The massacres of Chios

Extract

To the review in the last number of this Journal of Mr. Philip Argenti's The Massacres of Chios, described in contemporary diplomatic reports I would like to add a note on a little book published at Chios in 1921 by Mr. Stylianos G. Bios, a professor in the gymnasium of Chios. This book is called Ἡ σφαγὴ τῆς χίου εἰς τὸ στόμα τοῦ χιακοῦ λαοῦ, ἤτοι διηγήσεις περὶ τῆς σφαγῆς, ἱστορικαὶ σημειώσεις καὶ ποιήματα ἀναφερόμενα εἰς τὴν σφαγήν, and the title very exactly describes the contents. In the first part we have in ninety-five pages forty-three stories of personal experiences of the massacre. Some few of these stories and anecdotes must have been written down some time before the book was published, because they are taken down from the mouths of very old people, who were children at the time and in one way or another escaped with their lives. The majority of the stories, however, are at second hand, but at good second hand; that is to say, they are the words of people who had themselves heard of the events from actual eyewitnesses. In the second part of the book full details are given of the ages and names of those who told the stories, and for those who were not themselves eye-witnesses the names of their informants. The third part contains a few poems and some popular ballads about the massacre. All the stories are written out in dialect, with explanations of the harder words.