The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1922-09-26
OBSTRUCTION WORST
IN MODERN HISTORY
CHARRED BODIES OF COUNT
LESS VICTIMS TELL STORY
UNPARALLELED HORROR.
SMYRNA is VAST SEPULCHRE

Streets Full of Bodies, and No Effort
Made to Remove Dead and Dying.
Several Hundred Orphaned Boys
Have Been Saved.
| SMYRNA.-Smyrn which h
Turks have called the eye of Asia is
vast sepulchre of ashes.
Only the shattered walls OF 25,O00
homes and the charred bodies of count
less victims remain to tell the story OF
death and destruction unexampled IN
modern history.
The ruins are still smouldering like
volcano which has spent its fury.
No effort has been made by the
Turks to remove the dead and dying.
The streets are full of the bodies OF
those who sought to escape, for the
most part women and children.
!, Every building in the Armenian
quarter has been burned, with the dead
| living about. The bay, which covers
an area of fifty acres, still carries on
its surface the poor remnants OF those
who were maSsacred or sought to es-
cape the ruthlessness of the fire. One
water front holds thousands of sur
vivors who fear death at the hands OF
soldiery; there are no boats to take
them off.
Sailors Save Orphans.
American sailors of the destroyer
Litchfeld snatched $50 orphaned boys
from the pier and carried them safely
to Constantinople The jack tars slept
on the iron decks or under torpedo
tubes while the youngsters occupied
their hunks. In all the acts OF gal
lantrv by the Americans at Smyrna
there was none more inspiring than
this.
While the orphans were being load
ed on the Litchheld, H. c. Jacquith.
director of Near East relief, who came
here recently from Constantinople, dI-
verified the attention OF Turkish guards,
giving them cigarettes and talking to
them in their native tongue. These
guards are under strictest orders not
to permit the escape OF any OF the
Greek or Armenian refugees, on sew
eral occasions have shot to death tugl-
tives endeavoring to reach outlying
vessels by swimming.
Out of 100000 Christians crowdlng
the city prior to the descent OF the
Turks, only 10000 have been evacu-
ated. The Kemalist officials have IN
formed the American relief workers
that the return of the Christians to the
interior meant certain death.
Fire and Famine Add to Horror.
Fire had accomplished for the Turks
what the sword failed to do. Asia Mi
nor. the cradle of Christianity, Will
soon be depopulated OF Christians,
many of those in Smyrna who were
not snatched from death by American
and other rescuers are disappearing in
to the hills, some voluntarily, many by
force Others are dying of exhaustion,
fright or exposure on the shattered
stone waterfront Of the benighted city.
Mustapha Kemaps order permitting
American and allied ships to enter fhe
harbor to evacuate the victims has
relieved the anguish of both refugees
and relief workers.
| Less than $4,000 Christians remain
huddled on the quay or IN concen-
tration camps out of the original ESQ.,
900 and the worst fears are entertain
ed for those who were taken forcibly
into the interior,
| L ne lack OF IOOu anu ClOlilllS anu
the unspeakable sanitary conditions
are adding to the horrors, and the
people are obliged to eat the flesh OF
animals killed in the fire days ago.
The American bluejackets have ran
sacked the ships in the harbor for con-
densed milk for the famished babies
and have given I'D their overcoats to
women.
| Nights Bitterly Cold.
The nights are bitterly cold and the
shivering fugitives take refuge in the
cellars OF mouldering ruins; Others
have burrowed into the earth like an
imals of the wild. Mothers in bitter
anguish and despair are thrusting their
babes into the sea.
The combination of war, massacre,
fire, drowning and famine diseases has
visited scourge and havoc upon lnno-
cent and defenseless Christian women
and children. One must go back to
pagan times to find a counterpart to
the reign of fury, fire and famine
which laid this great shrine OF Chris
tianity in ashes.
No allied vessel has offered to sal
wage this last wreckage of human life
in the greatest disaster in Asia's his
tory.
Girls Taken Off.
Nearly dozen warships remain in
the harbor but none show DISPOSE
ton to aid the wretched population
except the American destroyers.
Sporadic shooting and thefts con-
tinue Smoke is still emerging from
the ruins. The Turkish authorities ex-
plain that this is due TO the burning
of human bodies.