THE BRITISH CONTRIBUTION
Unfortunately, I am restrained from writing many interesting facts
connected with a history of this kind; some of the things that came to
my knowledge in my official capacity. To the honor of Great Britain,
however, I believe that there were moments when she came within a hair’s
breadth of living up to her best traditions. What prevented her at the
critical moment, I have never learned.
At any rate, the British contribution to the Smyrna horror did not
consist in active aid of the Turks, neither did she furnish them with
arms or munitions. But, though she was largely responsible for the
landing of the Greeks in Asia Minor, and the latter were defending
her interests, she afforded them no aid, but gave them fallacious
encouragement which led them to their doom. As far as England was
concerned, Greece was the victim of British internal politics which
seized upon the government’s policy in the Near East as an object
for attack. If Lloyd George was pro-Greek, his political opponents
became—_ipso facto_—rabid pro-Turk. If the Hellenic soldiers were mere
tools of the British, as both the Italians and French believed, then it
certainly was not “playing the game” to desert them in their extremity;
and this desertion carries a graver responsibility with it, inasmuch as
it made possible the fearful catastrophe of Smyrna and its hinterland.