The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-10-30
EXPERIENCES IN TURKEY
Continued from Page oneJ

paragraphs he stated that he and his
! immediate associates had been pretty
comfortable all along.
"In the coast cities the Americans
were very little interfered with" said
Mr. Wngate Our educational in
| situations in Constantinoplo and else
where along the coast, as you doubt
less know, are very finely equipped
and very valuable properties and the
Turks hardly dared interfere with
them. They took some Of the build
| ings over for war time purposes, Il is
true, but as rule speedily returned
them. In the interior. however ii
was a different matter There many
of the buildings We're seized and turn
ed over to war uses, and know two
aged missionaries in particular who
Jared very badly
Both were made to move from the
city where they were residing, to an
other sectiCn Of Turkey far distant
and one of the men who was in a pre-
carious state OF health died shortly
after his arrival The other man was
arbitrarily separated from his wife
who was sick at the time and unable
to accompany him. and when he was
/ released from the inland city where
he was compelled to remain for time
was not permitted to go to her, but
was sent to Constantinople instead
BY the time he was allowed 10 go
| back to the city where his wife had
remained. she had died from illness
and anxiety
SO far as was concerned al
though was inland had no very
serious difficulties, Mr. Wingate adj
| ded This came about largely be-
cause of my semi official capacity, for
at the behest of Mr. Morgenthau
was looking after the interests of
some Of the interned belligerents in
! Cesarea. and consequently ! went
( back and forth with great freedom
and into the government offices
This constant contact with Turk
ish officials gave men the opportunity
on one occasion to tell them exactly
what I thought OF tlem and | can
assure you that considered that talk
one OF the greatest Injuries OF all my
stay in Turkey.
The really hard feature Of our three
years stay in Cesarea during the war
was not any sufferings Of our own
but the fact that we were permitted
to do nothing for the relief of the
people around us In previous Armen
ian massacres, for instance. we had
been enabled to protect the people we
could gather in our compound but
this time we were not permitted to
haTbOr even our own mission people.
and il was distinctly nerverackine to
see so much suffering on all sides, |
and to be able to do nothing to alleyi- |
ate IT,
"On the proposition OF food we
really met with no trouble at all until |
we went to Constantinople," Mr. Win |
gate continued This came about |
largely from the fact that in anticipa- |
ton of the state of affairs we had |
laid in considerable stock Of all |
sorts of edibles. and also from the |
fact that the difficulty of securing |
food supplies makes it customary in |
that part of the country to purchase !
for at least a year at a time.
When we struck Constantinople |
as | have said it was different |
story. Then there was very little pal /
atable food to be secured, and the |
prices were exceedingly high. At first |
we tried to get a little meat now and |
then but presently we abandoned the |
attempt for there was such demand |
for it that the meat stores were pro, |
tected by iron bars which were used !
to keep away the mobs, and the |
streets were beseiged by frantic
crowds endeavoring to secure just a |
scrap of meat at no matter what |
price
Il have already said that it was al
most impossible to get coffee. | know |
Turkish very we'll. and am well &c |
quainted also with the Turkish sec
ton Of Constantinople. | went the |
rounds for several days offering all
kinds of money for a little coffee, but
was unable to secure any
"One of the very stringent regula !
tions enforced by the Turks was with /
relation to the possession OF gold No
one was allowed to carry a scrap OF
gold out of the country, and those
who had gold OF any sort We're sup
posed to exchange it for Turkish pap