Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1919-07-24

LIKE REAL AMERICAN CITY
Headquarters Of American Oil and To-
bacco Interests Opens After Bull.
garian Occupation-See Awful
Picture Of Misery.

Kavalla, Macedonia.-Few Ameri-
cans, except those in the tobacco in
dustry, have ever heard of this little
port on the Aegean sea. Yet it has
many features and activities to COM
mend it to the interest Of the people
of the United States.
Here the finest tobacco in the world
the bulk of which is consumed in
Americans grown. Here the great
American tobacco companies have ex-
port headquarters. Here the biggest
oil company Of the United States and
Americas greatest relief organization,
the American Red Cross, have distribe
uting centers.
Indeed, Kavalla has come to have
some Of the aspects of real Ameri-
can city. There are so many Ameri-
cans here that one feels himself only
a few hundred miles from home, in
stead Of in the heart of a remote re-
gion whose beginnings antedate the
birth of Christ.
Bulgaria Wants Harbor.
For years Bulgaria has looked upon
Kavalla with a covetous eye. AL
though defeated and subdued, she
looked hopefully to the peace con-
gress at Paris to give her Kavalla as
a port Yet Kavalla is not harbOr.
It is merely roadstead affording good
anchorage for cOastwise steamers.
Millions Of dollars and endless de.
velOpment would be required to con-
vert the city into a first-class port. But
Bulgaria, which now has only the
shallow port of Dedeagatch at the
mouth of the Gulf of Enos, was and
is anxious to get an outlet through
Macedonia and the sea for her large
output of tobacco, wheat, live stock,
silk and altar Of roses, and would be
Quite ready to spend any sum in de-
veloping and deepening the harbor.
Kavalla is situated on rocky Pc
ninsula and is dominated by the ruins
of an old Venetian fort. 1t is protect
ed from the south by the Greek island
of ThasOs Back from the seacOast is
a mountainous district known in Mace
donia as the Pangaion.
Coursing through the valley, on
Pangaion's eastern slope, is the placid
Anghista river, which some historical
writer's believe to be the stream where
Paul baptized Lydia. On all sides OF
the mountains in this region is rich
arabic land peculiarly adapted to the
growth of tobacco. The best leaf in
the world is grown here, and so valu.
able are the fields for tobacco culture
that very little else is cultivated.
During the war the Bulgarians
adopted in Kavalla the same ruthless
practices they followed in all Occu-
pied territory. They pillaged and de-
stroyed. They made every effort to
make the land uninhabitable. They
cut down the trees and carried off fur
niture and everything made Of wood.
They sacked the homes and drove
the Greek inhabitants out.
AS a result Of all this, when the
Greek commission of the American
Red Cross established relief posts
here, a few days after the armistice
their representatives found living
conditions almost unsupportable
First Red Cross Base.
Kavalla was the first city in Mace
donia to become a base for Red Cross
operations.
The natives speak with unbounded
gratitude of the help given them by
the Americans. They say the food
furnished by the American Red Cross
was the first substantial nOurishment
they had in four years.
No section of the Balkans ever
presented more depressing picture
of misery and squalor. When the
Americans came in they found the
inhabitants dying by the dozen from
famine, exposure and typhus.
They Immediately established soup
kitchens and dispensaries and gave
out tens of thousands of American
made garments. They sent in doc
tors, nurses and medical supplies.
They distributed hundreds of thou
sands of loaves of bread made of
American flour. They established
shelters for the homeless women and
children. They cared for the hordes
of broken and dispirited Greek ar I
Serbian soldiers who had been re-
leased from vile prison camps in Bull
garia.
In their devotion to the task Of
rescuing the typhus-stricken popula-
ton two of their number lost their
lives and three nurses contracted the
dread disease.
Rann ;A$