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
PUBLISHERS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY, INDIANAPOLIS
COPYRIGRT 1926
BY
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
Printed In the
United States of America
PRINTED AND BOUNDBY BRAUNWORTH & CO. INC. BROOKLYN
N.Y.
“What thou seest,
write in a book, and send it unto 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.”
REVELATIONS, I:11
THE MARTYRED CITY
Glory
and Queen of Island 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 fared 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 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 Island 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,*
Did Smyrna, the glorified city!
*Martyred
at Smyrna, September 1922.
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 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 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 11, 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 the 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
expatriation of an ancient Christian civilization, which in recent years had
begun to take on growth and rejuvenation spiritually, largely as a result of
the labors of American missionary teachers.
Their admirable institutions, scattered all ever 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.
GEORGE HORTON
CONTENTS
II GLADSTONE
AND THE BULGARIAN ATROCITIES
III FIRST STEPS
IN YOUNG TURKS’ PROGRAM
V PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN SMYRNA
DISTRICT
VII NEW LIGHT
ON THE ARMENIAN MASSACRE
VIII STORY
OF WALTER M. GEDDES
IX INFORMATION
FROM OTHER SOURCES
XI THE
HELLENIC ADMINISTRATION IN SMYRNA
XVII WHERE
AND WHEN THE FIRES WERE LIGHTED
XIX ADDED
DETAILS LEARNED AFTER THE TRAGEDY
XX HISTORIC
IMPORTANCE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF SMYRNA
XXII EFFICIENCY
OF OUR NAVY IN SAVING LIVES
XXIII RESPONSIBILITY
OF THE WESTERN WORLD
XXIV ITALY’S
DESIGNS ON SMYRNA
XXVI MASSACRE
OF THE FRENCH GARRISON AT UFRA
XXVII THE
BRITISH CONTRIBUTION
XXVIII TURKISH INTERPRETATION OF AMERICA’S ATTITUDE
XXIX THE
MAKING OF MUSTAPHA KHEMAL
XXX OUR MISSIONARY INSTITUTIONS IN TURKEY
XXXI AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS UNDER TURKISH RULE
XXXII THE
REVEREND RALPH HARLOW ON THE LAUSANNE TREATY
XXXIII MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY
XXXVII ASIA
MINOR, THE GRAVEYARD OF GREEK CITIES
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 in modern times.
The
following is a partial list of Turkish massacres from 1822 up till 1904:
1822 Chios, Greeks 50,000
1823 Missolongi, 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.”
CHAPTER II
GLADSTONE AND THE BULGARIAN ATROCITIES
IN THE list of massacres antedating the
colossal crimes which have come under my own personal observation, is cited the
killing of 14,700 Bulgarians in 1876. This butchery of a comparatively few—from
a Turkish view-point—Bulgarians, some fifty years ago, provoked a splendid cry
of indignation from Gladstone. As this narrative develops and reaches the dark days of 1915 to 1922, during which period whole nations were wiped out by the ax, the club and the
knife, and the Turk at last found the opportunity to give full vent to his evil
passions, it will appear that no
similarly effective protest has issued from the lips of any European or
American statesman.
The curious feature is that, owing to the propaganda
carried on by the hunters of certain concessions, an anti-Christian and
pro-Turk school has sprung up in the United States.
In “A Short History of the Near East”, Professor William Stearns Davis, of the
University of Minnesota, referring to the Bulgarian atrocities 1876, says:
“What followed seems a
massacre on a small scale compared with the slaughter of Armenians in 1915-16,
but it was enough to paralyze the power of Disraeli to protect the Turks. In
all, about twelve thousand Christians seem to have been massacred. At the
thriving town of Batal five thousand out of seven thousand inhabitants seem to
have perished. Of course neither age or sex was spared and lust and perfidy
were added to other acts of devilishness. It is a pitiful commentary on a
phase of British politics that Disraeli and his fellow Tories tried their best
to minimize the reports of these atrocities. They were not given to the world
by official consular reports, but by private English journalists.”
The above is interesting, as it illustrates a quite
common method of government procedure in such cases. The Tory does not seem to
be a unique product of British politics.
While I was in Europe recently, I talked with a
gentleman who was in the diplomatic service of one of the Great Powers and was
with me in Smyrna at the time that city was burned by the Turkish army. This
gentleman was in complete accord with me in all details as to that affair, and
asserted that his Foreign Office had warned him to keep silent as to the real
facts at Smyrna, but that he had written a full memorandum on the subject,
which be hopes to publish.
It is significant that the Turks in 1876 were
championed by Jews, while to-day such Jews as Henry Morgenthau, Max Nordau and
Rabbi Wise are prominent among that group of men who are raising their voices
in behalf of oppressed Christians.
It is due to their influence, and to the voices of such senators as King of
Utah and Swanson of Virginia, that confirmation of the Lausanne Treaty has been
deferred until the blood on the bayonets and axes of the Turks should get a
little drier.
Speaking of Disraeli,
Gladstone wrote to the Duke of Argyle: “He is not
such a Turk as I thought. What he hates is Christian liberty and reconstruction.”
The Bulgarian massacres were made known by an American
consular official, and denounced by Gladstone in a famous pamphlet. They led to
the declaration of war by Russia, the treaty of San Stefano and the beginning
of the freedom of Bulgaria.
In a speech at Blackheath in 1876, Gladstone said:
“You shall retain your titular sovereignty, your empire
shall not be invaded, but never again, as the years roll in their course, so
far as it is in our power to determine, never again shall the hand of violence
be raised by you, never again shall the flood gates of lust be opened to you.”
In his famous pamphlet, Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East, we have the
following, a thousand times truer to-day than when it was written:
“Let the Turks now carry away their abuses, in the only
possible manner, namely, by carrying off themselves. Their Zaptiehs and their
Mudirs, their Blmhashis and Yuzbashis, their Kaimakams and their Pashas, one
and all, bag and baggage, shall, I hope, clear out from the province that they
have desolated and profaned. This thorough riddance, this most blessed
deliverance, is the only reparation we can make to those heaps and heaps of
dead, the violated purity alike of matron and of maiden and of child; to the
civilization which has been affronted and shamed; to the laws of God, or, if
you like, of Allah; to the moral sense of mankind at large. There is not a
criminal in an European jail, there is not a criminal in the South Sea Islands,
whose indignation would not rise and over-boil at the recital of that which
has been done, which has too late been examined, but which remains unavenged,
which has left behind all the foul and all the fierce passions which produced
it and which may again spring up in another murderous harvest from the soil
soaked and reeking with blood and in the air tainted with every imaginable deed
of crime and shame. That such things should be done once is a damning disgrace
to the portion of our race which did them; that the door should be left open to
the ever so barely possible repetition would spread that shame over the world.”
“We may ransack the annals of the world, but I know not
what research can furnish us with so portentous an example of the fiendish
misuse of the powers established by God for the punishment of evil doers and
the encouragement of them that do well. No government ever has so sinned, none
has proved itself so incorrigible in sin, or which is the same, so impotent in
reformation”
The time will never come when the words of Gladstone,
one of the wisest of English statesmen, will be considered unworthy of serious
attention. The following characterization of the Turk by him has been more
aptly verified by the events that have happened since his death than by those
that occurred before:
“Let me endeavor, very
briefly to sketch, in the rudest outline what the Turkish race was and what it
is. It is not a question of Mohammedanism simply, but of Mohammedanism
compounded with the peculiar character of a race. They are not the mild
Mohammedans of India, nor the chivalrous Saladins of Syria, nor the cultured
Moors of Spain. They were, upon the whole, from the black day when they first
entered Europe, the one great anti-human specimen of humanity. Wherever they
went a broad line of blood marked the track behind them, and, as far as their
dominion reached, civilization disappeared from view. They represented
everywhere government by force as opposed to government by law.—Yet a
government by force can not be maintained without the aid of an intellectual
element.— Hence there grew up, what has been rare in the history of the world,
a kind of tolerance in the midst of cruelty, tyranny and rapine. Much of
Christian life was contemptuously left alone and a race of Greeks was attracted
to Constantinople which has all along made up, in some degree, the deficiencies
of Turkish Islam in the element of mind!”
To these words of Gladstone may appropriately be added
the characterization of the Turk by the famous Cardinal Newman:
“The barbarian power, which
has been for centuries seated in the very heart of the Old World, which has in
its brute clutch the most famous countries of classical and religious antiquity
and many of the most fruitful and beautiful regions of the earth; and, which,
having no history itself, is heir to the historical names of Constantinople and
Nicaea, Nicomedia and Caesarea, Jerusalem and Damascus, Nineva and Babylon,
Mecca and Bagdad, Antioch and Alexandria, ignorantly holding in its possession
one half of the history of the whole world.”
In another passage Newman describes the Turk as the “great
anti-Christ among the races of men.”
CHAPTER III
FIRST STEP IN YOUNG TURKS’ PROGRAM (1908-1911)
TO COMPREHEND this narrative thoroughly, one
must remember that the East is unchangeable. The Turks of to-day are precisely
the same as those who followed Mohammed the Conqueror through the gates of
Constantinople on May 29, 1453, and they have amply demonstrated that they do
not differ from those whom Gladstone denounced for the Bulgarian atrocities of
1876. Those who are building hopes on any other conception will be deceived;
they will be painfully deceived if they make treaties or invest large sums of
money on Western ideas of the Oriental character.
I am neither “pro-Greek,” “pro-Turk,” nor anything
except pro-American and pro-Christ. Having passed the most of my life in
regions where race feeling runs high, it has been my one aim to help the
oppressed, irrespective of race, as will be shown by documents submitted later,
and I have won the expressed gratitude of numerous Turks for the aid and relief
I have afforded them on various occasions.
I am aware of the many noble qualities of the Turkish peasant, but I do not agree with many precepts of his religion, and I do not admire him when he is cutting throats or violating Christian women. The massacres already enumerated are a sufficient blot upon the Turkish name. They were made possible by the teachings of the Koran, the example of Mohammed, lust and the desire for plunder. They sink into insignificance when compared with the vast slaughter of more recent years, conducted under the auspi