scroll down for english translation

FROM: Governor General Petychakis, Molyvos (Lesbos)

TO: Greek MFA, Athens

AFFECTED AREAS: Old Phocaea

TELEGRAM
14 (27) June 1914
Mytilene
Time: 16:10

Very Urgent

To: Athens

Last night, a representative from the French Consulate General arrived in Smyrna, M. Belhomme, instructed to verify the situation of Christians in Asia Minor. Also Messrs Edward Whittal, Albert Vitel, and others. STOP
The passengers of a French merchant ship chartered by them, as they were passing in from of Old Phocaea, were met by a yawl filled with refugees who begged the former to go into the Old Phocaea port to save the Christians who were being slain. STOP
They immediately did and M. Belhomme saw nine dead, two of which were women, a lot of wounded, burnt-down houses and shops. He calculated that the dead reach up to fifty. STOP.
They received six hundred refugees on board and towed behind them a sailboat filled with refugees, fifteen of which were injured. STOP
Belhomme was horrified before these Turkish atrocities, he said so to us, and added he would be telegraphing his own government. STOP
The Deputy Consuls of England and America arrived yesterday in Smyrna by Egyptian boat, to examine the situation and verify the events. STOP
Once the French ship had returned, the Deputy Consuls met with Belhomme and Whittal, who reported in detail the killings, the injuries, and the looting in Old Phocaea. The Consuls kept notes and expressed a desire to travel to Phocaea to apprehend the situation themselves. STOP
Here, they visited churches and schools filled with refugees, they visited the hospital, they saw the wounded and the dead bodies of two children killed by gunshot from the coast as they were fleeing last night on a boat, they kept detailed notes, their impressions were very vivid. STOP
Everyone embarked on the French ship at 5 o’clock in the morning to visit and verify the events STOP
Returning to Smyrna they came by here to cross-check the events more thoroughly. STOP
Last night in Polichnitos I was told by telephone that they saw nearby a Turkish warship. And today, the harbourmaster of Chios island has announced that, at 10am, a Turkish destroyer passed outside the port of Chios.

Governor General Petychakis