The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-12-15
CHARLES MILLS WRITES
OF RUSSIAN REFUGEES
Bennington Boy at constantinopIe
Saw the Crowded Ships Coming
From the crimea

III anu MIS-. NctlBe ., MINIS nave
received the following letter from
their son, Ghar.es S. Mills, who is az
instructor In Robert college at Con
stantinople:
Constantinople, Nov, 90, 20.
1t Is easier to feel than to write
about satisfaction Yet | will try to
write about il, Sunday was the day.
1t was a rainy day but It was a or
lous day for me and net such a hope
less day for some What | did was
not much, but it gave ne great salts
faction. And that It what | am going
to try to write about
In my last letter think / wrote
something about the fight of the Rus
SLAMS from the Crimea A large part
f General Wrangel s army and thous
ands of the civil population of the
Crimea came down the Bosphorus last
week to escape the Bolsheyists who
were about to plunder the Crimea for
two weeks. tn beng the way their
officers paid them. one of the great.
est exoduses in story is what ! call
I. Hcmes were left behind in the
made haste to reach safety. Military
torres and guns and Notifications
were blown UP that they might not
all into the hands Of the Soviets
With light arm. few ambuIances,
baggage, 10000 wrecks of humanity
made dash for freedom last week,
the getaway being made n every sort
Il available craft. My window looks
out upcn the Bosphorus and' had
out TO turn my head to see ship after
ship in its flight. Packed in like cat
tle-standing room on'y-~were these
russian refugees on sailboats. on
small freighters on Russian cru sers,
iestroyers,and battleships rescued
rom the national junk heap--some OF
which were IN tow, on cargo boats on
passenger steamers Of other nations,
IN once vesy fine liners, on paddle
Wheel excuses for boats which should
ieyer have yentu ed on the Euxine--
uch was what | saw from a comfort
lbie roam. A French battleship and
ctup,e of destroyers a.so steamed
oy-he.pers In the exodus. The
french had recognized Wrangel and
are therefore responsible TO. the care
the refugees
We had been hearing stor es con.
erning the awful pligAt Of the refu.
sees and a few Of us wanted 70 help
We could. so on Sunday afternoon
,our Cf us teachers Put on our Old
lCthes and with three Russian stud
snts--Shalavinsky, Fomenko, ard
Satchenko--went into town to see
nat we cogld do It poured al the
afternoon, Int we didn't mind Be
fore We left the college we .co..eCtel
At the dinner table u lira5 and We
lrop, sed to buy bread with the money
nd hep those Nho had not bean We
uppiied We took the ferry iron
ia.ara Bridge across 10 the ether
dc to kadikeuy which is the next
stop after Haida Pasha the terminus
IT the Anatllian or Bagdad railway
VI Kelikenuy We nearly bought out a
bakery, -Four of US bought the bread
,hdethe others bargained FOR a boat
D take US out to the ships which
we're al at anchor in the entrance Ia
The Sea Of Marmora We bought 95
oaVes OF bread not using qute all The
money and each of us trudged TO the
quay with sack f bread loaves on
us back I'D had secured boat 10.
ia and We hoped aboard an1
rged the two ca'que $ to "chabouk'
which means to row quickly This
they did
While the French are making III
lheir m nds as to what to do With the
hips the ships are remaining al
inchor and the people are suffering
26 sh ps is the sum total to date an
tod But whc wants the Russians
The French don't seem to want then
N Algeria and the English won't have
hem in Egypt The latest report i,
that they may be shipped to Jugo
'lavia Anyway the problem hasn'
5een adjusted yet and the people ar,
| waiting Those who have a littl,
money have succeeded in getting OF
The ships, but the rest OF the poo
levils have had to stay am CAD L
say that now the Br tlsh Army Of tht
Black Sea is helping by maxim,
thousands of extra rat'ons each da,
md the American Red Cross is work
ng as hard as /, can Organization
are giving money and food. Student
of Robert College are raising fund
and they hope also tc sacrifice part O
the r bread and their fruit for wee
to aid those in distress. But to g
on with the story.
We rowed out first to the shi
which is commanded by the father Q
Fomenko. We drew alongside an
yelled up at the captain Frenc
guards, stationed at the head of tn
gangway, wouldn't let us hoard III
jhip, but we found out through trans
alton that that ship had enough foo
for the present but that another on
close at hand was hard pressed, AZ
, cordingly we rowed away and sough
out mcre recent arrival VIII ch ha
not been helped much by the Re
r Cross or other agencies because of
shortage Of supplies
It was a little freighter and locke
like skeleton ship in the darkness
for there were but few lights on boar
! and everything looked ghastly tn
! boat was down so ow in the wat,
: that we had no difficulty in cl mbir
/ on board No one stopped us On
4 Russian fir ends told the people thi
we were from Robert College a
I American institution, and that v
/. had a little bread for them. SO "
!. hauled the bags up and over the gu
: mAln nvnnntinp 10 500 n NINA snrnmh