The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-04-23
A CITY OF REFUGE

of The Associated Pressl.-High up
on the hills of this bustling Macedo-
Man city is picturesque settlement
where 5000 Greek refugees, driven
from Asia Minor by the massacres of
1914, make their homes. Hundreds of
other Greeks who were informed by
the Bulgarians in Dobrudja during the
war have joined them recently. The
house in this refugee camp were con-
structed by the Greek government. A
space equivalent to large New York
furnished room is allotted to family
of five to eight.
The settlement has been given the
pretentious name of "The Quarter of
the Triumvirate" in honor of Greece's
three great modern patriots-Premier
Venizelos, Admiral Kountouriotis and
General Danglais who, repudiating
King Constantine, espoused the cause
of the allies when Germany sought
to win over the Greek army. Many of
the people have been helped by the
American Red Cross and speak CRATE
fully of the United States and it's peo-
pie AS the Associated Press CORE
spondent was visiting the village, two
ox-carts loaded with Greek refugees
who had been driven by the Turks
from the village of Marmora in 1913
and 1914 and who during the present
war were expelled from Macedonia by
the Bulgars, made their way slowly
up the steep mountain road. The ref
ugees had just come from Dobrudja,
to the south of Rumania, where they
were practically exiled by the Bull
gars. They had been nearly two
months on the way, and virtually all
the food and aid they got came from
the American Red Cross, which has
relief posts along the line leading
from Bulgaria into Macedonia. Many
were little tots from one to five years
old. The wonder was how these lit
tie ones, sickly and undenourished,
were able to survive the long trip by
train, motor truck and OK cart.
The faces of these returning refu-
gees wore an inexpressibly sad and
harrassed look. For five years they
were driven hither and yon by Turk
and Bulgar and had never known what
it was during that tie to have roof
an dshelter. Under the Bulgars they
were forced to live in dugouts or sta
bles. Eighteen hours a day at hard
labor under constant intimidation was
the lot of some of them. Three-ffths
of a pound of black bread a day was
the pitiful recompense they received
from the Bulgars. Often those too
weak to work were beaten by their
rutheless masters.
One refugee declared to the CORE
spondent that at one time there were
more than so deaths a day among the
refugee colony in Dobrudja from NAL
nutrition, exhaustion and exposure. In
certain sections, he said, the Greeks
were forced to live largely on the
rinds of watermelons which the Bull
garian soldiers threw in the streets.
The older residents of this refugee
Suburb" of Saloniki, most of whom
had fled from different parts of Asia
Minor during the wholesale massa-
ores there in 1914, have bitter expert
ence to relate about their treatment
by the Turks. Some of these people
lived in the city of Phocis, where the
whole Christian population either had
been driven out or were killed by the
Turks. The women wept as they told
about the outrages Of the Moslems.
The worst story was that told by an
intelligent peasant woman, who de-
clared that in butcher shop opposite
her home in Phocis, she saw the Turks
take young girl who was considered
the most attractive in town and cut
her body to pieces. They hung the
pieces on meat hooks and offered them
for public sale, she said, to show the
Turks contempt for Greek Christians.
What most impresses the eye of the
visitor in spanking with the unfortun-
ate people is their sad, furrowed faces.
They have been driven about by the
invading foe until they have reached
the point almost of despair and dis