“Turkey is now for the Turks, and the Capitalists will have to recognise this or leave.
“Never again will Smyrna become the Aliens’ Paradise it once was. Would anyone, for example, have dared to offer the trams provided for Smyrna to any other nation but Turkey? Why were there not electric trams, instead of these wretched horse-boxes drawn by underfed ponies? And the compartment reserved for Turkish women was not even separated by a partition, but by a sheet that once perhaps was white!
“There are men in this town,” I wrote, “who would plunge Europe into war, to bring back the dear old lazy-going Turk who made so charming a background for our novels and plays. They would restore him for no higher purpose than to fill their purses at his expense.” At least, I said to these merchants: “If you cannot ‘love’ my whip, you know, in your heart of hearts, that I have spoken the truth. You should have a mighty respect for me, and I ask for nothing more.” The South American answered: “Every word you say is true, and we all admire you for it.”
Towards nightfall, however, my mind was occupied by certain more personal anxieties. The Italian had not yet even come to the hotel, and I could hear nothing of him. I began to reproach myself with not having attempted to extend the protection of my papers to him, although, like the gentleman he is, he had already refused my suggestion to that effect.
I could only apply, as a last resource, to the Vali’s secretary, who at once took me to the Caracol (i.e., the “lock-up”), where we found my friend in company with the Frenchman we had already been pitying for his struggles with passports. Neither of these young men were known in Smyrna; neither of them had secured permission from Angora to land; neither of them were personally known to their Consuls; neither of them were able to speak a word of Turkish. They could not explain themselves, and were, therefore, to be kept under arrest till further inquiries could be made.
“After all, in war-time did we not do worse things than this?” I asked the enraged Frenchman, who was declaring such treatment would make a casus belli.
“When I was serving your country and travelling to San Remo with a special letter of recommendation from the French Minister of War, I was detained for forty-eight hours at Mentone, because they considered my ‘Plato’s Republic’ a proof of sympathy with the Bolshevists.” I was able, however, with the secretary’s willing assistance, to liberate both my fellow-passengers without further delay.
Naim Bey gave me many special privileges, no doubt as the result of prompting from the same quarter. He sent me up breakfast in the mornings, though his servants were all “Catholics” (i.e., Armenians, under the Papal protection), and did not know their job. I never could understand how he contrived to supply me with milk, as the Greeks had killed most of the cows; but I was no less heartily grateful for his permission to use the Spartelli library, and for the reading-lamp which he borrowed for me from an American.
All these acts of kindness, however, were done with such an appearance of ease that I even ventured upon one more request.