The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-03-26
CREEKS PERISH
BY HUNDREDS
Refugees Suffer Fearful Hard
ships on Journey Home.
THEIR CONDITION PITIABLE
Swarm Aboard Trains, and at Each
Stop Bodies Are Removed for Burial
Children Stand Barefoot In Freez-
ing Water Up TO Their Ankles
American Red Cross Doing All Poe
sibIe for Unfortunates-

Between Constantinople and Salon
Xxi, along the route by which deported
Greeks are returning to their homes,
the refugees are dying by the hun
dreds Of cold and starvation.
AT every station crowds Of these
refugees swarm upon every passing
train, filling every inch OF space,
riding onethe roofs, on the trucks, un-
der the guns Of the trains carrying ar
tillery, under the field kitchens, on the
mountaineering chiefly crowding into
freight cars, packed so closely that no
one can either sit or lie down.
Americans, well provided with cloth
ing, blankets, etc., and inside a closed
car, suffer severely from the cold. The
condition Of those poor, unfortunate
by-products Of the worlds great war
-thinly clad or In rags, and travelling
on the top or I'm the open cars, can
hardly be imagined.
Suffer Fearful HardshIps.
They have lived through months Of
privation and many OF them have had
no food for days, except little which
the American Red Cross has managed
to get up to stations along the rail-
road. The train crawls along slowly
six days from Constantinople, a dis
lance OF about 400 miles.
When a train stops at station and
the refugees unpack themselves from
the cars to seek food, nearly always
there are several dead bodies to be re
moved, sometimes six, eight or ten.
At one station 45 fresh graves were
counted.
The weather approached the freez-
ing point, but children stand barefoot
I'm water up to their ankles, Ice form
ing around the edges Of the pools.
waiting for food
Get ScantIest Of Food.
Il there are any laws in Bulgaria
regulating the labor of women and
children. they did not apply to these
unhappy Greeks. They were given the
scantiest food: many of them lived in
the open; and if they objected, or
slackened their efforts, deprivation of
food, and beating, were their rewards.
Under such conditions diseases
thrived and the number Of Greeks rap
Idly diminished. No one knows how
many of the 10000 or so Greeks who
were deported will. ever return.
Apparently some are being detained
against their will. One investigator re
ports that often the names Of children
are changed by adding an "off" at the
end, so as to make them seem to be
Bulgarian children. 1t is hard TO be
lieve the reports coming to Greece
where one hears estimates that from
one-third to four-fifths OF the entire
number have persisted.
Red Cross Renders AID
Meanwhile the American Red Gross
is establishing feeding places along the
line of the railway to which these re.
turning pilgrims find their way.
After they reach the Greek terri.
tory, at each station groups leave the
trains to go over the plains or the bar
rem hills to their village homes.
In one such waiting group sat two
women, each with a small dead child
In her arms. If these people succeeded
I'm reaching their homes they were
likely to find them either completely
destroyed or stripped Of furniture
bedding and utensils, and without
doors and windows.