The British still hoped for a reconciliation between the Greek factions and hoped that a monarchist Greece would be less under French influence than a republic. However, on 21 December London and Paris recognised the Provisional Government in Salonika. By the end of the year most of Romania had been overrun and Allied hopes of imminent Austro-Hungarian collapse had been disappointed. The Germans were referring to Salonika as an "internment camp" and Sarrail was highly sensitive to comparisons to Bazaine’s encirclement in Metz in 1870. At Christmas 1916 Christmas cards – in French and bearing a portrait of Sarrail – were sent to the families of British, French and Italian troops at Salonika.