For the most part, they were not unwilling to sustain the Turkish Government.

While the Constitution imposed on them the burden of militarism, it had brought with it the compensation of freedom of religion and equal rights; and we could not forget that for six hundred years Turkey has held her gates wide open to the Jews who fled from the Spanish Inquisition and similar ministrations of other civilized countries.
Of course, we never dreamed that Turkey would do anything but remain neutral.

If we had had any idea of the turn things were ultimately to take, we should have given a different greeting to the _mouchtar_, or sheriff, who came to our village with the list of mobilizable men to be called on for service.

My own position was a curious one.

I had every intention of completing the process of becoming an American citizen, which I had begun by taking out "first papers." In the eyes of the law, however, I was still a Turkish subject, with no claim to American protection.