Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1916-09-07
Victims OF The Turks.

In one camp on the outSkirt OF Salonikl,
saysa correspondent ofthe London Times,
were collected six thousand Greek refu-
gees who had been deported by the Turks
from Thrace and Asia Minor. AS soon
as the last Balkan war was over, these
deportations began, and they have con-
tinued ever since.
The occupants OF village or district
are notified thatthey must leave in twenty
four or forty-eight hours. Perhaps an
opportunity is given them to sell their
cattle or other property at a public fdir
on the next day, but that is a farcical
privilege, for there is no one at the fair TO
buy except the condemned villagers
themselves, the guard OF Turkish soldiers,
and a few Mohammedan residents OF the
neighborhood These men can buy the
cattle for few cents head or by simply
refusing TO buy them they can get them
tor nothing when their owners leave them
behind.
AT an appointed hour the whole popu-
Iation is assembled and marched under
armed guard to the sea. There ship
takes the refugees, who have 10 pay their
own fare, TO the nearest Greek port.
Sometimes the march TO the sea has not
been accompanied by any special hard
ships. Sometimes if has been made the
occasion for every kind Of outrage and
pillage and violence. In all, $4,000
Greeks have been swept out of Thrace
and Macedonia.
The Greek government has made every
effort TO take care Of them and 10 move
them out into villages and rural districts
as fast as possible 6ut, even so, there
are now some thirty thousand in concen-
tration camps or billeted in houses near
Salouiki alone.
The camp saw, on the outskirts OF
Saloniki, is composed OF brick buildings
erected for the purpose. Each building,
one hundred feet long, is theoretically
divided, without interior dividing walls,
into four rooms" Each room contains
four families, and each building holds, on
the average, one hundred persons.
II was shortly after noon, on day OF
broiling heat, when ! was there, yet the
interiors of the houses were singularly
cool. Owing to the lavish use OF chloride
OF lime, they are almost absolutely free
from flies, which are so great curse in
nearly all Eastern countries.
The undivided quarter OF one end OF
the floor space OF brick shed with an
earthen floor hardly makes ahome to take
much pride. Many OF the families have
occupied the same square Of ground for
months, and in number OF cases one
saw pathetic attempts at decoration and at
making the places homelike.
The refugees are as rule as nearly en-
tirely destitute as if is possible for people
to be, although the value OF the property
left behind by the 10, 900 now in Mace
donia alone was about S6O,0OO,0O0. The
Greek government gives them all imparti-
ally a subsidy OF about four cents day
per head, on which they manage TO live
and keep fairly robust. The total cost 10
the government for all Greece cannot be
less than $4,000 month.
The health in the SaIoniki camps is
generally good, except for the prevalence
OF malaria. The refugees come mostly
from dry inland regions OF Thrace and
Asia Minor The enyirons Of Ssloniki,
with their wide marshes, are VIGOROUSLY
malarial, and these peasant folk seem 10
have little resistance TO malarisl fever.
1t is not, or is very rarely, fatal but if is
dreadfuIly prevalent among them, and
neither in Greece nor in Italy has quiuine
OF late been obtainable.