103
British officers, working with
Halpern,
Mediterranean Fleet,
376–383.
104
The
Litchfield
’s launch was
Unless otherwise noted, this and subsequent references to the actions and observations of Merrill are taken from his diary, Sept. 6–12. Merrill Diaries, ASMP.
105
At the consulate, they found
Alexkos Karagheorghiades to Nancy Horton, March 9, 1962. “After seizure of the city by the irregulars (Turkish troops), he (Horton) attempted by every possible means to save the women and children not protected by American citizenship from certain death. This he did by raising American flags on Greek fishing and other boats. His first concern was to notify the inhabitants of the various sections of the city to assemble at the placed Punta. Constantly, and insofar as was possible, he watched over us and aided us in the boarding the ships which carried us to freedom.” The letter is quoted in Nancy Horton’s unfinished biography of GH.
105
By Wednesday, September 6
Smith,
Ionian Vision,
297, 298; Kocatürk,
Atatürk Ve Türkiye.
107
Merrill was proud
Merrill mentions his translation skills in his letters and diary. Merrill’s Personal and Family Papers, ASMP.
108
Meanwhile, Brown, who had obtained
Brown,
Coming of the Whirlwind,
152. The question arises whether the Greek commander actually said this, or whether Brown put these words in his mouth after he had heard of Hadjianestis’s reputation from others. Brown was not an entirely reliable correspondent and his memoir is boastful. Nonetheless, the allegation was widespread.
109
He was fifty-eight and reputed
Smith, 272–277, 324.
109
Knauss, a fellow Pennsylvanian
“Knauss, Harrison E.”
Lucky Bag
, 1907, U.S. Naval Academy. Knauss, H.E. file, NPRC.
110
The American’s relief committee
E. O. Jacob to Darius Davis, Sept. 18, 1922. KFYA.
110
“Old wrinkled women, lying . . .”
“Smyrna and After, Part I,”
Naval Review,
The Naval Society, London, 1923, Vol. 3, 358, 555.
111
Jennings’s assignment required
Amy Jennings to William Schneider.
113
The Greek general yielded
Jennings to D. Davis.
114
His boss, Jacob, now back
Sara Jacobs to D. Davis.
114
Providentially, while making his rounds
Jennings to D. Davis.
115
On Thursday, September 7, the British
Halpern,
Mediterranean Fleet,
376–383
116
Knauss judged the situation
H. E. Knauss, “Ship’s Diary,” USS Simpson. Sept. 6–18, 1922. MLB
116
A departing Greek merchant had
Merrill Diary, Sept. 7, 1922. ASMP; Brown,
Coming of the Whirlwind,
152.
117
Lawrence put a young instructor
“Heroes in Smyrna”
Missionary Herald
, Nov. 1922, 917.
117
The Greek reinforcements
Merrill to Bristol, Sept. 6, 1922. MLB.
118
Around midnight, George Horton boarded the
Litchfield Hepburn, “Smyrna Disaster,” 34.
118
Afterward, he had lunch with
Merrill Diary, Sept. 7, 1922. ASMP.
119
“The Greek troops passed to the rear singly . . .”
Knauss, “Simpson Diary,” Sept. 7, 1922. MLB.
120
“
I have just returned from
. . .”
London Daily Telegram
, Sept. 10, 1922,
quoted in Oeconomos,
Martyrdom
. A similar story by Clayton appeared in the
Chicago Tribune
, Sept. 8, 1922.
CHAPTER 11: THE VIEW FROM NIF
122
Again, I’m indebted to Mango and Kinross on the details of Kemal’s life. For a chronology of the Turkish advance, see also Kocatürk,
Atatürk Ve 124
.
125
The inheritors of a fierce martial culture
Lewis,
Emergence of Modern Turkey,
13–17, including this: “For six centuries the Ottomans were almost constantly at war with the Christian West, first in the attempt—mainly successful—to impose Islamic rule on a large part of Europe, then in the long-drawn-out rearguard action to halt or delay the relentless counterattack of the West. This centuries-long struggle, with its origins in the very roots of Turkish Islam, could not fail to affect the whole structure of Turkish society and institutions.”
125
Three men of the Young Turks movement
Lewis,
Emergence of Modern Turkey,
225–227.
125
“Their passion for Turkifying the nation
. . .” Henry Morgenthau,
Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story: A Personal Account of the Armenian Genocide
(NY: Cosimo, 2008), 200.
126
“We’ve eaten shit
. . .” Mango,
Atatürk,
185.
127
He had given the Greek army forty-eight hours
“Smyrna and the Dardanelles,”
Naval Review
23, no. 3 (1935): 468.
127
The day before, at Salihli
Kocatürk,
Atatürk Ve Türkiye.
127
Nonetheless, he agreed
Kinross,
Atatürk,
363.
CHAPTER 12: BACK IN CONSTANTINOPLE
128
On Wednesday September 6
BWD, Sept. 6, 1922.
128
The group was bound by work
Buzanski,
Admiral Mark L. Bristol,
114, 179.
128
Peet had instigated the campaign
Buzanski,
Admiral Mark L. Bristol,
182; Grabill,
Protestant Diplomacy,
261. Biographical detail on Peet from Personnel Records, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, American Research Institute in Turkey (Digital Library for International Research). A description of the close connection between Near East Relief and the American Board appears in Peterson,
“Starving Armenians,”
34, 35.
128
Jaquith had banged heads
Shenk,
Black Sea Fleet,
274. Biographical background on Jaquith appears in “The New Near East,” Near East Relief, New York, March 1921, 5. For a description of the way in which Jaquith brought to light the testimony of two Near East Relief workers about Turkish brutality over Bristol’s objections, see Shenk,
Black Sea Fleet
, 113–115.
129
Bristol was openly hostile
In his War Diary, Bristol frequently displayed his animus. See, e.g, BWD, Oct. 4, 1922.
129
The Near East Relief organization had begun
The astonishing story of Near East Relief is told in James L. Barton,
Story of Near East Relief (1915–1930): An Interpretation
(New York: Macmillan Company, 1930).
129
In 1916, Near East Relief
Details for this section are drawn from the minutes, reports, and cables of Near East Relief in RAC.
130
Former Ambassador Morgenthau
“Morgenthau Calls for Check on Turks,”
New York Times,
Sept. 5, 1922.
130
Bristol saw responsibility
BWD, Sept. 6, 1922.
131
The Greek is about the worst race
Bristol letter to Admiral W. S. Sims, May 19, 1919, MLB, as quoted in Housepian.
131
The two men despised each other
Shenk,
Black Sea Fleet,
44, 45.
131
A British admiral would call him
On February 10, 1928, Reginald Tyrwhitt, then Commander in Chief China Station, to Roger Keyes (then Mediterranean C.-in-C.) the following: “Then a week at Manila. Very pleasant & quite an entente with the Americans. Adl Bristol was there and on the surface he was v. pleasant but I know him to be a snake in the grass & do not trust him a yard. A nasty bit of work” (citation provided by Professor Paul Halpern).
131
The British ambassador in Washington
Buzanski,
Admiral Mark L. Bristol,
188.
131
The episode ended with a note
Hughes to Bristol, May 4, 1922. NA 124.676/39b.
132
He cabled the Red Cross
Bristol to State Dept, September 6, 1922. MLB.
132
The next day, Thursday
BWD, Sept. 7, 1922.
132
Hamid Bey struck Ernest Hemingway
“Hamid Bey,” Ernest Hemingway,
Dateline, Toronto: The Complete Toronto Star Dispatches, 1920–1924,
ed. William White (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985).
133
The nationalists, Bristol told
BWD, Sept. 7, 1922.
133
As a young man, he had been
Biographical detail on Sweeny comes from Richard Deacon,
One Man’s Wars: the Story of Charles Sweeny, Soldier of Fortune
(London: Barker, 1972).
134
After proposing stories
BWD, Sept. 7, 1922.
134
Finally on Friday, two days
BWD, Sept. 8, 1922.
134
As the group was departing
Merrill Diary, Sept. 9, 1922, ASMP.
135
Prentiss was a peculiar character
Prentiss’s reports about Smyrna have helped shape the historical record so it’s worth recounting his odd career and unreliability as a witness. He was born in Hokah, Minnesota, in 1874, moved to Missouri as a child, then to Chicago, where he married, had two children, and sold insurance. In 1917, he moved to New Jersey, where he described himself as a consulting engineer. In 1919, Prentiss served as director and publicist of the first iteration of the Council on Foreign Relations, but appears to have had conflicts with its leaders, which led to his departure. In 1920, he was public relations director for the National Surety Co. and about the same time he wrote an article in which he said he was chairman of the United States Clearing House of Foreign Credits, a business he said he started himself. The same year, in an article titled “No Experience Necessary,” he advised job seekers to rely on gumption over training to advance their careers and told an incredible personal tale of success. He said he had worked in mines in Missouri and had been indentured as farm hand as a boy before hopping on a “hog train” to Chicago and walking into the city’s main department store in his farm clothes and asking to meet its owner, Marshall Field. His persistence so impressed Mr. Field, Prentiss wrote, he got the job and did amazing work, only to get fired six times by lesser executives and rehired by Mr. Field himself, at which point he improved the store’s elevator system with such skill he won a project with a major elevator company. He recounts other heroic experiences in business, moved through other jobs, and then said he ended up in Houston where he redesigned canal piers to reduce the cost of loading cotton. Then, he said, he went off to France as a knife salesman and improved the country’s manufacturing methods.
He showed up in Bristol’s office in late August 1922 claiming to be an efficiency expert working for Near East Relief. (Near East Relief later distanced itself from him.)
Among Prentiss’s most outrageous reports about Smyrna was the story in which he saved an American sailor from a mob and a Greek man from execution after the man’s young daughter came to Prentiss saying God had directed her to him. Prentiss was at the heroic center of nearly all the reports he wrote about Smyrna.
He frequently invoked Bristol’s name when selling his stories, but even Bristol had his doubts. “In the morning,” Bristol noted in his diary, “I received a call from Mr. M. O. Prentiss. He came to discuss with me certain questions that I had instructed my Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Merrill to ask him. I told Lieutenant Merrill to find from Mr. Prentiss just whom he represented out here and to ask him if he had any letters indentifying him and his work. Mr. Prentiss said he did not have any letters, that he represented some bankers who were friends of his. . . . I must admit that Mr. Prentiss’ further information today did not throw much light on his position out here. He talks very well, he appears very well and yet I cannot quite make him out. He gave me a set of pictures that he had taken down at Smyrna. It is noticeable that he appears very often in these pictures in rather prominent and imposing places.”
Even more strangely, on the way back to the United States, Prentiss became enmeshed in a murder in Italy, though he was never charged. He claimed to have been misidentified as the suitor of a wealthy Chicago woman who was vacationing in Italy. Back in Washington, he tried to convince Allen Dulles to support a forum to help win approval of an American treaty with Turkey but Dulles was skeptical, writing in a confidential note, “I have little confidence in Prentiss.” Later, Prentiss started a Christmas-card business and stirred up publicity by leading a campaign to ban the word
Xmas
. By 1940, he was widowed and a lodger at the Kenmore Hall Hotel in New York. He died in 1948. His obituary in the
Washington Post
called him an advertising and public relations man.