Free Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922 - The Destruction of Islam's City of Tolerance by Giles Milton

more venturesome Turks from entering the property.’
    Edmund landed and – in true patrician style – demanded to meet the leaders of the irregular forces. When brought to him, they were suddenly cowed by his imposing presence. ‘[They] seemed anxious to make a plausible story of what had occurred,’ informing him that they had been sent from the mainland to search for weapons. Edmund’s wife told a rather different story. Fourteen men from the village had been shot in cold blood; everyone else was being menaced by the Turks and in fear of their lives. All links with the mainland had been cut and even the daily food supply had been prevented from landing.
    Edmund acted with characteristic energy. He immediately despatched the Helen May to the nearest telegraph office on the mainland and relayed to his friends in Smyrna what had happened. ‘As a result of this,’ he wrote, ‘the Greek Consular authorities sent several boatloads of bread the following day to feed the unfortunate villagers.’ Edmund also ordered the Turkish irregulars off his property, informing them that they were trespassers and would be treated as such. They meekly complied, moving themselves over to the other side of the little bay.
    As soon as Edmund realised that he had temporarily defused the volatile situation, he returned to Smyrna and paid a visit to Rahmi Bey. When he told the governor what had occurred, Rahmi was extremely concerned and decided to visit the island in person. ‘He made arrangements to do so on a gunboat the following morning and invited two of my friends and me to accompany him.’
    For such an event to have occurred in his fiefdom was indeed alarming. Rahmi had not sanctioned the landing of irregulars on Long Island and was furious at their intrusion. He resolved to calm the situation as quickly and efficiently as possible.
    As his gunboat headed out across the bay, Rahmi Bey noticed a large steamer approaching the island from the other direction. It was flying the Greek flag ‘[and] had been despatched from Mytilene by the Greek government to relieve the islanders, at the suggestion of the Consular Authorities in Smyrna’. When the Greek captain realised that Smyrna’s Turkish governor was about to land, he kept a discreet distance from the island.
    As soon as Rahmi Bey was ashore, he was led up to the panoramic terrace in front of Edmund Giraud’s house. He was shown exactly where the irregulars had landed and was able to see the difficulty of the situation in which he found himself. There were still scores of terrified villagers crowded around Edmund’s property and they refused to leave until the irregulars had been sent away. ‘They clung to the walls of my home,’ wrote Edmund, ‘as if there was some saving virtue in the very stones they touched.’ Although Rahmi gave them his absolute assurance that they would not be molested and encouraged them all to go home, the fact that fourteen of their number had already been killed had caused them to lose all faith in the Turkish authorities.
    In the end, Edmund himself managed to strike a deal that was acceptable to everyone. Those who wished to return to their homes would be able to do so with a guarantee of safety issued by Rahmi himself. He selected a guard of twelve gendarmes who were to be permanently based in the village. Those who wished to leave, meanwhile, would be allowed to board the Greek steamer and take all their possessions with them.
    In the event, the villagers decided to leave en masse. Having heard dark stories of massacres up and down the coastline, they no longer felt safe and asked to be taken off that very day.
    With no desire to witness the spectacle of their departure, Edmund and his wife set off into the bay on the Helen May . But later that evening, his little yacht passed quite close to the Greek steamer. ‘I never expect to see such a sight again,’ he wrote. ‘Herded about the ship in every corner available were donkeys, goats,