18 Sep 1922: Smyrna's Ravagers Fired on Americans, New York Times

nyt 18091922

SMYRNA'S RAVAGERS FIRED ON AMERICANS
Y.M.C.A WORKERS WERE HELD UP AND ROBBED BY TURKS ANS SHOT AT IN ESCAPING.
COLLEGE PRESIDENT BEATEN.

The New York Times
Sep 18, 1922

[excerpt]

  SMYRNA, Sept. 17  (Associated  Press.)
-Smyrna,  which  the  Turks have  called
the Eye of  Asia, is  a  vast  sepulchre  of
ashes; only the shattered walls of 25,000
homes   and  charred  bodies   of   count-
less victims   remain to   tell the  story of
death and  destruction, unexampled   in
modern   history.  The   ruins   are   still
smouldering, like a   volcano  which has
spent its fury; no effort has been  made
by the Turks to remove the   dead  and
dying;  the   streets  are   full of bodies
of those who sought to escape, for the
most part women and children.
   Every   building in the   Armenian quar-
ter has been burned, with the dead lying
about;   the bay, which  covers  an  area
of fifty   acres,   still  carries on  its   sur-
face the  poor  remnants  of  those  who
were massacred or sought to escape the
ruthlessness of the foe.
   On the waterfront crouch thousands
of survivors who fear death in  another
form   at the  hands  of  the   soldiery.
There are no boats to take   them  off.

[...]

    Guards' Attention Diverted.
   While the orphans were being loaded
on the Litchfield, H.C. Jaquith , Director
of Near  East Relief,  who came here re-
cently from Constantinople, diverted the
attention of the  Turkish guards,  giving
them cigarettes  and talking  to them in
their native  tongue.  These guards  are
under strictest orders not to permit the
escape of any of the Greek or Armenian
refugees, and on several occasions have
shot to death fugitives endeavouring to
reach  outlying  vessels  by   swimming.
Out of 300,000 Christians crowding the
city prior  to the  descent of  the  Turks,
only 60,000 have been evacuated. Kem-
alist officials have informed  the  Amer-
ican relief workers  that  the  return of
Christians to the interior meant certain
death.

[continued]


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