THE “50-50” THEORY
One of the cleverest statements circulated by the Turkish propagandists
is to the effect that the massacred Christians were as bad as their
executioners, that it was “50-50.” This especially appeals strongly to
the Anglo-Saxon sense of justice, relieves one of all further annoyance
or responsibility, and quiets the conscience. But it requires a very
thoughtless person indeed to accept such a statement, and extremely
little thought is required to show the fallacy of it.
In the first place, the Christians in the power of the Turk have never
had much opportunity to massacre, even had they been so disposed. If a
few Turks have been killed in the long history of butcheries that have
soaked the empire with blood, the reckoning, mathematically, will not be
50-50, nor even one to ten thousand. In addition to this, even with the
shortcomings of the Christians of the world, in general, the teachings
of Christ have made it better. In all the former Ottoman provinces that
have succeeded in casting off the Turkish blight—Hungary, Bulgaria,
Serbia, Greece—there is very little, if any, record of Turks massacred by
Christians.
The conduct of the Greeks toward the thousands of Turks residing in
Greece, while the ferocious massacres were going on, and while Smyrna was
being burned and refugees, wounded, outraged and ruined, were pouring
into every port of Hellas, was one of the most inspiring and beautiful
chapters in all that country’s history. There were no reprisals. The
Turks living in Greece were in no wise molested, nor did any storm of
hatred or revenge burst upon their heads. This is a great and beautiful
victory that, in its own way, rises to the level of Marathon and Salamis.
One naturally asks what other Christian nation could have done any
better? In fact, the whole conduct of Greece, during and after the
persecution of the Christians in Turkey, has been most admirable, as
witness also its treatment of the Turkish prisoners of war, and its
efforts for the thousands of refugees that have been thrown upon its
soil. I know of what I am speaking, for I was in Greece and saw with my
own eyes. No one, I think, will have the courage to dispute these facts.
Had the Greeks, after the massacres in the Pontus and at Smyrna,
massacred all the Turks in Greece, the record would have been
50-50—almost.