Plight of Greek Refugees
The Times, July 9th 1914, page 7.
PLIGHT OF GREEK REFUGEES.
PAINFUL TALES FROM MYTILENE.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
CONSTANTINOPLE, JULY 1.
I have received a letter from a friend at Mytilene which gives a painful account of the condition of the Greek refugees there and of the sufferings they have undergone. The following passages deserve quotation :--
As our boast came to shore a last refugee boat landed and the most poignant scenes took place, mothers clasping daughters and sons they had held to be massacred. All, arriving with nothing but what they stood up in, seemed overjoyed to find each other, forgetting all else for the moment. . . . Yesterday (June 23) I started on a tour of investigation. There was 50,000 refugees . . . on the island. The streets are lined on both sides with families cooking and sleeping. The parish church, which we went to first, presents the most wonderful sight: mattresses, bundles, wan women, babies, starved boys and girls line every chapel and aisle. Up to the sanctuary are beds and food, and everywhere open windows and open doors. . . . One man came up to me and told his story practically in these words:
"I thank God we saved our four children. We all had to run. The soldiers had killed so many, so we ran, hard, for 10 miles. I was shot, you see, in my arm. Thank God the children came with us." Another man, a rich man, was told . . . "You may take all your money and jewels, all your stuffs, but our orders are to burn down your house." The man and his wife obeyed, got three of four bundles ready, only to be laughed at by the soldiers who took it all from them and burnt the house once they had the plunder, driving them away with blows. The saddest are the women whose girls of 10, 12 and 14 were violated and kept by the soldiers. These are the most haunted looking. The hospital is full of wounded. One girl died after two days from the horrors she had gone through. All agree in stating . . . that is was the "soldiers" who committed the attacks. One man said "at night they become Rashi Bozouks." Boats keep coming in, but are no longer allowed to stay here, as they already fear a famine. . . . The Government give each refugee 40 centimes a day. They have also sent many tents. All the churches are crammed, and 90 houses have been hired by the Government in which the people are stowed, 10 or 12 in a little room. The noise of the crying babies in the street and from the most extraordinary places is too sad. And now with the hot weather the great fear is disease.
The "regular soldiers" here mentioned are obviously the blue-uniformed gendarmes. Till very recently no Turkish troops have been stationed in West Anatolia except round Smyrna.