The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-08-21
TURKEY NOT so
BADLY OFF AS
MANY BELIEVE
Prices High But All Things
Desirable May Be
Obtained

~~sA3A~>H
Mr. Elkus. late American Ambassa-
dor to Turkey, has reached London
on his way home. Owing to an attack
of typhus fever, he was compelled to
remain in Constantinople some time
after the severance of diplomatic re-
lations between Turkey and the
United States. Ins the following state
ment he gives the latest and most au-
thoritative account that has yet been
received of the conditions in Turkey.
Constantinople is not as badly off
as many people may perhaps imagine.
All kinds Of food may be obtained at
a price. Tea, sugar, coffee and rare
tobaccos are still to be bought. One
can get anything if one can pay. That
is to say, only the poor suffer, and the
poor lin Turkey are accustomed to
suffering; their faith in Allah, for
tunately, gives them much fortitude.
Soup kitchens were started in Con-
stantinople by American philantropic
enterprise, and the Turkish authori-
ties soon adopted a similar method
for relieving the poor. Special soup
kitchens for poor members of the
Jewish race were also instituted. Much
good has been done by the kitchens
among the most needy sections of the
population.
In Constantinop1e there is no mid
die class Turkish public opinion. That
is because there is no middle class.
The bourgeois element in the capital
is alien. There are Italian, French,
and Greek shopkeepers. But there
are practically no shopkeepers who
are Turks. The Turks are either of
the upper class or the lower class
Those of the upper class are polished
men of the world; those of the lower
class are in many ways excellent-we
know they make good soldiers and
have many redeeming points in their
psychological. equipment-but they do
not form a body of political opinion,
and so the supper class Turk is able
to rule without the check imposed by
a we'll informed and Intelligent popu-
lace. In q word, the people are sub
nnissive, generally speaking, and have
no sort of voice in the affairs of state.
The Turkish rule is tolerant. Per-
sons who do not know Turkey may
have received the impression that it is
not; yet consider from personal OBJ
servation that it is distinguished in
several respects for its tolerance. For
British, and Italian subjects at large
| and free to pursue their business ac-
| tivities as usual in ConstantinopIe to-
day. Again, Major-Gen. Townshendd,
| who so bravely defended Kut, lives
on the Island Of HAlki, one of the
| princes islands, Is allowed a British
and Turkish A. D. c.. and is per.
| r1itted to visit the metropolis every
4 Thursday, where he can amuse him.
self finely, dine wherever he likes, and
| do whatever he p1eases. The Turks
hold their prisoner in great esteem,
| and regard him as something of a
| prize. I myself met General Towns
bend on various occasions, and the
treatment accorded him by the Turk
ish authorities never appeared to me
to be very harsh. Haiku is one hour
by boat from Constantinople.
| The Turks regret the entry of the
United States into the war. OF that
there can be no doubt. They are
| treating Americans with considera-
ton, however, and the principals OF
| the Robert College and the Women's
College are remaining in Constantine
| pie, while, on the whole, nissi onaries
| in the interior and the heads Of
| schools are continuing their work
peacefully.
| I am disposed to attribute some ex-
| aggeration to certain reports which
| gain currency outside the Ottoman
! empire in connection Alth alleged
massacres of Jews. AS an illustration
of how false Impressions spread and
spread abroad, may perhaps refer to
the evacuation Of Jaffa. For military
reasons, the civil population of Jaffa
was ordered to leave the town immes
diately. Thirty or forty thousand
Jews and Christians hurriedly de-
| parted, but were permitted to return
| within 48 hours.
i Everyone is more or less excitabIe.
| In the case of the Jaffa exodus, some
might have declared that they had
been robbed; the next version of the
| story would have been that many
/ had been robbed and murdered, and
| in the final shape that there had been
/ a general massacre. That is the way
news spreads in the Near East.
i Personally, I found the Turks very
| friendly. I represented as many as
10 nations before left Constantine
pie on May 20, and my staff had in
creased to 100 members. Herr Kuhle-
/ mann, who was. associated with the
/ last days of the German embassy in
London is now the German ambas-
sadorat the Court Of the Sultan. The
Sultan himself. by the way-and
i met him on five or six occasions-fs
| by no means the f1gurehead that is
sometimes suggested Once a week
he goes in State to the Mosque, when
the people have an opportunity OF
seeing him at comparatively Gloss