The Interviewees
Interview with Giorgio Peresso, September 2024
1- How long have you been working on the Malta archives on the Smyrna 1922 refugee and what sort of numbers of peoples we are talking about and what a mixture of ethnicities involved such as Levantines, Greeks (and those with British passports), Armenians?
For most of my youth, I lived in a house bequeathed to the Maltese nation by a Greek philanthropist from Salonika, Giovanni di Nicolò Pappaffy (1792-18861). Pappaffy established a fund for the promotion of emigration to Greece. During the early seventies, I used to visit Greece frequently and many of my contacts were of Smirniot origin. Smyrna and the saga of the refugees remained at the back of my mind ever since. I have been researching this theme for the past 15 years. However, when at a mature age I graduated Masters in History my focus then was about two Italian journalists who sought refuge in Malta during the Mussolini years2. The issue about refugees is an important topic in the history of Malta. During the Risorgimento years Malta was home for patriots who opposed against the autocratic regimes ruling Italian states by using Malta as their base. The advent of the Italo-Turkish War in 1911 provoked a wave of refugees flocking to Malta with 1300 coming from Tripoli while 387 came from Benghazi. After the Russian revolution, some 900 aristocrats who fled the Bolshevist yoke found shelter for some time in Malta. Malta at the time, though not actively involved in the First World War had its economy in tatters, and was in no mood to take more refugees. A new constitution was enacted in 1921, which gave limited powers to a legislative assembly with the battle cry: No more refugees. Not for long! The local health authorities kept a watch on the developments in the Near East. The experience of the Libyan War was fresh in memory because apart from the refugees, cholera had followed. The British had a strong military presence in Malta and health was a prime requisite. Like the rest of Europe, Malta had just recovered from the Spanish flu and wanted to avoid another pandemic at all costs. So the local health authorities were prepared and able to meet any emergency.
2- How complete are the archives in Malta in terms, ages, professions, residence times in Malta? Were there refugee camps set up particularly for this purpose and do we know how long these camps functioned for?
Most of the records concerning Smyrna refugees are copies of originals kept at the National Archives in U.K. The documents are not filed separately as pertaining to Smyrna but are filed chronologically dealing with a variety of topics detailed in despatches to and from the different Secretaries of State of Colonies serving successive British governments. The ship’s manifests and passport records are perhaps the few original records kept in Malta. The applications for passports originated in Malta can be traced on Archives Portal Europe. The original names can be traced in registers of arrival of passengers. These are handwritten. In turn they are transcribed in typewritten form making it easier to read. The spelling of Greek surnames was not reliable. A fellow researcher from Greece, Kostas Boutnas, succeeded in tracing for me the correct spelling. The data includes name, surname, perceived nationality, age (some are missing), and the ship landing. The influx of refugees were mostly British subjects including those born in Smyrna, and a minority held foreign passports while the rest holding a British passport were supposed to be of Maltese extraction. There were no more than six refugees who were actually born in Malta: mostly born in either in Turkey or Greece especially Corfu. The big part of the foreign minority was of Greek. It is maintained that these Greek citizens were domestics of Smyrniot patricians who accompanied their masters on their journey to Malta. Some of the British families essentially insisted to keep their former servants encamped with them. A case in point is that of the Walker family, which consisted of the couple and three children. A Greek woman, Maria Genera was staying with them. Walker had the means to support financially his own family but requested the government to provide for the maintenance of this servant in the Lazaretto. The Walkers were friends of the Issigonis family in Smyrna. Alec Issigonis, the designer of the iconic Mini-Minor and his mother Hulda retained this friendship on their relocation to the United Kingdom.
One can only imagine the scene of the stampede literally assaulting the British Consulate soon after the residents were advised to abandon Smyrna. The possession of a British passport proved to be a valuable tool needed to get out of Turkey. However, once in Malta these citizens were uncomfortable with the environment. These persons had no affinities or relatives in Malta. They felt more akin to Greece than the land of their ancestors. They hardly spoke English, let alone Maltese. If Turkey was out of question, Greece was their mirage. The Greek Consul in Malta was reluctant to issue visas for such persons without rigorous examination of every applicant. While the tug of war between Valletta and Athens continued, the Maltese government had no other option but to keep the refugees in a camp and provide for their upkeep. Initially the Greek government refused point blank responsibility for citizens in Malta arguing that it was only concerned with refugees on Greek territory. The Greek Community in Malta launched a relief fund. Some of these Greek refugees complicated the already difficult situation because not only they pretended to be British subjects but posed as Maltese as well. This was the case of a certain Stefanoglou who entered Malta as Angela Ellul. Another posed as Swedish. A trivial group turned out to be Ottoman subjects. In the end a commission was set up between Maltese bureaucrats and the Greek Consul to review whom to deport. There were members of families who had different nationalities within a given family. One Italian, Manfredo Cassano posed as British Maltese under the name Piero Vassallo.
The archives include a selection of correspondence between the British consular authorities and the local imperial government. This collation shows the moods in Smyrna immediately following the evacuation of British subjects. Refugees in Malta were initially dissuaded from returning and were encouraged to return to their country of origin, mostly the United Kingdom. About thirty per cent of those arriving made their own arrangements and returned to the country of origin within a month from date of arrival. A very small number remained here as tourists before moving to other countries. Most of the refugees were destitute, yet the government initially was not inclined to pay for repatriation. It accepted in the end so as to reduce the number of persons residing in camps. Until it was closed down in 1929.
Taking out the figures from the ship’s manifests, one concludes that 700 were holders of British passport, another 687 were equally holders of British passport but distinguished as of Maltese extraction. 70 were Greek, the rest (71 in all) were aliens of different nationalities, namely American, Armenian, Cypriot, Egyptian, French, Italian, Ottoman, Swedish and Swiss. This adds up to 1387. Reviewing the period between the 15 September and 10 December 1922, ten voyages were made to bring refugees; namely, HMHS Maine, Bavarian, HMS King George V, Karnak, Carnaro (twice), Pierre Lotti, Adria (twice) and the Empress of India. Such number cannot be taken as absolute because other refugees came on their own accord from other locations such as Naples. I can quote some examples. The Whittall and associated families was quite a group, counted as 80. Yet the name Eric Whittall appears in January 1923. Whittall sought permission to return to Smyrna. Another Smyrna refugee, John Cauchi together his wife Arcandia and his son Joseph entered Malta after first arriving in Brindisi. A small number came from Volos.
All refugees upon reaching the shores of Malta were immediately routed to a point of isolation called Lazaretto in Manoel Island. This institution was founded by Grand Master Lascaris in 1643. Its role was to provide quarantine, a period of isolation; from where they moved to a camp in the same islet. Eventually they were moved to Fort Ricasoli at the entrance of the Grand Harbour. At first there was some reluctance against the move because Manoel Island was closer to where action was. In the end, the refugees had to confine to stay at the Cottonera area. Children of ‘Maltese’ refugee’ attended the nearby government school in Cospicua where they learnt the language of their ancestors.
The imperial authorities were able to extract a variety of data about the composition of the refugees. A roll was also kept of the past employees of the Ottoman Aiden Railway employees. The various categories, 64 in all, were registered according to their job description.
The office of the Lieutenant Governor in Malta cooperated with British consular in Smyrna and Athens on various issues apart from contact tracing. Soon after the evacuation from Smyrna, the British Consul General set an office in Malta to coordinate better contact tracing. Enquiries were lodged about refugees reported missing. One refugee, Paul Micallef, arrived in Malta on the Bavarian voyage. It resulted that in the confusion he left his father Pierre in Smyrna together with his mother Helen and a niece and nephew, Josephine and Polycarpe Gender. Micallef did not stay long in Malta and sailed to Marseilles. Another query was about Carolina Hartitopoulos. She stayed at the Cottonera camp while her husband, John Hartitopoulos in the confusion was separated and transferred to Larnaca. Eventually they were reunited together in Athens. Not all the refugees arriving in Malta came through a direct voyage linking Smyrna to Malta. A case in point is that of a particular refugee named Vincenzo Portelli. He arrived in Athens on 5 October 1922. Identified as Maltese origin, he was sent to Malta. He succeeded in going to Naples hoping to take a train to Marseille to join his father Charles, who in turn had left Malta in 1894 to settle in Smyrna. The British Consul General in Naples refused to authorise the trip as a French visa in all probability would have been declined. There were several instances where refugees had a complicated story. Such numbers tend to distort the actual number of refugees reaching the shores of Malta. The figure of 1540 of total arrivals of refugees in Malta/seems to be a reasonable figure.
3- You mention William Smith Rea who wrote a detailed account of the Turkish atrocities in Anatolia during the war with the Greeks 1919-1922.
There are very few instances where refugees left or deposited an account of their horrid experience about the Greek occupation, the Kemalist victory or the great fire that followed. The experience at the International College in Paradise was recorded in detail by the eye-witnesses to history as soon as they touched Maltese soil. The next day Francis S. Holton, head of the Agriculture Department of the College, together with his wife Katie arrived in Malta rushed to visit Mason Mitchel, the U.S Consul. He left an account of the abrasive take-over of the College by Turkish troops. Dr Alexander Machlachlan, his principal, followed him and on the 21 September 1922 deposited a more detailed version (10 pages) about the events at Paradise (a fuller much later account of his life in Turkey penned in 1939). The report ended up on the desk of Winston Churchill, then Secretary of the State for the Colonies, nowadays deposited at the National Archives in Kew bearing reference FO/371/7902/E10610. There were also grievances during the Greek occupation of Smyrna. We have the case of Polycarpe Borg, a refugee arriving in Malta on 18 September 1923. He lodged a petition complaining about cattle when these were detained by the Greek authorities. In his petition he also claimed the cost of maintaining supervisors to look after the cattle during detention. A substantial part of the cattle eventually perished. He sought compensation for the losses from the British Government. The issue became a complicated exchange between Sir Harry Luke, the British Consul General and Aristeidis Stergiadis, the Greek High Commissioner in Smyrna. It is not known whether Borg received any compensation by the time he left Malta on 5 November 1923. Sometimes the Consular establishment in Smyrna sought information from its counterpart in Malta, about persons deemed missing. A list of names were supplied, namely: Josep Rivans, (located in Egypt), Sofia Rivans (located in Candia), Elisabeth Rivans (settled in Piraeus) Percy Vedova (traced in London), Polycarpe Bartolo (dead), John Angelos Sullivan (lives in Athens). All this information was secured through enquiries made with their relatives in Malta. The other lengthy chronicle was that left by William Smith Rea, a miller by profession3. This epic covers a much longer period, starting from the First World War to the Turkish advance on Smyrna. His recollections encompass Turkish atrocities with Greek ones too. Otherwise there are only scanty references especially about the Great Fire.
4- Was Malta rather than the British authorities in charge there able to cope with the stream of refugees, no doubt highly traumatized, suddenly impoverished and many having health issues as well?
The Maltese authorities operating with a well-trained lean staff and a tight budget succeeded in getting the job done efficiently. First and foremost, it was a question of keeping order and discipline. The residents of the camps came from different strata of society and sometimes tension among them was high was high. They set up different committees discussing their difficulties. Rations were frugal and the subsidy paid were meagre. Dr Enrico Mizzi, then leader of opposition at the local parliament raised their plight in the assembly, as well as in his Italian newspaper Malta. Mizzi remarked that the refugees were in a deplorable situation, especially children lacking basic necessities such as clothing.
The refugees themselves were on the lookout for support from any relative they could count on. A refugee James Hale, who together with mother and sister have been staying in camps for over two years, felt frustrated being unemployed doing nothing. He traced an uncle in Buenos Aires who was ready to welcome his family. He needed the funds to cover expenses for the trip. The local government was ready to pay for the trip on condition to the provision of a guarantee that the government would be reimbursed. In addition, approval from the Colonial Office in London. The mental strain that all destitute refugees had to bear was tremendous. No doubt the fact that the refugees had to abandon their roots forged in Smyrna and its environs since many decades left them in a state of shock. The sudden evacuation, leaving all belongings and memories; those who witnessed the great fire; all of a sudden becoming impoverished could only be remedied by getting out of Malta. Surprisingly, only one person is known who sought shelter in a mental home, Constantine Issigonis. He was blind and was admitted to the local mental hospital in the village of Attard to-day known as Mount Carmel Hospital. He was admitted on 3 December 1922 at this institution, where he died on 1 June 1923. He was a quiet patient. Issigonis repeated to the staff that he was a millionaire. That was not far from truth. According to the medical report filed at the time, he claimed that his son was Christ and predicted that every Maltese would receive thousands of pounds. Some Maltese did as a matter of fact, but only many years later.
5- Did all refugees eventually move to other parts of the world, presumably mostly to Britain and its overseas colonies at the time or did some stay and become part of the Maltese society?
The Governor of Malta Lord Plumer supported the local government’s argument that it could hardly satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the native Maltese. Although humanitarian aid is a noble cause, charity begins at home. The administration worked hard to disperse the refugees. It was willing to pay for the upkeep of Maltese refugees in Mytilene and Cyprus rather than receive them in Malta. In the end only a handful of refugees remained in Malta. One such refugee was Henry Stabile who was 12 days old when he disembarked from Bavarian on 16 September 1922. Later on in life he became a medical doctor. Another well-known family was Cilia La Corte. A member of this family who passed through a very dreadful experience. Fred Cilia La Corte was sent reluctantly to Australia as there was no chance of employment in Malta. He was duly examined as medically fit to emigrate. On reaching Brisbane he was examined by Australian doctors who somehow reached a different conclusion. He was sent back to Malta. Many of those who returned to Turkey could not digest the hostile environment they were faced with, being considered Greek in disguise. They were not wanted country of their ancestors, nor in the county where they were raised. Greece was their salvation where they became absorbed in the Maltese Diaspora. Therefore, except for the very few who remained in Malta, they were dispersed. The “Maltese” found it easy to assimilate within Greece itself, Hellenizing even surnames. The majority of the refugees, British and Maltese succeeded in moving to other towns in different countries – forty different towns in all.
John Cilia was born in Smyrna in 1886. As a British subject he, his wife Kirioki and their children Liberata, Marcos, Mary and Francis were entitled for protection. Therefore, the family boarded the Bavarian bound for Malta and arrived on 18 September 1922. Eventually, they were repatriated to Greece. They settled in Nea Kokkini. Cilia’s name re-appears in the 1935 records of the British Consul in Athens as an applicant for British relief. The Government of Malta disowned him, and relief was denied. He Hellenized his surname to Tsilia. There were already about 2000 persons living on Greek territory of Maltese lineage, with the bulk, 1600 living in Corfu. However, they resisted to change the citizenship to Greek as they did not want to be conscripted in the army. The ones in Patras were particularly looked after by the Italian Consul. Over time surnames were lost due to marriage. Among the Serra-Buttigieg clan, emerges the name of Teresa Serra, who married Manolis Margaronis in 1927. They had a child who became a musician like her father. She played along Greek famous songwriters like Vassillis Tsitsanis.
6- Are these any records in such a state that a complete surname and alphabetical database can be established to help descendants?
There is no such thing a complete database. However, there are various listings about the movements of refugees. One such listing has been reproduced in the Levantine Heritage Foundation entitled Return of Smyrna Refugees from Malta 1923-1929 - courtesy of Joyce Cully. It lists names of family units and addresses of final destination.
7- Did Malta receive a similar flood of refugees in 1956 when Nasser of Egypt expelled all foreigners? Were similar problems encountered with this situation?
The expulsion of foreigners from Egypt was practically a non-event as far as Malta was considered. As happened in 1922, the political situation was not that different. There was the threat of widespread unemployment following the rundown of the British bases after the Suez debacle. The Government was in no mood to welcome refugees. Some Maltese returned on their own accord and integrated with society. The majority settled in England and Australia. A relief fund was set up, but that was it.
8- Do you know the number of Levantine / Maltese refugees in Malta who returned to Smyrna when things settled down? Or where some advised against return because of their perceived ‘disloyalty’ to the Kemalist regime during the Greek-Turkish War?
The exact number of refugees returning to Smyrna is unknown. There are several reports in the archives similar to the already mentioned list Return of Smyrna Refugees 1923-1929. Whether they actually reached their Smyrna destination or whether they stayed there could not be traced. It is difficult to draw a sort of simple balance sheet with refugees arriving less those departing equals those remaining. Some returns like the one quoted are not available.
9- Do the archives in Malta also contain photos, letters, diaries?
To my knowledge, refugees did not leave personal items behind them such as photos, letters or diaries in the camps. Only a few photos can be traced from the Archives online facility for tracing passport applications. I can quote a few samples such as Rosa Vella Maltese Tommasso Giovanna Serra, Antonie Rivans, Polycarp Cilia, John Cilia, Albert James Whittall, Edward Sydney Whittall, Mary Galdies, Oscar Vedova and Frank Simes. These applications build a family profile of individual refugees because some photos include that of the spouse. In some case they include the whole family John Cilia as shown herewith (acknowledgement National Archives Malta - read the report from 2021 penned by Giorgio Peresso on this subject)
1 See: Ariadni Moutafidou: Giovanni di Nicolό Pappaffy: identities and philanthropies of an Ottoman Greek broker in Malta, Mediterranean Historical Review, 2003, vol 28, no. 2, 191-224
2 Giorgio Peresso, Giuseppe Donati, Two-Italian anti-fascist refugees in Malta, SKS, 2015.
3 The record from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site (additional) indicates that this person’s namesake son born in Smyrna later emigrated to Australia and whose profession is also shown as a miller and unfortunately died in service in North Africa during WW2.
Interview conducted by Craig Encer
The tomb of Constantine Issigonis at the Ta Braxia Cemetry outside Valletta. Since there is no memorial of the Smyrna debacle I tend to consider this as the memorial.
