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Many curious interpretations have been put upon my interest in these peoples. The Turks themselves have wondered how it came about.

It is because they had been my friends long years before I ever set foot on their now familiar land. Its colours, its beauty, its glorious summers and sunsets, the fine thought and philosophy of its high-minded, sober people, were known to me in the nursery, as only a child can live in the imaginations stirred by those it loves. They were always brothers to me, the Orientals of India and Persia, Egypt, Arabia, and Turkey. I would give much, indeed, to secure for them the happiness they deserve for what they have given to the culture and to the civilisation of the world.

The stupidity of treating the Asiatic as an “inferior” I could never understand. It is no less impolitic than unjust. What a delight, in our century of semi-tones and of commercialism, to talk with men like Tagore!

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SMYRNA—GOD’S WORK—THE EXQUISITE SUNSET—MAN’S WORK—WAR

I take daily walks in Smyrna, with one of the Vali’s officers, chiefly among the ruins. The European part of the town (save for a few houses on the quay and a few hospitals, schools, and churches) has simply ceased to exist. The empty “shells” of what were once fine streets are a great danger to passers-by and must all be blasted.