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European Witness
Page 6
The following details concerning the attack on President MacLachlan and Sergeant Crocker were furnished me by another eye-witness of the scene:
"When the bluejackets in the main building saw the predicament of their chief and that he was in danger of being ill-treated, they ran to his rescue. Sergeant Crocker spreading his arms motioned them backward, saying: ‘Retire! Retire! Don’t shoot! Retire!’
"This they did, and after they had covered some distance in this manner, he gave the order: ‘Wheel and run!’
"They obeyed, whereupon the Turkish soldiers opened up a lively fusillade on the running Marines, and their rifle fire was so rapid and continual that it reminded me of a machine gun. Fortunately none of the Americans was hurt."
The following looting of American property occurred at Paradise, as described to me by an American lady connected with the college:
"In September, 1922, every American house at Paradise had an American flag, back and front, and all have been broken into except two.
"Lately, while the chief of the Turkish army, who had billeted himself at the president’s house, was eating there with his band playing on the campus, the Turks looted the dean’s house, right on the same campus."
Meanwhile, in the city of Smyrna itself, the hunting and killing of Armenian men, either by hacking or clubbing or driving out in squads into the country and shooting, caused an unimaginable panic. There was no help anywhere in sight. The battle-ships of the Great Powers, including America, could not interfere for various reasons and there were instances of persons who had reached them being sent back to the shore.
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