In January 1916 Sarrail was granted command of all Allied forces in the Macedonian theatre. It had been agreed that there would be no action at Salonika without British agreement. The British CIGS Robertson was suspicious that the Allied presence at Salonika, which the French wanted the British to reinforce, was being kept going solely to find employment for Sarrail, which is not quite true – Joffre hoped to bring Romania into the war on the allied side. On 4 March 1916, two days after the Germans attacked Verdun, Joffre – to the irritation of Robertson – ordered Sarrail to "study" an offensive to pin down Central Powers troops. Sarrail replied that he needed 21 divisions and was unable to do anything major before the Serbs arrived. In March Royalist Greek troops were ordered not to oppose Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces.