The Great Fire (50 page)

   
78
    
The reports included a forceful
A description of the scene in Smyrna as the Greek army retreated appears in Smith,
Ionian Vision,
284–311; Also, Dobbs, Insurance Testimony Summary, Day 8 49–53.

   
79
    
Still, there was also a lot of loose talk
Horton to State, Sept. 4, 1920. NA 767.68/274.

   
79
    
There was also the troubling
British Admiral de Brock summarized British actions at Smyrna from Sept. 3 to Sept. 23, 1922, for the Admiralty in a long cable on October 2, 1922. ADM 137/1779. It appears in full in Paul G. Halpern,
The Mediterranean Fleet, 1919–1929
(Burlington, VT: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society, 2011), 376–383. In addition to providing key cables and correspondence of the period, Halpern offers insightful commentary and context.

   
80
    
Horton had slept hardly at all
For a description of the first meetings of the American volunteers: Horton,
Blight of Asia,
123–125; Caleb Lawrence, “The Smyrna Disaster Relief Committee of the American Red Cross,” Report to Foster Stearns, May 30, 1923. NA Correspondence of the American Embassy, Constantinople, Class 848, Part 2, Vol. 20. Getchell to Barton, Oct. 12, 1923. GHP. Jennings to Davis; Annie Gordon letter.

   
80
    
Among the missionary group
The American Girls’ School was officially the American Intercollegiate Institute. The Missionary Board, formally, was the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, based in Boston.

   
82
    
It was a humiliation the Young Turks
Hofmann et al.,
Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks,
42; Lewis,
Emergence of Modern Turkey,
224. Also see Mark Mazower,
Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Moslems, and Jews, 1430–1950
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 275; Mango,
Atatürk,
115.

   
82
    
In the region outside Smyrna
, Horton to State Dept., April 18, 1921, including attached report on Greek reconstruction. NA 868.48/74; Horton,
Blight of Asia,
41–45. Also, Mansel,
Levant: Splendour,
186.

   
82
    
The sultan and his Islamic government
Lewis,
Emergence of Modern Turkey,
31; C. Ernest Dawn, “From Ottomanism to Arabism: The Origin of an Ideology,”
The Review of Politics
23, no. 3 (July 1961): 380.

   
83
    
The Ottoman government unleashed
Horton,
Blight of Asia,
42; Payaslian,
United States Policy,
66.

   
84
    
“The unfortunate men had been tied . . .”
Horton to State March 12, 1917. NA 867.00/739

   
84
    
A massacre against Ottoman Greeks
Hofmann et al.,
Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks,
P52; Horton,
Blight of Asia,
46–51; Matthias BJornlund, “Danish Sources on the Destruction of the Ottoman Greeks, 1914–1916,” in Hofmann et al.,
Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks
, 152.

   
84
    
Turkish terror drove nearly two hundred thousand
Edward Hale Bierstadt,
The Great Betrayal: A Survey of the Near East Problem
(New York: R. M. McBride & Co., 1924), 52–68. Also see Charles P. Howland, “Greece and Her Refugees.”
Foreign Affairs
(July 1926).

   
84
    
“From what all these trustworthy people
Horton is quoted in Jay Winter, ed.,
America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 179.

   
84
    
The accounts of Armenians being
Peter Balakian,
The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response
(New York: HarperCollins, 2003), 38. Also see Peterson,
“Starving Armenians”
28–50; Payaslian,
United States Policy,
60; J. Coffey, “Service Diary,” 32, 33, Imperial War Museum, London: “As we left at 6 am the country round the pillage was a peculiar and motley sight strewn with the sleeping and semi-awakened
bodies of some 1000 Armenian refugees who, after 14 days weary march, were enjoying a brief rest before completing the journey to Hamda. It was strange and pitiful sight—heaven itself compared with what was to follow.”

   
85
    
Its Ottoman governor, or vali
Giles Milton,
Paradise Lost Smyrna 1922
(New York: Basic Books, 2010),15, 86, 87.

   
85
    
The United States did not declare war
Payaslian,
United States Policy,
130; Joseph L. Grabill,
Protestant Diplomacy and the Near East: Missionary Influence on American Policy, 1810–1927
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971), 92.

   
85
    
Horton also maintained friendly
Ilimdar Zade Edham, Sahlebdji Zade Midhat, and fourteen others to State Department, July 30, 1920 (1339 Turkish date on letter), included in Nancy Horton’s unfinished biography of George Horton, GHP. “Since the appointment of His Excellency, George Horton as Consul-General of the United States in Smyrna, His Excellency has won the heart of the whole Turkish nation by the sympathy and good will which His Excellency has always shown every Turkish man.”

   
86
    
Horton was also discouraged
Horton to (no first name) Carroll, Oct. 1, 1919. GHP.

   
87
    
Back in Paradise, the roads
“Mrs. Jennings Relates Tale of Horrors,”
Syracuse (NY) Herald
, Oct. 27, 1922; Amy Jennings’s Diary; Sara Jacob to Davis: Alexander MacLachlan, “A Potpourri of Sidelights and Shadows from Turkey,” Queen’s University Archives, Queens Univesity, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 123, 124.

   
87
    
By now, Smyrna harbor contained
Halpern,
Mediterranean Fleet,
376–383.

   
87
    
“We the undersigned fully endorse . . .”
American Chamber of Commerce, International College, et al, at Smyrna to State Department, Sept. 6, 1922. MLB.

   
88
    
“This telegram from Smyrna . . .”
Harry G. Dwight, administrative employee in Near Eastern section of the department, to Dulles, perhaps reflecting the view of his boss, Sept. 6, 1922. MLB.

   
89
    
Professor Lawrence was a natural
Background on Lawrence derived from the memoirs of his wife Helen, granddaughter Dorothy, and grandson
Arthur and from various letters and commendations, CLP, Levantine Heritage.com.

   
89
    
As chairman of the Smyrna Relief
, Caleb Lawrence, “Smyrna Disaster Relief Committee,”
Bulletin of the Constantinople Branch of the Red Cross
, No. 17. June 1923.

   
90
    
Later in the day, still not
Horton to Bristol, Sept. 6, 1922. MLB.

   
91
    
A British observer offered
“A Manchester Man’s Experiences,”
Manchester Guardian,
Sept. 28, 1922. Quoted in Oeconomos,
Martyrdom
.

CHAPTER 9: THEODORA

   
92
    
The substance of this narrative comes from an interview in the collection of the Asia Minor Research Centre, Athens, supplemented with information obtained through a trip to the village in June 2012; also, Prof. Thalia Pandiri.

   
92
    
A Greek already had been hung
Interviews with residents remembering the history. June 13, 2012.

   
94
    
It was a small church, built with green stone
“Churches of Smyrna,” LevantineHeritage.com.

CHAPTER 10: AN AMERICAN DESTROYER ARRIVES

   
95
    
Admiral Bristol spent Sunda
y Bristol, War Diary, Sept. 3, 1922.

   
96
    
Bristol had grown up on a small farm
Information about Bristol’s family in Glassboro comes from the Gloucester County Historical Society based on the family’s real estate transactions in the Gloucester County Office of Deeds and the 1880 Federal Agricultural Census of the County. Bristol’s record at the Naval Academy is noted in his conduct record, the Annual Register of the United States Naval Academy and the Academy’s alumni jacket, excerpts of which were provided the Naval Academy. See also: “Ferrell, Thomas Merrill,” Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/.

   
96
    
While he was definitely not
For an analysis of the family backgrounds of Naval Academy cadets, see Peter Karsten,
The Naval Aristocracy: The Golden Age of Annapolis and the Emergence of Modern American Navalism
(New York: Free Press, 1972).

   
97
    
One such man, though not so young
Dunn tells his own story in his memoir
World Alive
(Robert Dunn,
World Alive: A Personal Story
[New
York: Crown Publishers, 1956]). See also Richard G. Hovannisian,
The Republic of Armenia, Vol. II: From Versaüles to London, 1919–1920
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University. of California Press, 1982). For another point of view on Dunn, see Heath W. Lowry, “Richard G. Hovannisian on Lieutenant Robert Steed Dunn,”
Journal of Ottoman Studies
V (1985): 209–252. (Formerly the Atatürk Professor of Ottoman & Modern Turkish Studies at Princeton University, Lowry is a controversial figure who asserts the Armenians were not victims of a Turkish genocide.)

   
98
    
His first order of business
BWD, Sept. 5, 1920.

   
99
    
Bristol had complete confidence
Aaron Merrill, Family and Personal Correspondence, ASMP.

   
99
    
Small and light, young Merrill
“Aaron S. Merrill,”
Lucky Bag
(the Naval Academy yearbook), U.S. Naval Academy, 1912.

   
99
    
The letters also showed
Merrill to his mother, March 16, 1920 and March 5, 1920, Family and Personal Papers, ASMP.

   
99
    
By September 5, word
“Intelligence Report,” 103, Sept. 2, 199, STANAV. MLB.

   
100
    
Two hours before the
Litchfield BWD, Sept 5, 1922.

   
100
    
John Dos Passos was among those
Shenk,
Black Sea Fleet,
98.

   
100
    
Ernest Hemingway would be
BWD, Oct. 4, 1922.

   
100
    
Brown had replaced the previous
Shenk,
Black Sea Fleet,
l3.

   
100
    
Dapper with a pencil-thin mustache
Constantine Brown,
The Coming of the Whirlwind
(Chicago: Regnery, 1964),147–149.

   
100
    
Clayton had gained notoriety History of the Chicago Tribune; Published in Commemoration of Its Seventy-fifth Birthday, June Tenth, Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-two
(Chicago: Chicago Tribune, 1922), 72. See also Emma Goldman,
Living My Life
. Vol. 2 (New York: Dover Publications, 1970).

   
100
    
Bristol had worked hard
Shenk,
Black Sea Fleet,
117–119. Incredibly, after the State Department received a copy of Clayton’s unpublished story from the consul in Aleppo, Bristol took the position that the report was accurate but it was misleading because it put blame for deportations on the Turks: “The moral responsibility for the present situation of the Christian minorities in Turkey rests largely upon the Allies, although it has been possible up to the present to shift this responsibility to the
shoulders of the Turks.” Bristol to State Department, August 29, 1922. NA 867.4016/632.

   
101
    
Bristol was a student of the new field
Bristol to Frank Polk, Dec. 4, 1919, NR Record Group 45, as quoted in Housepian. “You know I am a pitiless publicity man . . .”

   
101
    
The
Litchfield
departed Constantinople
Merrill, Personal Diary, Sept. 5, 1922. ASMP.

   
101
    
Like all American destroyers
Donald M. Kehn,
A Blue Sea of Blood: Deciphering the Mysterious Fate of the USS Edsall
(Minneapolis: MBI, 2008), 314.

   
101
    
The
Litchfield
was ordered to steam Logbook
, USS
Litchfield,
Sept. 6, 1922. NA; “Report of Operations for Week Ending 10 September 1922,” Commander, U.S. Naval Detachment in Turkish Waters. BWD.

   
101
    
Rhodes was a capable
Rhodes NPRC file contains numerous documents that reference his personal problems including drunkenness. See, e.g., “Report of Medical Survey,” John B. Rhodes, Nov. 17, 1921. “From the history of this officer’s conduct, he was suffering from Neurasthenia, brought on by family troubles and the effects of excessive indulgence in alcohol.”

   
103
    
By September 5, the northern detachment
Smith,
Ionian Vision,
298–299.

   
103
    
The
Litchfield
came into the mouth
“Ship’s Diary,” USS
Litchfield,
Sept. 6, 1922. ASMP.