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TURKEY : THE BLIGHT OF ASIA

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THE BRITISH CONTRIBUTION

    UNFORTUNATELY, I am restrained from writing many interesting facts connected with a history of this kind; some of the things that came to my knowledge in my official capacity. To the honor of Great Britain, however, I believe that there were moments when she came within a hair’s breadth of living up to her best traditions. What prevented her at the critical moment, I have never learned.

    At any rate, the British contribution to the Smyrna horror did not consist in active aid of the Turks, neither did she furnish them with arms or munitions. But, though she was largely responsible for the landing of the Greeks in Asia Minor, and the latter were defending her interests, she afforded them no aid, but gave them fallacious encouragement, which led them to their doom. As far as England was concerned, Greece was the victim of British internal politics, which seized upon the government’s policy in the Near East as an object for attack. If Lloyd George was pro-Greek, his political opponents became—ipso facto—rabid pro-Turk. If the Hellenic soldiers were mere tools of the British, as both the Italians and French believed, then it certainly was not "playing the game" to desert them in their extremity; and this desertion carries a graver responsibility with it, inasmuch as it made possible the fearful catastrophe of Smyrna and its hinterland.  

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The Blight of Asia in Print