by Lou Ureneck
50“The Bosporus,” wrote a navy intelligence officer …” Robert Dunn, World Alive; a Personal Story (New York: Crown Publishers, 1956).
50A British tailor custom made Bristol to Sansom & Bromley, Plymouth, England, April 23, 1919. MLB.
50His first caller on Saturday BWD, Sept. 2, 1922.
50In Bristol’s mind, Greeks Bristol’s dismissive attitude toward the local peoples and his antipathy especially toward the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews has been well established. “The Greek is about the worst race in the Near East.” Bristol letter to Admiral W. S. Sims, May 19, 1919, MLB, as quoted in Housepian. “The Armenians are a race like the Jews—they have little or no national spirit and poor moral character.” Bristol to Sims, May 18, 1919, as quoted in Hovannisian, Armenian Genocide in Perspective, 105. “If you shake them up in a bag you wouldn’t know which one would come up first but the Turk is the best of the lot.” Hovannisian, Armenian Genocide, 105. H.H. Topakyan, former Persian consul, quoted in the New York Times Sept. 17, 1922: “… I came in contact with Rear Admiral Mark Bristol, who, not suspecting my Armenian origin, but supposed me to be a Persian, deliberately told me once: ‘I hate the Greeks, I hate the Armenians, I hate the Jews. The Turks are fine fellows.’” Peter Michsel Buzanski, Admiral Mark L. Bristol and Turkish-American Relations, 1919–1922. Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1960, 116: “… the Greeks failed where ever they tried to rule other people but the evidence seemed to indicate that the Greeks could not even rule themselves.”
51Bristol was sure that the British “Intelligence Report.” STANAV, August 21, 1922, File105-100, MLB. “From two reliable sources it was learned that Sir Basil Zaharoff has bought the controlling interest in the Ionian Bank Limited… . Zahaoff intends also to establish a bank of issue at Smyrna with the object of financing the new government.”
52Even before arriving Buzanski, Admiral Mark L. Bristol, 27, 24–50. Also, Bristol to Lyman April 28, 1919, MLB: “I am practically holding down the ambassador’s job but without the name.”
52“Anyway Irving is …” Bristol to Helen Bristol, Jan. 5, 1919, MLB. Bristol had called in chits … Bristol to Knapp, August 26, 1919, MLB; Buzanski, Admiral Mark L. Bristol, 36.
53He consolidated his authority “Personnel in Cilicia,” Memorandum to Detachment Commander, USS Sands (243), Jan. 18, 1922, MLB.
54A lot of Bristol’s intelligence Buzanski, Admiral Mark L. Bristol, 41. H. S. Knapp, vice admiral of U.S. Naval Forces operating in European Waters to Bristol, June 4, 1919, MLB: “The style of the (intelligence) report is, in places, rather flippant… . there are two or three very improper expressions in the report that have probably already caught your eye… . I am sure you will agree with me that such expressions are unofficerlike and highly improper.” In his June 25 response to Knapp, Bristol, whose fitness report was then being prepared by his navy superiors, distanced himself from his favorite intelligence officer. The report, he wrote, “got by me … I feel that your criticism is quite justified and I am glad to say that I had already taken steps to prevent these things from happening again.”
54Dunn had a reputation Buzanski, Admiral Mark L. Bristol, 41.
54She accompanied him Bristol to Horton October 16, 1919, MLB; Horton back to Bristol, December 11, 1919, GHP.
54Armenians present were discussing your party Horton letter to Bristol, Dec. 11, 1919, GHP.
54Helen Bristol threw herself Robert Shenk, America’s Black Sea Fleet: The U.S. Navy amidst War and Revolution, 1919–1923 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2012), 77, 83–84, 161.
55“A nasty pair …” Domvile Diary, July 2, 1922.
55Helen Bristol was the daughter Biographical details on Helen Bristol are drawn from her correspondence, which is included in MLB; also from the Mobile Register, “R. Moore Is dead; End Very Sudden,” June 30, 1916; “Personal and General,” Aug. 27, 1901; “Mobile Woman Is Given Recognition As First Lady in Constantinople,” November (date illegible) 1920. “Funeral of Judge Bailey Thomas Is Held at Athens,” Aug. 5, 1901, Atlanta Constitution. Thomas W. Reed, “William Bailey Thomas,” History of the University of Georgia 1866–1874, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia.
55Bristol’s career was not without Philip Anorans, Bureau of Navigation, to Bristol July 15, 1912, MLB; Bristol to Vice Admiral Adolphus, Sept. 3, 1912. MLB.
56He also got into a dispute George Van Deurs, Wings for the Fleet: A Narrative of Naval Aviation’s Early Development, 1910–1916 (Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute, 1966), 147, ff.: “Mark Bristol was an ambitious officer, who was awaiting orders after having been court-martialed for grounding his ship in a fog off the China coast. He had no aeronautical experience, no desire to fly and no curiosity about planes, but he was known as a good administrator, and he wanted a job that would enhance his service reputation.” Also: Ryan D. Waddel, “United States Navy Fleet Problems and the Development of Carrier Aviation, 1929–1933.” Master’s thesis, Texas A&M University, August 2005, 10.
56The rancor he stirred at Pensacola Dunn to Bristol, Dec. 20, 1922. MLB.
56In 1916, after working “Bristol, Mark,” NPRC.
56Only days before, Bristol “Intelligence Report,” 103–100, August 10, 1922. STANAV. MLB.
57At the same time, Bristol Bristol to State, August 28, 1922. MLB.
58“The afternoon was …” BWD, Sept. 2 1922.
CHAPTER 7: WASHINGTON RESPONDS
60The message had moved Carl H. Butman, “Secret Lines of Radio Communication,” Radio World 2 (1922): 18.
60It had rained furiously “Sox Advance at Tribe’s Expense” and “City Emerges from Wrack of 40 Year Record Storm,” Washington Post, Sept. 3, 1922.
61Allen Dulles, a promising James Srodes, Allen Dulles: Master of Spies (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1999), 116–133.
61Phillips was a lean William Phillips, Ventures in Diplomacy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1953); “William Phillips, Former Ambassador, Dies at 89,” New York Times, Feb. 24, 1968.
61“Too many of his evenings” William Phillips, Ventures in Diplomacy, Boston: Beacon Press, 1953, 115.
62The U.S. Embassy in Sheldon Whitehouse to State Dept, August 23, 1922. NA 767.61/258.
62“… I respectfully request,” Horton to State, Sept 2. NA 761.68/274.
62The two men stood poles apart Their differences appear throughout their correspondence. See, e.g., Horton to State Dept., April 18, 1921, regarding Horton’s disagreement with Bristol over Aristides Stergiades. NA 868.48/74. Also, Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, “George Horton and Mark L. Bristol: Opposing Forces in U. S. Foreign Policy, 1919–1922,” Bulletin for the Centre for Asia Minor Studies (4) (1983).
63In May, a public debate had broken Robert A. Hohner, Prohibition and Politics: The Life of Bishop James Cannon, Jr. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999), 139–141.
63Also, in June, the British “American to Join European Powers in Turkish Inquiry,” New York Times, June 3, 1922.
63He was happy to defer Harding to Hughes, May 20, 1922, 867.4016/ 498 The entire string of correspondence is instructive: United States Department of State Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1922, 919–983. http:/digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.
64In 1922, America was having George Otis Smith, “Where the World Gets Its Oil but Where Will Our Children Get It When American Wells Cease to Flow?” The National Geographic Magazine 37.2 (1920): 181–202. Also see “The World’s Oil Supply,” New York Times, Jan. 7, 1920.
65In 1900, there were hardly For a history of popular automobiles on the period, see “Ford Model T History and the Early Years of the Ford Motor Company.” History of the Ford Model T, Henry Ford and Ford Motor Company Background, History and Facts, http://www.modelt.ca/background.html. “Chevrolet’s Classic—1920 Chevrolet FB-50 Touring.” Classic Cars for Sale, Collector Car News and Auction Coverage, http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2005/08/01/hmn_feature12.html.
65In the first decade For this hist
ory of the oil industry, I am deeply indebted to Daniel Yergin’s masterwork, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power (New York: Free Press, 2009).
66He sent it along to the White House Phillips to Harding, Sept. 5, 1922. NA 167.68/276
67Before becoming president, For the basic outline of Harding’s life and his administration, see John Dean, Warren Harding as well as The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
67Harding’s response to Phillips, Harding to Phillips, Sept. 5, 1922. NA 767,68/274.
67As these White House messages were sent Horton to State, Sept 4. NA 767.68/27.
68“It seems to me it would be wiser …” Phillips to Harding, Sept. 5, 1922. NA 767.68/276.
68Yet another cable came in from Horton, Horton to State Dept, Sept. 5, 1922. GHP.
68Amid this flurry of cables Phillips to Acting Navy Secretary Roosevelt, Sept. 5, 1922. NA 767.68/274.
68The twenty-foot-wide hallways Details on the interior space of the building provided by Kristen Fusselle, fine arts specialist, General Services Administration in an interview with the author.
69Roosevelt immediately cabled Bristol Roosevelt to Bristol, Sept 5, 1922. MLB.
69Finally, Phillips responded to Horton Phillips to Horton, NA 767.68/274.
69“Department is not inclined to do more …” Phillips to Bristol, Sept. 5, 1922. MLB.
CHAPTER 8: JENNINGS’S SUGGESTION
70The Jenningses had been settled Jennings to Darius. Davis. April 8, 1923. KFYA.
71Most of his neighbors Sara Jacob to D. Davis, Sept. 14, 1922, KFYA. Annie Gordon to Mrs. Lamson, Sept. 14, 1922. GHP.
72The house that Jennings Various sources describe Paradise and the college setting: MacLachlan, 124; the memoirs of three members of the Caleb Lawrence family, Helen, his wife; Dorothy Lawrence Smith, his daughter, and Arthur, his son. The first two can be read at Levantine. com and the third, “Barefoot Boy from Turkey,” is in CLP.
73He had spent his boyhood Asa Kent Jennings, Boyhood Diary, AJKP.
73Asa Jennings had brought something else Amy Jennings to Schneider; “Interview with Amy Jennings,” Orlando (Fla.) Sunday Sentinel-Star, Jan. 11, 1953, KFYA; Author’s interview with Roger Jennings, Queensbury, NY, May 7, 2011.
74Early in 1918, while he was AKJ’s YMCA history in Europe comes from his file at KFYA and Springfield (Mass.) College Archives. About the YMCA in Europe, see YMCA Yearbook 1920, 64–77; and “The YMCA in Czechoslovakia,” The Sphere, 1 (1920), 34–43.
75In Paradise, Jennings had E.O. Jacob, “Jacob’s Ladder.” Unpublished memoir, KFYA.
77Don’t you know? D. A. Davis to Henrietta Harrison, October 16, 1951. KFYA.
78The reports included a forceful A description of the scene in Smyrna as the Greek army retreated appears in Smith, Ionian Vision, 284–311; Also, Dobbs, Insurance Testimony Summary, Day 8 49–53.
79Still, there was also a lot of loose talk Horton to State, Sept. 4, 1920. NA 767.68/274.
79There was also the troubling British Admiral de Brock summarized British actions at Smyrna from Sept. 3 to Sept. 23, 1922, for the Admiralty in a long cable on October 2, 1922. ADM 137/1779. It appears in full in Paul G. Halpern, The Mediterranean Fleet, 1919–1929 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society, 2011), 376–383. In addition to providing key cables and correspondence of the period, Halpern offers insightful commentary and context.
80Horton had slept hardly at all For a description of the first meetings of the American volunteers: Horton, Blight of Asia, 123–125; Caleb Lawrence, “The Smyrna Disaster Relief Committee of the American Red Cross,” Report to Foster Stearns, May 30, 1923. NA Correspondence of the American Embassy, Constantinople, Class 848, Part 2, Vol. 20. Getchell to Barton, Oct. 12, 1923. GHP. Jennings to Davis; Annie Gordon letter.
80Among the missionary group The American Girls’ School was officially the American Intercollegiate Institute. The Missionary Board, formally, was the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, based in Boston.
82It was a humiliation the Young Turks Hofmann et al., Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks, 42; Lewis, Emergence of Modern Turkey, 224. Also see Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Moslems, and Jews, 1430–1950 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 275; Mango, Atatürk, 115.
82In the region outside Smyrna, Horton to State Dept., April 18, 1921, including attached report on Greek reconstruction. NA 868.48/74; Horton, Blight of Asia, 41–45. Also, Mansel, Levant: Splendour, 186.
82The sultan and his Islamic government Lewis, Emergence of Modern Turkey, 31; C. Ernest Dawn, “From Ottomanism to Arabism: The Origin of an Ideology,” The Review of Politics 23, no. 3 (July 1961): 380.
83The Ottoman government unleashed Horton, Blight of Asia, 42; Payaslian, United States Policy, 66.
84“The unfortunate men had been tied …” Horton to State March 12, 1917. NA 867.00/739
84A massacre against Ottoman Greeks Hofmann et al., Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks, P52; Horton, Blight of Asia, 46–51; Matthias BJornlund, “Danish Sources on the Destruction of the Ottoman Greeks, 1914–1916,” in Hofmann et al., Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks, 152.
84Turkish terror drove nearly two hundred thousand Edward Hale Bierstadt, The Great Betrayal: A Survey of the Near East Problem (New York: R. M. McBride & Co., 1924), 52–68. Also see Charles P. Howland, “Greece and Her Refugees.” Foreign Affairs (July 1926).
84“From what all these trustworthy people Horton is quoted in Jay Winter, ed., America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 179.
84The accounts of Armenians being Peter Balakian, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), 38. Also see Peterson, “Starving Armenians” 28–50; Payaslian, United States Policy, 60; J. Coffey, “Service Diary,” 32, 33, Imperial War Museum, London: “As we left at 6 am the country round the pillage was a peculiar and motley sight strewn with the sleeping and semi-awakened bodies of some 1000 Armenian refugees who, after 14 days weary march, were enjoying a brief rest before completing the journey to Hamda. It was strange and pitiful sight—heaven itself compared with what was to follow.”
85Its Ottoman governor, or vali Giles Milton, Paradise Lost Smyrna 1922 (New York: Basic Books, 2010),15, 86, 87.
85The United States did not declare war Payaslian, United States Policy, 130; Joseph L. Grabill, Protestant Diplomacy and the Near East: Missionary Influence on American Policy, 1810–1927 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971), 92.
85Horton also maintained friendly Ilimdar Zade Edham, Sahlebdji Zade Midhat, and fourteen others to State Department, July 30, 1920 (1339 Turkish date on letter), included in Nancy Horton’s unfinished biography of George Horton, GHP. “Since the appointment of His Excellency, George Horton as Consul-General of the United States in Smyrna, His Excellency has won the heart of the whole Turkish nation by the sympathy and good will which His Excellency has always shown every Turkish man.”
86Horton was also discouraged Horton to (no first name) Carroll, Oct. 1, 1919. GHP.
87Back in Paradise, the roads “Mrs. Jennings Relates Tale of Horrors,” Syracuse (NY) Herald, Oct. 27, 1922; Amy Jennings’s Diary; Sara Jacob to Davis: Alexander MacLachlan, “A Potpourri of Sidelights and Shadows from Turkey,” Queen’s University Archives, Queens Univesity, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 123, 124.
87By now, Smyrna harbor contained Halpern, Mediterranean Fleet, 376–383.
87“We the undersigned fully endorse …” American Chamber of Commerce, International College, et al, at Smyrna to State Department, Sept. 6, 1922. MLB.
88“This telegram from Smyrna …” Harry G. Dwight, administrative employee in Near Eastern section of the department, to Dulles, perhaps reflecting the view of his boss, Sept. 6, 1922. MLB.
89Professor Lawrence was a natural Background on Lawrence derived from the memoirs of his wife Helen, granddaughter Dorothy, and grandson Arthur a
nd from various letters and commendations, CLP, Levantine Heritage.com.
89As chairman of the Smyrna Relief, Caleb Lawrence, “Smyrna Disaster Relief Committee,” Bulletin of the Constantinople Branch of the Red Cross, No. 17. June 1923.
90Later in the day, still not Horton to Bristol, Sept. 6, 1922. MLB.
91A British observer offered “A Manchester Man’s Experiences,” Manchester Guardian, Sept. 28, 1922. Quoted in Oeconomos, Martyrdom.
CHAPTER 9: THEODORA
92The substance of this narrative comes from an interview in the collection of the Asia Minor Research Centre, Athens, supplemented with information obtained through a trip to the village in June 2012; also, Prof. Thalia Pandiri.
92A Greek already had been hung Interviews with residents remembering the history. June 13, 2012.
94It was a small church, built with green stone “Churches of Smyrna,” LevantineHeritage.com.
CHAPTER 10: AN AMERICAN DESTROYER ARRIVES
95Admiral Bristol spent Sunday Bristol, War Diary, Sept. 3, 1922.
96Bristol had grown up on a small farm Information about Bristol’s family in Glassboro comes from the Gloucester County Historical Society based on the family’s real estate transactions in the Gloucester County Office of Deeds and the 1880 Federal Agricultural Census of the County. Bristol’s record at the Naval Academy is noted in his conduct record, the Annual Register of the United States Naval Academy and the Academy’s alumni jacket, excerpts of which were provided the Naval Academy. See also: “Ferrell, Thomas Merrill,” Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/.
