THE SHAME OF THE NEAR EAST
Holmes, John Haynes
The Shame of the Near East By John Haynes Holmes. (Just Back from Europe) NOW that the ashes of Smyrna are cooled and its dead buried, and the menace of another world war for the moment apparently...
...Of these, we may be sure that the Greek Christians committed quite as many as the Turkish Moslems...
...Some of them undoubtedly took place, for atrocities invariably accompany war...
...says Mark 0. Prentiss, special representative of the Near East Relief in Smyrna, "I hear and firmly believe many stories of Greek atrocities, and I have abundant evidence that the Greek army distributed enormous quantities of ammunition among the civilians in Smyrna, and encouraged and organized sniping and bombing...
...The "next war" is definitely and swiftly on the way.— From Unity...
...Just Back from Europe) NOW that the ashes of Smyrna are cooled and its dead buried, and the menace of another world war for the moment apparently removed, it may be well to set down, in as concise a form as possible, some facts about the Near East horror which have been pretty successfully obscured by the daily press...
...Thus, in the sack and burning of Smyrna, a city of about 375,000 population, it was reported on the first day that 120,000 were killed...
...9) Europe today is governed by the same men, controlled by the same forces, as those which were dominant in 1914...
...These two nations will plunge Europe into another "world war" whenever, to either side, the hour seems to be propitious...
...5) Asia Minor is the center of disturbance because of the gross injustice done to Turkey, in the Treaty of Sevres, by the victorious Allies...
...and later still to 1,000, only proves the truth of our assertion...
...They died to serve the interests of gold and steel and oil, and therefore "died in vain...
...6) The talk of Greece about a "holy war" to save the Christian world from the Moslem, the appeal of the English cabinet • to the dominions across the sea to join hands in protecting civilization again from the barbarians, is the same kind of "bunk" that was foisted upon mankind at the outbreak of the war against Germany...
...7) The dreadful Turkish atrocities, reported from Asia Minor, are just like the dreadful German atrocities reported from Belgium and France in 1914 and 1915...
...3) England rushed troops and warships to defend Constantinople and the Dardenelles, because her arms—i.e., the Greeks—were beaten...
...this crisis, like the crisis of 1914, is purely imperialistic, and has no remotest connection with Christianity, civilization, democracy, or any other genuine humanitarian interest...
...8) The dead in Asia Minor, like the dead in Flanders, are the victims of an ignorant and cruel imperialism...
...2) Greece went to war at the suggestion and with the support of the English government...
...The facts are these: (1) The war between Greece and Turkey is in reality a war between England and France...
...the Turks, under the triumphant Mustapha Kemal, went to war with the support, the ammunition and the guns of France...
...That this number was later reduced to 2,000...
...Of all these tales, however, the majority are sheer imagination or deliberate invention...
...4) England and France are now rivals after the Great War, just as England and Germany were rivals before the Great War...
...France remained inactive and un-excited, not because she was more wise and less militaristic than England, but because her arms—i.e., the Turks—were victorious, and she could therefore afford to stand pat...
Vol. 14 • October 1922 • No. 10
