The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-03-22
CONDITIONS IN
TURKEY TOLD
VermOnter Tells What He
Has Seen in Three Years
Residence There
FOOD is PLENTY,
PRICES PROHIBITIVE
Was in Constantinopie During the War
People in Sympathy With Entente,
But Government Sold Out to Germany
Russia Hit Armenia.

BURLINGTON, March 22.-After an ]
absence OF three years from his family, v
II months of which were spent in Con
stantinople, where he was held during the b
latter part Of the war, Joseph c. Turk !
is at his home in this city for a few days,i s
Mr.. Turks experiences in the war were !
different IRON those of most Americans, I,
for during the greater part of it he was
in strange places and saw at first hand {
what few americans did His excellent d
knowledge of affairs in the Near East
was such that it was brought into use for !,
the peace commission. While he was in ,
Paris, on his return, he was called ON
to furnish information regarding food
conditions to the bureau, which was in.1
vestgating for the commission.
When asked by Free Press man what
his ideas of the disposition of Turkey and
ITS possessions would be, Mr.. Turk re- I.
piled that he could see no other way than
that some form of government would be
provided for Turkey with the present
sultan at the head of it, The sultan of
Turkey Is the head of the AIohammedan
world, and England cannot afford to en-,
counter the hatred of its millions of Mo-
| hammeian subjects by not recognizing
| hm. In India alone there are S0,000,000
hohammedan subjects and there are
many more in Egypt and other places !
The possessions, in Mr. Turks opinion !
will be disposed in different ways. Ac-I
cordlng to the talk in Paris, Palestine will
| tie given To the jews, Armenia will be
given its independence, and at least al
part of Syria will be established as a
French protectorate. That is what the
Syrians want as they have been educated
along French lines Greece wilt add to
its territory, and territory which has
been taken in the past by the Turks from
various countries will be returned.
Mr. Turk said that during his stay IN
the Near East he found the Turk. outside
OF the clique which was in control. friend
J y to America Not once was he in any
way moiested during the entire IA months
J in Constdntinople One thing impressed
J him during his enforced stay there. how
ever, and that was the high cost 81 living
J There was, however, al all times plenty
J OF food for those who could pay Tor IL
J v lille people in some parts OF the conn
J try were starving, the rich in CONSTANT
J nople had sufiieiency The prices, how
] ever. were probably higher than any
J where else IN the world \ small cup of
b coffee IN the morning. with 4 shce Of
. bread end butter, cost 81 20 in Ameri-
) can money. Two boiled eggs brought the
; price Of breakfast mp - cents more, and
i fruit which he usually bought outside
! meant - IT % cents more Any kind
Il plain dinner camc to $3.50 or -
|
could be obtaln,d tor ST. per week When
. t came to clothing, however. the figures
/ were really startling. The plainest sort
OF shirt cost SIS 4 pair % ordinary
shoes sold for son and business suit Of
clothes could not be bought for loss than
s223. The laundry WIS another thing
g which snrang into Importance as an cx-
! pense item, for the price al laundering 4
collar was 30 cents Ice cream was a
real luxury and small dish no larger
than :; vine glass would hold was valued
at 80 cents The country was no motor
list paradise for Mr. Turk paid Just Sl2j
: for tive-gallon can Of gasoline in Alep-
po
All this time there was plenty of food
but the transportation facilities We're en-
tncly Inadequate. The production Of
wheat went ahead 50 we'll that some was
exported to the central powers. While
Turkey remained at war a train was 90
Grated to and from Austria and n friend
Of Mr.. Turks went to Austria en- bust
ness. In that country no starch was NJ
lowed.to lie used and his friend gave him
sample OF what laundry looked like
when it had seen neither soap on starch
rs evidence that the feeling of the
Turks was friendly to Americans. AIR.
Turk WAS allowed 10 come ard X with
all freedom, while those OF other nation
alitics were obligcd to be n every night
at 9 30 o'clock and make all kinds uf 70
ports. The American colleges were al
lowed to keep open all the tine while The
others were rot
Mr. Turk SAYS that there is no doubt
but that popular feeling was with the
entente all tho time during the war The
Germans were hated by the public. with
thc.execption Of the powerful CLIQUE which
was in control and which sold out t.
German This feeling grew more and
more. One thing which made the Ger
man hated was because he could not stand
for the casy-golng manner of the Turk
1t meant life or death to him to get some
sort Of efficiency into the country and this
annoyed the Turk immensely for TO him
tomorrow is exactly as good rs today. A.
soon as peace was declared the Gcrmans
lost all standing.
Mr.. Turk says the Turk has the worst
government possible, but that the moral
" Of the people as a whole is superior t
hat Of any other OF the near Eastern
ocople. from what he has seen and learned
from the experience Of other husines,
men who have been there They arr
much better than the Serbians, Bulgar
md other nearby countries. The old
ashioned peasant Turk is an honest man
You may 90 away and leave your hous,
orcn for months and find it all right
when YOU come back so far as he i.
concerned. The old Mohammedan doe,
mol drink, but the Turks. who have com,
more in contact with Europeans, hav,