Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/16/1 - August - September 1915 - Part 5

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Mitylene again we found there
is a bigger harbour 10 miles
further in – Callone.

Drove out to the hot
baths, Thermae, in / afternoon
& back to dinner w Heathcote
Smith who ws telling us abt /
refugees. The expulsion
began before / war-
really after / Balkan War, 
in May 1914. All / people
here put it down to / Germans.
The war After Levian von
Sanders arrived the word
went down / coast, in / 
mysterious way in wh such
orders pass in Turkey, th
/ Greeks were to be given such
a rough time th they wd have
to clear out - & within a few

51
Phoikia
The town from wh the Greeks
colonised Marseilles.

Eliopoulos sd he ws near
Thoikia at / time o / massacre - /
object ws to terrify Smyrna. He & /
British Consul at Smyrna when at
Mitylene had brought to them a Turkish
policeman who (like all / others) ws
dressed in civilian clothes when /
massacre occurred. They made him
undress - & there was his uniform
under his ordinary clothes. “I was
ordered to do it,” he sd.

52

months / Turks had cleared /
country of 1000 upon 1000.
The Gks were of course very
numerous all down this
coast. The Ts. didn't murder
so many of them - except at
certain places (some name
like Phoikia near Smyrna
ws one), but they wd murder
one here & there & when
complaints were made to /
Turkish Governor he ^wd showed
clearly th he wsnt in earnest
abt stopping it.

"You can't think what it is
like," one o / refugees told us -
he ws a young Gk who owned
a farm worth £40000, with
35 families working on it near
Aivaly - "its a very funny

53
feeling - to lose confidence in / Govt.
You have to go - its no good -
one month - two months - you
cant stand it." There's nothing
to see - they used to hear
shots round their farm every
night & / Turks wd tell
their work people "It will be
your turn some day." Sometimes
you wd go out for a walk &
on / way back pass 2 or 3
bodies lying dead in / road & you
knew / authorities were doing
nothing to stop it. If you complained
the Governor wd say "Oh but
it cant be true!" If you
asked him to come it wd be
"not today - I'm too busy"
or "Perhaps there was some

54
small trouble - but you know
these people created a
disturbance & what can I do."
- So they all left - in May;
& came to Aivaly. Mrs
Heliop^oulos - a young Smyrna
English girl nė La Fontaine -
left her home for Smyrna one
night on a days visit- so
she thought - & never came
back. Early in November
Heliopoulos brought all his
35 clie families to Mitylene &
found work for most of them
He is now superintending
affairs for distributn of
food to / refugees - There are
90,000 known refugees in
Mitylene & at least 10,000

55
more - They all ask anxiously
when they are to go back.
The Turk makes war on a
population - not on an army;
& his good behaviour (so far
as we know it) towards us
is, acc. to Heathcote Smith, prob.
due to / Australians having given
him a good fright to start off with.
I think this may be doubtful.

From first to last / Germans
The German

have never raised a finger to
stop these proceedings. &

Sept 15. Wednesday.
Capt. Grant of the Canopus
dined w us tonight - He tells
me that the Canopus on
May 23 (?) saw / Albion ws

56
aground just at day light
- abt 4a.m. on Mayg The Albion
made a signal to her. They
steamed in & passed a hawser
but this broke. Then they tried
to get some destroyers to tow
her off but this failed. Then they
anchored, passed another
hawser aboard & worked up
to 10 knots. The Turks were
hitting the Canopus w shrapnel
at this time. He went up onto
/ bridge for a moment to
pumpship into a bucket there
as he didn't like to do so below
& a shell burst right over him.
The Canopus ws plastering up
and down / whole length o /
Olive Grove searching for / guns

 57
but / guns went on firing -
It ws a gt relief when they
got her off bec. theyd have
had to go once. They were lightening
the Albion & getting rid of all
confidential documents -
lightening her chiefly by pumping
out water from her tanks &
shifting weight.
The Triumph - as she cdnt
get much way on w nets out
- had gone into shallow water
before she ws torpedoed -

Canopus once saw a
submarine steaming moving parallel
w her outside Mudros - on

58
surface. Submarines have
several times bn really seen
by skippers of transports
etc & taken for ours & not
reported. When Triumph
sank one trawler afterwds
sd th / submarine ws directly
underneath her & / crew
were shooting at it w rifles!
If only / idiots had reported
it - 

Sept. 16 Thursday
Three or four days ago a
Greek was reported as marooned
on Long Diepani Island in the Gulf of
Smyrna about 15 days before.

59
He was one of a party of 5 Greeks
who were determined to go back to
one o / Greek villages & find a
treasure trove. His heart failed at
/ last moment & he went of to this
island. The others landed & met
3 gendarmes. They killed them.
Then they met a carriage w 3 men
& 3 women - They killed the 3 men.
Then it struck them th if they left /
women they wd be betrayed, so
they killed / women too. They killed
3 or 4 others & then got away to
Mitylene. They told / whole story
themselves quite openly to /
authorities; & when / circumstances
came to be considered
it did not seem just to do anything
to them.

Sept. 18 Friday Saturday We went up hill
behind town yesty; & today

60
went first up to village &
afterwards to Thermae
where we had hot baths &
dinners.

English People here & at home
seem to have very little idea
of the real situation in
Gallipoli.

Sept. 18 Saturday
19. Sunday.
Ventured for first time in my
life into / realm of piracy and
brigandage.

Besides our own forces here
in the Levant we have a queer
collection of Greek levies,
raised from the former smugglers
& brigands of the Asian coast,
with whom we garrison / small
islands in / Adrianytic Gulf