THE BLIGHT OF ASIA
_BY GEORGE HORTON_
LIKE ANOTHER HELEN
THE LONG STRAIGHT ROAD
THE MONKS’ TREASURE
THE EDGE OF HAZARD
[Illustration: Weeding Out the Men.
All men of military age were torn away from their wives and children and
led away in groups for deportation to the interior.]
THE BLIGHT OF ASIA
_An Account of the Systematic Extermination of Christian
Populations by Mohammedans and of the Culpability
of Certain Great Powers; with the True Story
of the Burning of Smyrna_
_By_
GEORGE HORTON
For Thirty Years Consul and Consul-General of the
United States in the Near East
_With a Foreword by_
JAMES W. GERARD
Former Ambassador to Germany
INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1926
BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
_Printed in the United States of America_
PRINTED AND BOUND
BY BRAUNWORTH & CO., INC.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
“What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven
churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and
unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto
Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.”
REVELATION, I:11.
THE MARTYRED CITY
Glory and Queen of the Inland Sea
Was Smyrna, the beautiful city,
And fairest pearl of the Orient she—
O Smyrna, the beautiful city!
Heiress of countless storied ages,
Mother of poets, saints and sages
Was Smyrna, the beautiful city!
One of the ancient, glorious Seven
Was Smyrna, the sacred city,
Whose candles all were alight in Heaven—
O Smyrna, the sacred city!
One of the Seven hopes and desires,
One of the Seven Holy Fires
Was Smyrna, the Sacred City.
And six flared out in the long ago—
O Smyrna, the Christian city!
But hers shone on with a constant glow—
O Smyrna, the Christian city!
The others died down and passed away,
But hers gleamed on until yesterday—
O Smyrna, the Christian city!
Silent and dead are the churchbell ringers
Of Smyrna, the Christian city,
The music silent and dead the singers
Of Smyrna, the happy city;
And her maidens, pearls of the Inland seas
Are gone from the marble palaces
Of Smyrna, enchanting city!
She is dead and rots by the Orient’s gate,
Does Smyrna, the murdered city,
Her artisans gone, her streets desolate—
O Smyrna, the murdered city!
Her children made orphans, widows her wives
While under her stones the foul rat thrives—
O Smyrna, the murdered city!
They crowned with a halo her bishop there,
In Smyrna, the martyred city,
Though dabbled with blood was his long white hair—
O Smyrna, the martyred city!
So she kept the faith in Christendom
From Polycarp to St. Chrysostom,[1]
Did Smyrna, the glorified city!
FOREWORD
Here at last is the truth about the destruction of Smyrna and the
massacre of a large part of its inhabitants by one who was present.
The writer of the following pages is a man, happily, who is not
restrained from telling what he knows by political reasons or by any
consideration of fear or self-interest. He gives the whole story of the
savage extermination of Christian civilization throughout the length and
breadth of the old Byzantine Empire in a clear and convincing manner.
That it should have been possible twenty centuries after the birth of
Christ for a small and backward nation, like the Turks, to have committed
such crimes against civilization and the progress of the world is a
matter which should cause all conscientious people to pause and think;
yet the writer shows conclusively that these crimes have been committed
without opposition on the part of any Christian nation and that the last
frightful scene at Smyrna was enacted within a few yards of a powerful
Allied and American battle fleet.
We turned a deaf ear to the dying Christians when they called to us for
aid, fully aware that America was their only hope, and now it would
appear that there is a growing tendency in this country to whitewash the
Turks and condone their crimes in order to obtain material advantages
from them.
The author takes the position that this can not be done, as the Turks
have put so great an affront upon humanity that it can not easily be
overlooked, and the truth is sure to come out. He claims that high ideals
are more than oil or railroads, and that the Turks should not be accepted
into the society of decent nations until they show sincere repentance for
their crimes.
Fraternizing with them on any other terms creates a suspicion of
sordidness or even complicity. From the outspoken nature of this book
it will be evident to the reader that the writing of it has required
considerable courage and that it has been inspired by no other possible
motive than a desire to make the truth known about matters which it is
important for the world to know.
(Signed) JAMES W. GERARD.
INTRODUCTION
The editor of a great Paris journal once remarked that he attributed
the extraordinary success of his publication to the fact that he had
discovered that each man had at least one story to tell.
I have been for many years in the Near East—about thirty in all—and
have watched the gradual and systematic extermination of Christians and
Christianity in that region, and I believe it my duty to tell that grim
tale, and to turn the light upon the political rivalries of the Western
World, that have made such a fearful tragedy possible.
Though I have served for the major part of that time as an American
consular officer, I am no longer acting in that capacity, and have
no further connection with the United States Government. None of the
statements which I make, therefore, has any official weight, nor have I
in any way drawn upon State Department records or sources of information.
I write strictly in my capacity as a private citizen, drawing my facts
from my own observations, and from the testimony of others whom I quote.
I was in Athens in July, 1908, when, at the instigation of the Young
Turks’ “Committee of Union and Progress” the Saloniki army revolted and
demanded the immediate putting into effect of the Constitution of 1876,
which had become a dead letter, and I noted the reaction produced upon
Greece by that apparently progressive move.
I was in Saloniki shortly after and witnessed the sad awakening of the
non-Mussulman elements of that part of the Balkans to the fact that
the much vaunted “Constitution” meant no liberty for them, but rather
suppression, suffering and ultimate extinction.
I was in Smyrna in May of 1917, when Turkey severed relations with
the United States, and I received the oral and written statements of
native-born American eye-witnesses of the vast and incredibly horrible
Armenian massacres of 1915-16—some of which will be here given for the
first time; I personally observed and otherwise confirmed the outrageous
treatment of the Christian population of the Smyrna vilayet, both during
the Great War, and before its outbreak. I returned to Smyrna later and
was there up until the evening of September 13, 1922, on which date the
city was set on fire by the army of Mustapha Khemal, and a large part of
its population done to death, and I witnessed the development of that
Dantesque tragedy, which possesses few, if any parallels in the history
of the world.
One object of writing this book is to make the truth known concerning
very significant events and to throw the light on an important period
during which colossal crimes have been committed against the human race,
with Christianity losing ground in Europe and America as well as in
Africa and the Near East.
Another object is to give the church people of the United States the
opportunity of deciding whether they wish to continue pouring millions
of dollars, collected by contributions small and great, into Turkey for
the purpose of supporting schools which no longer permit the Bible to be
read or Christ to be taught; whether, in fact, they are not doing more
harm than good to the Christian cause and name by sustaining institutions
which have accepted such a compromise?
Another object is to show that the destruction of Smyrna was but the
closing act in a consistent program of exterminating Christianity
throughout the length and breadth of the old Byzantine Empire; the
extirpation of an ancient Christian civilization, which in recent years
had begun to take on wonderful growth and rejuvenation spiritually,
largely as a result of the labors of American missionary teachers.
Their admirable institutions, scattered all over Turkey, which have
cost the people of the United States between fifty million and eighty
million dollars, have been, with some exceptions, closed or irreparably
damaged, and their thousands of Christian teachers and pupils butchered
or dispersed. This process of extermination was carried on over a
considerable period of time, with fixed purpose, with system, and with
painstaking minute details; and it was accomplished with unspeakable
cruelties, causing the destruction of a greater number of human beings
than have suffered in any similar persecution since the coming of Christ.
I have been cognizant of what was going on for a number of years and when
I came back to America after the Smyrna tragedy and saw the prosperous
people crowded in their snug warm churches, I could hardly restrain
myself from rising to my feet and shouting: “For every convert that you
make here, a Christian throat is being cut over there; while your creed
is losing ground in Europe and America, Mohammed is forging ahead in
Africa and the Near East with torch and scimitar.”
Another reason is to call attention to the general hardening of human
hearts that seems to have developed since the days of Gladstone—a less
exalted and more shifty attitude of mind. This is partly due to the fact
that men’s sensibilities have been blunted by the Great War, and is also
in large measure a result of that materialism which is engulfing our
entire civilization.
G. H.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I TURKISH MASSACRES 19
II GLADSTONE AND THE BULGARIAN ATROCITIES 21
III FIRST STEPS IN YOUNG TURKS’ PROGRAM 27
IV THE LAST GREAT SELAMLIK 38
V PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN SMYRNA DISTRICT 41
VI THE MASSACRE OF PHOCEA 46
VII NEW LIGHT ON THE ARMENIAN MASSACRE 52
VIII STORY OF WALTER M. GEDDES 60
IX INFORMATION FROM OTHER SOURCES 67
X THE GREEK LANDING AT SMYRNA 72
XI THE HELLENIC ADMINISTRATION IN SMYRNA 82
XII THE GREEK RETREAT 93
XIII SMYRNA AS IT WAS 97
XIV THE DESTRUCTION OF SMYRNA 112
XV FIRST DISQUIETING RUMORS 117
XVI THE TURKS ARRIVE 126
XVII WHERE AND WHEN THE FIRES WERE LIGHTED 144
XVIII THE ARRIVAL AT ATHENS 155
XIX ADDED DETAILS LEARNED AFTER THE TRAGEDY 159
XX HISTORIC IMPORTANCE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF SMYRNA 168
XXI NUMBER DONE TO DEATH 173
XXII EFFICIENCY OF OUR NAVY IN SAVING LIVES 177
XXIII RESPONSIBILITY OF THE WESTERN WORLD 179
XXIV ITALY’S DESIGNS ON SMYRNA 182
XXV FRANCE AND THE KHEMALISTS 186
XXVI MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH GARRISON AT URFA 195
XXVII THE BRITISH CONTRIBUTION 201
XXVIII TURKISH INTERPRETATION OF AMERICA’S ATTITUDE 203
XXIX THE MAKING OF MUSTAPHA KHEMAL 209
XXX OUR MISSIONARY INSTITUTIONS IN TURKEY 214
XXXI AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS UNDER TURKISH RULE 220
XXXII THE REVEREND RALPH HARLOW ON THE LAUSANNE TREATY 233
XXXIII MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY 238
XXXIV THE KORAN AND THE BIBLE 253
XXXV THE EXAMPLE OF MOHAMMED 261
XXXVI THE 50-50 THEORY 266
XXXVII ASIA MINOR, THE GRAVEYARD OF GREEK CITIES 268
XXXVIII ECHOES FROM SMYRNA 275
XXXIX CONCLUSION 281
APPENDIX 285
THE BLIGHT OF ASIA
CHAPTER I
TURKISH MASSACRES, 1822-1909
Mohammedanism has been propagated by the sword and by violence ever since
it first appeared as the great enemy of Christianity, as I shall show in
a later chapter of this book.
It has been left to the Turk, however, in more recent years, to carry
on the ferocious traditions of his creed, and to distinguish himself by
excesses which have never been equaled by any of the tribes enrolled
under the banner of the Prophet, either in ancient or modern times.
The following is a partial list of Turkish massacres from 1822 up till
1904:
1822 Chios, Greeks 50,000
1823 Missolonghi, Greeks 8,750
1826 Constantinople, Jannisaries 25,000
1850 Mosul, Assyrians 10,000
1860 Lebanon, Maronites 12,000
1876 Bulgaria, Bulgarians 14,700
1877 Bayazid, Armenians 1,400
1879 Alashguerd, Armenians 1,250
1881 Alexandria, Christians 2,000
1892 Mosul, Yezidies 3,500
1894 Sassun, Armenians 12,000
1895-96 Armenia, Armenians 150,000
1896 Constantinople, Armenians 9,570
1896 Van, Armenians 8,000
1903-04 Macedonia, Macedonians 14,667
1904 Sassun, Armenians 5,640
-------
Total 328,477
To this must be added the massacre in the province of Adana in 1909, of
thirty thousand Armenians.
So imminent and ever-present was the peril, and so fresh the memory of
these dire events in the minds of the non-Mussulman subjects of the
sultan, that illiterate Christian mothers had fallen into the habit of
dating events as so many years before or after “such and such a massacre.”