Sacking of Smyrna

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 237, 19 September 1922, Page 4

Sacking of Smyrna

FIRES DUE TO KEMALISTb. MUTILATED BODIES IN STREETS. TERRIBLE TALES TOLD (By Cable. —Preae Association. —Copyrirht.) (Received 19, 8.45 a.m.) London, Sept. 18. The '‘Times” Constantinople correspondent says the estimates of massacres in Smyrna vary grtatly—at the highest 400,000, at the lowest tuo.ooo. All accounts agree that the town was made a ohamoi house. Some streets were so littered with mutilated bodies that it was impotttble to pass owing to tho sickening stench. The killing was carried out ays* tematically. Turkish regulars and Irregulars rounded up those who wore apparently well-to-do and stripped and killed them in batches. Many Christians took refuge in churches, which were Mt on fire; others leaped into the harbour and many were drowned. Other* wore fired on and killed. The harbour it dotted with corpses. Some survivors reached an American ship snd were dragged aboard naked. They had not tasted food for days. Troops in mhny cases formed cordons and kept the refugees within the burning area. British refugees agree that Creek troops did not commit excesses in Smyrna, but were guilty of wholesale Incendiarism and sometimes maMaored the Turks during the retreat.— (“Times.”) Athens, Sept. If. British ships and many small sailing craft are continually arriving, crowded with refugees. Greek and Armenian refugees insist that the fires were due to the Kemalists using benzine, petrol, and bombs. They say the scenes in Smyrna beggar description. The bodies of mutilated men, women and children are lying in the streets. All churches were ablaze, and thousands of refugees were caught inside The newspapers state that no French subjects were molested by the Kemalists. A cable from Smyrna, dated lilth, states that plague has broken edit, necessitating the severance of all eoimmunication between ships and- the shore, despite the desperate need of shipping for the removal of refugees from the city, which is almost foodless. The little available food in the city is reserved for the Turks. A later Smyrnan cable states that the fires are now decreasing in violence. An Athens cable on the 17th says that Vurla, 25 miles from Smyrna, is burning. A Greek warship wirelessed that when the Turks set fire to the town of Vurla they murdered nearly all the Greek and Armenian inhabitants. —(A. and N.Z.)