George Horton (1859–1942) was a member of the US diplomatic corps who held several consular offices, in Greece and the Ottoman Empire, in late 19th century and early 20th century. Horton initially arrived in Greece in 1893 and left from Greece 30 years later in 1924. During two different periods he was the US Consul and US Consul general[1] to Smyrna, known as Izmir today, the first time between 1911-1917 (till the cessation of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Ottoman Empire during the First World War) and the second time between 1919–1922, during Greek administration of the city in the course of the Greco-Turkish War. The Greek administration of Smyrna was appointed by the Allied Powers following Turkey's defeat in World War I and the seizure of Smyrna.
Today, George Horton is best remembered for his book about the events, notably the systematic ethnic cleansing of the christian population, leading up to and during the fire. In his book he briefly summarises events from 1822 through to 1909 and then in more detail, with eye-witness accounts, from 1909 through to 1922. The book was published in 1926, and its title, The Blight of Asia, refers to what he considered the abominable behavior of the Ottoman Turks, and by extension, all of Islam.
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George Horton was born on October 11, 1859 in Fairville, New York. In 1909, Horton married Catherine Sakopoulos and they had one daughter, Nancy Horton.
Horton was a literary man. He was a scholar of both Greek and Latin. He translated Sappho. He wrote a guide for the interpretation of Scripture. He wrote several books (novels) and was a renowned journalist in Chicago, a member of what was called the “Chicago Renaissance.”
Horton started his career as a literary journalist, first as the literary editor of Chicago Times-Herald (1899–1901) and then as the editor of the literary supplement of Chicago American newspaper (1901–1903).
Horton was also a professional diplomat who loved Greece. He became U.S. Consul in Athens in 1893, where he actively promoted the revival of the Olympic Games and inspired the U.S. team's participation. He wrote a lyrical visitor's guide to Athens and composed a reflective description of his stay in Argolis.
Horton served twice as the U.S. Consul in Athens 1893-1898 and between 1905-1906. Horton was the US Consul in Salonika between 1910 and 1911.
He then served as U.S. Consul in Smyrna up to the U.S.'s break-off of diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire (1911–1917) in World War I. He served again as consul in Smyrna after the war (1919–1922) and remained in Smyrna until after the fire began on September 13, 1922, spending the last hours before his evacuation signing passes for those entitled to American protection and transportation to Piraeus.
Today, Horton is most remembered for his 1926 account "The Blight of Asia" relating, among a variety of topics, the Great Fire of Smyrna that ravaged the city of Smyrna starting on 13 September 1922, two days after the Consul general's departure from his post there on 11 September, and that lasted for 4 days.[2]
By the time of publication Horton had resigned his diplomatic commission, and he wrote strictly in the capacity of a private citizen, drawing on his own observations and those of the people he quotes. His account remains as controversial as the fire itself.[3]
His account of the forced exodus of Smyrna's christian inhabitants (Greek and Armenian), by Ottoman Turkish soldiers, chronicles the latter stages of the ethnic cleansing of Asia Minor's native christian population.[4]
Horton's account does quote numerous contemporary communications including eyewitness accounts of the massacre of Phocea in 1914 by a frenchman and the armenian massacres of 1914/15 by an american citizen and a german missionary. He also published letters that he received, at the US Consul in Smyrna, from americans living in Smyrna and the radio messages that he received whilst travelling by ship from Smyrna to Athens from 13 September 1922 that recorded how many lives were being saved by the British Navy.[2]
According to James L. Marketos, Horton wanted his book to make four main points.[5]
First, he wanted to illustrate that the catastrophic events in Smyrna were merely “the closing act in a consistent program of exterminating Christianity throughout the length and breadth of the old Byzantine Empire.”
Second, he wanted to establish that the Smyrna fire was started by regular Turkish army troops with, as he put it, “fixed purpose, with system, and with painstaking minute details”.
Third, he wanted to emphasize that the Allied Powers shamefully elevated their selfish political and economic interests over the plight of the beleaguered Christian populations of Asia Minor, thereby allowing the Smyrna catastrophe to unfold without any effective resistance and, as he said, “without even a word of protest by any civilized government.”
And fourth, he wanted to illustrate that pious western Christians were deluded in thinking they were making missionary headway in the Muslim world.
Brian Coleman described Horton's work, the Blight of Asia, in following terms:
"George Horton was a man of letters and United States Consul in Greece and Turkey at a time of social and political change. He writes of the re-taking of Smyrna by the Turkish army in September 1922. His account, however, goes beyond the blame and events to a demonization of Muslims, in general, and of Turks, in particular. In several of his novels, written more than two decades before the events of September 1922, he had already identified the Turk as the stock-in-trade villain of Western civilization. In his account of Smyrna, he writes not as historian, but as publicist."[6]
Biray Kirli, who also put the blame on the Turkish side for the Great Fire of Smyrna, described Horton as an author "whose anti-Turkish bias is crudely explicit" [7]
Heath Lowry considers The Blight of Asia as one-sided, extremely selective in the choice of testimonies, and so, unreliable.[8]
Justin McCarthy argues that George Horton under-reported to his superiors the atrocities committted by the Greek forces against the Turkish civilian population during the Greek occupation of Izmir between 1919–1922:
The reporting of the events at Aydin poin up the danger of trusting the reports of prejudiced sources, especially Americans, without careful consideration. The American consul at Izmir in 1919, Horton, was intensively pro-Greek, so much that members of the American, as well as the Turkish, communities at Izmir complained of his prejudices to the State Department (U.S. 867.00/302, John Manola [of New York] to Lansing, received 11 July 1919). Horton's reports of Aydin were a distillation of reports from the Greeks (U.S. 867.00/288, Horton to American Mission, Paris, Smyrna, 2 July 1919). However, in the face of overwhelming evidence from American and British observers, he was forced to retract his charges of atrocities by the Turks and stated ‘During the Occupation of the Turks after the Greeks had retreated, the Christian population was protected by one British officer and two French officer and by Turkish regular troops of the old 57th division, who are well disciplined and bow to foreign flags [my emphasis]’ (U.S. 867.00/295, Horton to American Embassy, Paris, Smyrna, 6 july 1919). He would still not admit, despite unanimous evidence of the Allied representatives on the scene, that Greeks attacked Turks. He blamed all the troubles in Aydin Vilâyeti on the Turks, and as instigators, the Italians. [...] Horton's book, The Blight of Asia (Indianapolis, 1926) is a study of the victory of prejudice on reason. In it, he describes the Turks as ‘the lowest of the Mohammedans intellectually, with none, or at least few, of the graces and accomplishment of civilization, with no cultural history’ (p. 209) and ‘the only branch of the Mohammaden faith which has never made any contribution to the progress of civilization’ (p. 255).
The New York Times carried an article on 21 September 1922, concerning events in Smyrna and Horton's earlier career at the US Consul in Salonica.
"During my consulship at Saloniki I was bombed by Bulgars and Germans and during my official career I have had many rough experiences with submarines and fire, but never in my life have I seen anything like the Smyrna catastrophe ... " [10]
Horton was mentioned in the New York Times, of 4 November 1922 p. 28, on his return to the United States in 1922.
"Dr. George Horton, United States Consul General at Smyrna, where he witnessed the burning and sacking of the ancient seaport and the evacuation of 40,000 refugees in five days, arrived here yesterday on the America of the United States Lines ..." [11]
In that article it is noted that he brought with him thirty gold coins of ancient Lydia, believed to have been minted for Croesus, discovered by the American Archaeological Society.
Horton was quoted in a book titled Remembering Chrysostomos:A Modern Day Martyr:
I have known Monsigneur Chrysostomos for years. He was an active and enthusiastic exponent of Greek ambitions and ideals which it seems to me was quite natural in him as a Greek ... [Greeks should] set him down in their history as a hero and martyr. [12]
During the Smyrna catastrophe, Nureddin Pasha turned Bishop Chrysostomos over to an angry mob. The bishop was barbarically beaten, mutilated and killed.[12]