It was decided to occupy
Corfu, prepare the island, transport the entire Serbian Army thither
and assure that this army would be built up there. And France was
charged with carrying out this operation.
On the seventh of January, 1916, the first French organization of ten
trawlers set out from Malta to make a preliminary reconnoissance
around Corfu, to drag for mines and to clear out the submarines. A
second flotilla followed it forty-eight hours later. On the eighth of
January the armored cruisers _Edgar Quinet_, _Waldeck-Rousseau_,
_Ernest Renan_, _Jules Ferry_ and five torpedo boats, which were
located at Bizerta, received orders to embark a battalion of Alpine
chasseurs with their arms, baggage and mules and to take up their
positions to be ready at the first signal.
On the night of the tenth, the French consul at Corfu woke up the
Greek prefect in order to announce to him the imminent arrival of our
squadron and what it was going to do. After he had received the formal
protest of this functionary, he went down to the port, where there was
no longer any doubt in anyone's mind of what was going to happen. With
him went guides and automobiles to finish everything quickly before
the Germans could offer any opposition.
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