The Blight of Asia
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.
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.
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.
Read more about this topic: George Horton
Famous quotes containing the words blight and/or asia:
“This luxury of the precocious child,
Time’s precious chronic invalid,—
would we, darlings, resign it if we could?
Our blight has been our sinecure:
mere talent was enough for us—
glitter in fragments and rough drafts.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“I believe that the fundamental proposition is that we must recognize that the hostilities in Europe, in Africa, and in Asia are all parts of a single world conflict. We must, consequently, recognize that our interests are menaced both in Europe and in the Far East.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)