The new frontiers of freedom from the Alps to the ÆgeanPowell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
History
The new frontiers of freedom from the Alps to the Ægean
Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel; World War, 1914-1918 -- Territorial questions
I will be quite candid in saying that I have small sympathy for Greece's
claims to these territories, not because she is not entitled to them on
the ground of nationality--for there is no denying that, in all of the
regions in question, save only Albania and Thrace, Greeks form a
majority of the Christian inhabitants--but because she is not herself
sufficiently advanced to be entrusted with authority over other races,
particularly over Mohammedans. The atrocities committed by Greek troops
on the Moslems of Albania and of Smyrna, to say nothing of the behavior
of the Greek bands in Macedonia during the Balkan wars, should be
sufficient proof of her unfitness to govern an alien race. I have
already spoken in some detail of the reported Greek outrages in Albania.
But this was not an isolated instance of the methods employed in
"Hellenizing" Moslem populations. In the spring of 1919 the Peace
Conference, hypnotized, apparently, by M. Venizelos, who is one of the
ablest diplomats of the day, made the mistake of permitting Greek
forces, unaccompanied by other troops, to land at Smyrna. Almost
immediately there began an indiscriminate slaughter of Turkish officials
and civilians, in retaliation, so the Greeks assert, for the massacre of
Greeks by Turks in the outlying districts. The obvious answer to this is
that, while the Greeks claim that they are a civilized race, they assert
that the Turks are not. The outcry against the Greeks on this occasion
was so great that an inter-allied commission, including American
representatives, was appointed to make a thorough investigation. This
commission unanimously found the Greeks guilty of the unprovoked
massacre of 800 Turkish men, women and children, who were shot down in
cold blood while being marched along the Smyrna waterfront, those who
were not killed instantly being thrown by Greek soldiers into the sea.
High handed and outrageous conduct by Greek troops in the towns and
villages back of Smyrna was also proved. I do not require any further
testimony as to the unwisdom of placing Mohammedans under Greek control,
but, if I did, I have the evidence of Mr. Hamlin, the son of the founder
of Roberts College, who was born in the Levant, who speaks both Turkish
and Greek, and who was sent to Smyrna by the Greek government as an
investigator and adviser. He told me that the Greek attitude toward the
Moslems was highly provocative and overbearing and that the Allies were
guilty of criminal negligence when they permitted the Greeks to land at
Smyrna alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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