DESPITE
many difficulties, the Greek civil authorities, as far as their influence
extended, succeeded in giving Smyrna and a large portion of the occupied
territory, the most orderly, civilized and progressive administration that it
has had in historic times. Mr. Sterghiadis, who continued to the last his policy
of punishing severely all offenders of Greek origin against the public order,
lost, for that reason, popularity in Asia Minor.
When he left Smyrna after the debacle of his troops he was hooted by the people
of the town who had not come loyally to his support. He was, indeed, a great man
who made a supreme effort to perform a superhuman task and who is suffering from
the obloquy that always attaches to failure.
Here are some of the civilizing
reforms which the Hellenic administration introduced into the Smyrna region:
1. During the war, under Turkish
rule, the morality of the Christian inhabitants of all nationalities had greatly
deteriorated. The Turk had no respect or regard for non-Mussulman women,
whom he regards as his legitimate prey. All the American residents of
Smyrna during this epoch will remember the orgies indulged in by a certain high
Turkish official and his friends and the example set the European colony by a
prominent Anglo-Levantine lady who became his acknowledged and public mistress.
The lady in question was proud of her position and afterward explained it by
saying that she had accepted it to use her influence to prevent persecutions and
that a monument should be set up in her honor. In one of the first conversations
which I had with Mr. Sterghiades after his arrival, the governor general told me
that the Christian people had been debauched by the Turks and had lost their
self-respect and their morality, and that they needed an awakening of their
pride of race and religious instincts.
One of his first acts was to suppress the disorderly houses located
in the central portions of the town, and in this he met with determined
opposition from various of the foreign consuls whose subjects owned these houses
and conducted them. Helpless to enforce an edict against a European
subject, he stationed gendarmes in front of the establishments in question who
took down the names and addresses of all frequenters and thus caused their
patronage so to dwindle that they were obliged to close. Playing of baccarat and
other forms of gambling for high stakes had also become a crying evil in Smyrna,
resulting in the ruin of several people and even in suicides. Mr. Sterghiades
suppressed gambling in the clubs, and private houses, wherever it came to his
notice.
2. The Hellenic Administration supported and
aided in every way possible educational institutions. Its support and
encouragement of American educational and philanthropic institutions will he
taken up later. It is chiefly to be praised, however, for the measures which it
took, paid for out of the Greek Treasury, for the maintenance
and improvement of Turkish schools. It continued the Moslem
secondary schools at its own expense, the taxes for their support having
been taken over by the Ottoman public debt as security for a loan contracted by
the Ottoman Government. The Greek administration supported by funds from
its treasury, two Moslem high schools in Smyrna, two at Magnesia and Odemish,
and two seminaries in the provinces, paying therefore yearly seventy thousand
Turkish pounds. It kept in vigor the Turkish system of primary education,
appointing prominent Mussulmans in the various villages to superintend the same.
It maintained a Polytechnic school at Smyrna, at which two hundred and ten poor
Mussulman, children were educated and supported, paying therefore
thirty-six thousand Turkish pounds yearly. In addition to this, it was
especially helpful to those American institutions and schools, which operated in
the Turkish quarter and among Turkish children.
3. The Greek administration made a serious
and intelligent effort to organize a sanitary service for the compiling of
statistics, the betterment of sanitary conditions and the suppression of
epidemics and contagious diseases, such as malaria, syphilis, etc. A
microbiological laboratory was established for the diagnosis of infectious
diseases with an equipment of sanitary motorcars for bringing in the sick from
distant points, small wagons for the transportation of infected articles and
portable outfits for disinfections on the spot. To describe the work of
this service alone, which was organized on a large scale and abundantly supplied
with means, material and money, would require a good-sized pamphlet. As a
result of these measures, plague, exanthematic fever and smallpox were got so
under control that they disappeared as epidemic diseases in the occupied zone.
Needless to say that systematic war was waged against lice and rats. A Pasteur
institute was opened at Smyrna by the Greeks on the eighteenth of August,
1919, under the direction of a specialist working in conjunction with a
staff of experts. Out of over one thousand five hundred patients treated during
the first two months of its existence who had been bitten by dogs, jackals or
wolves, only four died. Treatment was free in this institute.
Previously sufferers had been obliged to go to Constantinople or Athens and
those who could not raise the funds were left to die. I have myself assisted
poor Turks, frantic with fear, to make the trip to Constantinople for treatment.
One section of the University of Smyrna, founded by the Greek
administration, was that of the Institute of Hygiene, divided into two
sections, hygiene and bacteriology. It was all ready for business when the Turks
burned Smyrna, possessing an installation similar to that of the great
universities of Europe, including a good library and complete equipment of
appliances. It would never have lacked money or support, and would have
been at the service of all classes, irrespective of creed or race. Here
is the program which it was about to put in operation:
Gratuitous
bacteriological, hygienic and industrial examinations for all classes of the
community.
The
preparation and gratuitous distribution of all healing and diagnostic
inoculations, serums, antitoxins, antigonococcus, etc.
The
sanitation of the town on an extensive scale, sewerage, water-supply, streets,
etc.
Sanitary
works for the combating of malaria, the draining of marshes,
etc.
The
combating of trachoma.
The
combating of phthisis on a large scale, (dispensaries, asylums, convalescent
homes, special hospitals, sanitation of houses, etc.)
For
infants: dispensaries, gouttes de lait,
creches, foundling homes, etc.
For
children: various philanthropic institutions. For mothers: pre-natal
pre-culture.
Education
and training of doctors to compose the service of public
health.
Training
for midwives and nurses.
Organization
of a registry office of births and deaths.
Organization
of special medical statistical service
4.
Financial aid on a large scale was furnished, as was the distribution of
flour, clothing, etc., to refugees caused by the Khemalist raids in the interior
and the destruction in 1919 of the cities of Aidin and Nazli. Among those so
succored were thousands of Turks.
5.
All American missionaries, as well as educational and charitable workers
in Smyrna and its hinterland during the Greek occupation, will verify the
statement that the Hellenic administration showed itself most helpful and
cooperative in many ways, aiding their labors among Turks as well as
Christians. Here is a list of certain benevolent acts toward these
institutions:
The
high-commissioner granted to the Y. M. C. A. a large house on the quay, one of
the biggest and finest in Smyrna, for use as a “Soldiers’ Home.” He also helped
its management in many ways by detaching Greek soldiers for its
service.
An
adequate building was also given to be used as a “Soldiers’ Home” at Magnesia,
where many facilities were afforded.
The
civil department of the Y. M. C. A. was in need of an adequate building for its
installation. The Greek authorities requisitioned a cafe belonging to a Greek
for that purpose. It was still in operation at the time of the burning of the
city.
The
same Y. M. C. A. organized on a large estate near Smyrna an installation for the
study of agriculture by young men. The Greek administration helped this
organization by furnishing tents, blankets and other requisites from the
quartermaster’s department and a motor-car for
transportation.
The
Y. M. C. A. had also organized at Phocea, near Smyrna, a summer camp for boys.
The Greek administration helped by furnishing lumber, a boat and other
materials, and allowed the importation of a motor-car free of
duty.
The
Y. W. C. A., which was managed by Miss Nancy McFarland, was helped in many ways
by the Greek administration in the form of considerable sums of money, lumber
and supplies.
A
branch of the girls’ school, known as the Intercollegiate Institute, was started
at Guez Tepe by Miss Minnie Mills for Mussulman women. The high-commissioner
furnished a part of the equipment for this.
For
the N. E. R. at Smyrna the high-commissioner gave Miss Harvey five hundred
pounds Turkish to be used in favor of poor Mussulman
women.
The
American College near Smyrna is situated in a place contiguous to a marsh
formerly flooded by stagnant water causing malaria. The Greek
administration drained the swamp and repaired the road passing by the
college.
All
the agricultural implements, which were imported for the use of the returning
Greek refugees or for resale at cost price or on credit for the purpose of
restoring the destroyed areas were purchased by the high commission exclusively
from American factories at my request. Thus thousands of plows were brought in
to be distributed among Turks as well as Christians.
A
farm of thirty thousand acres situated at Tepekeuy, used by the Greek
administration for the study of motor-culture, was bought and made exclusive use
of American motor-plows. As a result, students completing the course recommended
to the landowners the use of American motor-plows.
While
I was in Saloniki during the war, the American Y. M. C. A. was greatly aided,
both financially and morally, by the Greek authorities, both Mr. Venizelos and
the Greek archbishop being friendly to this institution and present at the
dedication of its new house.
The
American missionaries, who had an agricultural college and a school there, were
at first viewed with suspicion by the Greeks for the reason that they all spoke
Bulgarian and continued to reach in that language after the Greek occupation. I
brought the missionaries and the Greek authorities together and since then the
said authorities have been most benevolent to the missionaries and helpful to
them in many ways. At my invitation the late King Alexander came to Saloniki to
visit the various missionary and educational institutions and assured them of
his friendly interest and support.
During
the Greek administration, I traveled frequently over a large part of the
occupied territory and visited many of the interior villages. I found perfect
security everywhere, native Greeks and Turks living together on friendly
terms.
In general there would be in each village a small administrative office in
charge of a petty officer and two or three aides. I noticed the persistent
effort, which these people made to fraternize with the Turks and to placate
them. Very often have I taken my coffee in the public square of some small town
with the Greek officials, the Turkish hodja, (A teacher in the secondary Turkish
school attached to a mosque) and various of the Mohammedan notables. - I
remember particularly shortly before the Greek defeat sitting thus with a
venerable hodja and a Greek surgeon under a plane-tree, helping to celebrate the
marriage of the hodja to his fourth wife, which had taken place the day
before.
The
dark side of this seemingly idyllic picture is that quite frequently the two or
three Greek officials would be found some morning with their throats cut,
whereupon an order would be sent to the village that the names of the assassins
must be revealed or the town would be burned.
This, if I remember correctly, was modeled upon our so-called “punitive
expeditions” in the Philippines, which the Greek authorities often cited to me
in speaking of the matter. In no case did the Turks reveal the names of the
offenders and at least twice my office has been invaded by the notables of some
town who complained that their village had been burned. On each occasion, I
asked: “Were the Greek officials in your town murdered last night?” And
the answer on both these occasions was, “Yes, but we could not tell the names
of the offenders because we did not know who they
were.”
There
were also sporadic acts of great ferocity committed against the peaceful
Christian inhabitants of the country, which were always attributed by the Turks
to roving bands of Chetas. Who these Chetas were, I do not know, but it is my
opinion that they did not come from far. I remember one particularly atrocious
case-the massacre and disemboweling of a Greek miller and his wife and their two
children.
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