re-establish the prestige of the Entente in Greece and sent out the 16th Colonial Division, which he was to reinforce with other troops from Salonica, the French Minister at Athens and Admiral Dartige, anxious for the safety of the foreign colonies, insisted on nothing being done. Sarrail himself wanted to take action, occupying various strategic points in Greece and blowing up the railway bridges at Corinth and Lamia. The French Government had entrusted General Sarrail with the conduct of the operations to be carried out in Greece, but Admiral Dartige had held back the 16th Division. The British and Italian Governments were adverse to any energetic action against King Constantine because, in view of the general military situation and of that on the Macedonian front in particular, they thought that it would be dangerous to _brusquer les choses_. Thus, while the Greek Government had suppressed all the Allied controls, the Athens wireless station began to communicate with Sofia once more, and the Venizelists were subjected to the most ferocious persecution, the Allies presented a fresh ultimatum to Greece (these documents now came to be called _pen_-ultimatums) on December 14th, demanding merely the withdrawal of the troops from Thessaly, without mentioning the cession of war