“‘As for me,’ he snaps, ‘there is not even room for discussion! We ought to be completely, absolutely Turkophiles—I will say more, Turko-enthusiasts. (Turcomanes.) I love the Mussulmans and I hate their non-Mussulman subjects, who are rubbish. Assure these brave men their independence and their territorial integrity and we shall have in them the most faithful and the most loyal of allies. What do we seek here? A rampart against Russia and British imperialism? The maintenance of our prestige? The free development of our commerce, the expansion of our language? The respect of our schools and colleges? The safeguarding of our financial interests? We shall have all that by means of a French-Turkish collaboration. We ought no longer to hear the Jeremiads of the Armenians and the Greeks and the Jews. We must no longer play the game, neither of England nor of Russia. Russia, although split up by Bolshevism, must always be watched. She has intentions with regard to this country which we must not encourage. But I do not think that she is an immediate danger. It is Great Britain which, above all, is becoming troublesome. We are, nearly all of us (French officers) for the Khemalists and against the British and the Greeks.” Though this is the opinion of a single individual, it expresses pretty clearly the general French attitude of mind as shown by French policy since the Armistice. It is evident that the sentiments of this French officer and of his colleagues, for whom he speaks, display a keen note of discord among the Allies, helpful to the Turk even in his gruesome work of massacring Christians. Professor Davis says in _A Short History of the Near East_:[11] “In August, 1922, apparently with French munitions and French counsellors, the Khemalists suddenly attacked the Greek positions in Bithynia. The Greeks were in poor morale, worn out by long campaigning and miserably led. Their army was utterly routed and evacuated Anatolia with almost incredible speed. The Turks drove straight onward to Smyrna which they took (September 9, 1922) and then burned. The world was again horrified by one of the now standardized Ottoman massacres of conquered populations.” It is to be noted that neither the French nor the Italians permitted the Greek navy to search the ships of their nationals proceeding to Turkish ports, which is in itself a breach of neutrality and can have but one interpretation—that they were carrying arms and supplies to the Khemalists, with the consent and protection of their governments. For these reasons the battle-ships of the brave and chivalric French, “Protectors of the Christians in the Orient,” were obliged to sit quietly among the dead bodies floating in the Bay of Smyrna and watch the massacre going on.