Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-09-21
CHRISTIANS NEED PASSPORTS TO 60
 TO SAINT SOPHIA
Must Prove They Are Not
 Greeks or Armenians Re- fore Entering

Constantinople, Sept 18.-Passports are now demanded of visitors seek ing to enter Saint Sophia, and any ohrstlan who cannot establish the fact that the is neihcr Greek nor an Armenian, is not admitted.
 Since the Greek advance eastward into Anatolia and the boast of Greeks that they will recover Saint Sophia within year, Moslem authorities have doubled the guard about the great mosque and take special pre- cautions to prevent Greeks and Ar menians from entering
 There are many rumors in Con stantinople, probbly all of them groundless, that Greek troops will take the church by force, regardless of peace conference rulings, elimi- nate the Moslem alterations in it's interior and restore the Christian character imparted to the historic building by the Emperor Justinian when the present building was erect ed under his direction in the sixth century.
 Turks have declared they will dyna- mite the mosque before they will per init it to be desecrated by the Greeks and spice is added to life in Con- stantinople by recurrent rumors that the Turkish nationalists have mined Saint Sophia and many other import ant buildings preparatory to raging them before a Greek advance into the Turkish capital. Such an advance is not regarded as improbable. The ability of the Constantinople govern ment to enforce the terms of any treaty is questionable as long as Mus tapha Kennel controls practically all of the remaining fragments of the Turkish army and refuses to take or ders from the Sultan. Greece has the only troops which could under take further punitive measures and might reasonably be expected to de- mand Constantinople as the reward for additional military operations.
 Let Russians Enter.
 In spite of the boast of Russians in Constantinople that the Turkish capital and Saint Sophia will event. ually fall into their hands as a re- suit of the dissensions among the Entente powers, the Turks show no disposition to bar Russians from their most historic mosque. Every afternoon hundreds of Russians. ire quent the great shrine. Cossacks in their fantastic, long skirted black coats embellished with rows of ivory l tipped cartridge cases; Caucasian princesses, gay in bright Pa risian gowns; .tight-belted Tartars, with their quaint curved swords; peasant women in their cheerful hand embroidered bead-shawls and aprons and Denikine's wounded sol diers all mingle freely with the Mos lem worshippers. Tn Moslems treat Russians with the same indifference | displayed toward British, and French soldiers and American sailors and relief workers who wander through the majestic mosque and are shown by noisy guides how the Christian angels and the mosaics of Jesus and the Virgin Mary were clumsily con cealed by the Moslem artists who turned the Christian sanctuary into house of worship for Islam.
 The Turks do not love the Rus sians. Neither do they hate them. ! No Christian is loved by a Moslem, but the power of the Turks to hate is exhausted on the Greeks and Ar menians. They regard Russians as a lesser evil than the Greeks. Any Turk one meets in Constantinople frankly says he would accept Rus sian control of Constantinople in preference to Greek domination. And he says it with full realization that Russian domination would probably l mean bolshevik domination.