Mr. Sterghiades, the Hellenic high-commissioner, or governor-general, was a remarkable man in many ways. A Cretan, like Mr. Venizelos, he had been selected by the latter for the post, and a more difficult it would not be easy to imagine. Possessed of a strict sense of justice and a high ideal of duty, he lived as a hermit, accepting no invitations and never appearing in society. He wished, he informed me, to accept no favors and to form no ties, so that he might administer equal justice to all, high and low alike. It soon became known that when he issued an order he expected it to be obeyed. On one occasion I was present at an important service in the Orthodox Cathedral, to which the representatives of the various powers, as well as the principal Greek authorities had been invited. The high-commissioner had given the order that the service should be strictly religious and non-political. Unfortunately, Archbishop Chrysostom (he who was later murdered by the Turks) began to introduce some politics into his sermon, a thing which he was extremely prone to do. Sterghiades, who was standing near him, interrupted, saying: “But I told you I didn’t want any of this.” The archbishop flushed, choked, and breaking off his discourse abruptly, ended with, “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen,” and stepped off the rostrum. The high-commissioner was once on his way to a country village to officiate at the dedication of a school when one of his companions said: “Some ugly stories are told about the priest out there. He refused to say the prayers over the dead body of a poor woman’s child, because she did not have the full amount of his fee, and it was buried without the rites of the church.” The high-commissioner made no reply to this and expressed no opinion. On his arrival at the village a delegation came down to meet him, including the mayor, the priest, etc. Upon being presented to the father, the high-commissioner slapped the latter soundly in the face, saying: “Wretch! I don’t want to know you. You are a disgrace to the Church and to the Greek nation.” “But this isn’t the same priest, Excellency,” explained the bystanders. “This is a good man. We sent the other away.” “Give him a hundred drachmas for his poor,” said His Excellency to his secretary, and thus the incident was closed. At any rate, he had forcibly expressed his opinion of the sort of man the guilty priest was. CHAPTER XI THE HELLENIC ADMINISTRATION IN SMYRNA (May 15, 1919—September 9, 1922)