River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1921-04-07

ON the Black sea, to take charge there,
or else to Adana, in Syria. It's near
| Aleppo. Hope to know tomorrow, for
than necessary. Neither do the rest.
Once away from here, they can send
mails only when someone, or boat,
is going that way, which makes it
bad-two or three months without
communication"
The second letter was written the
next day, Nov. 16:
mo chance of going to the Cauca-
sus, now" it began. "The Bolshls
have defeated Wrangel, who with 1OO,-
900 refugees is on the way down here
in all the boats which could be rushed
up to the Black sea- So the dope is
that / will go to Adana, down south,
not very far from Beirut. and inland
a bit, where it's pleasant and warm
now, but fiercely hot in summer; I'M
less one moves up into the mountains,
which I'll probably do. There is a big
workshop there and several orphan
ages, hospitals, storehouses, etc., IN
the towns round about, and they have
put me in charge of them all. ! be-
lieve it is running smoothly, so while
there's lots of work probably will De
able to handle it all right. l hope SO,
| want to do the best can during the
year that am to be here.
To-day l went to see some of the
things that Near East Relief owns
around the town. There's a bakery
that's a wonder of efficiency-30,O0 900
loaves a day. and, believe me, they
have to have some system to do that.
1t has very modern Austrian ovens
and is right. up to date. The Germans
ran it during the war and left it spick
and span.
Another place is workshop where
Armenian women and girls learn to
make lace and they work on beautiful
lingerie, waists, table linen, etc. Am
buying nothing now, but will try to
pick up some things for you before l
come home"
WrangeI's Defeat Heavy Blow.
The third letter from Mr.. Van Toor
was written two days later. In it he
says: Zone of the fellows here has
Just come back from Sevastopol and
went up with Mrs. Wrangel. When
she saw all the boats in the harbor
and the refugees piling up she broke
down, for she knew it was the end.
"All the boats they could get from
Constantinople, destroyers, freighters,
cruisers, of all the allies-about 1000
in Advent up to bring back the refu-
gees and some have returned to pick
up all the small boats floating around
in the Black sea- A United States
naval officer told me his boat was the
last out and that everyone who want
ed to got out of town, very orderly
retreat, and it was fortunate they had
calm sea so they could put out in
small boats.
Relief Mission Is Popular.
"This 100000 represents the last of
the upper class in Russia. Most of
'em have not cent, only the clothes
on their backs; they've given every
thing to Wrangel, and they still hope
to try to beat the Bolsheviks again
some time They are very brave. Only
the wounded and sick are being put
off Athere is no room for the rest.
"The French are handling the situa-
ton and may send the ships on to Mo-
rocco or Tunis-some warm place
where they can sleep out of doors. At
present they are still on ships in the
harbor. Wish the Americans We're
running it; we'd have 'em all set by
now. But it takes the French long
time to do anything.
To-day we hear Batum is being
acuated-another 100000 from there.
That's the port you land at going into
the Caucasus-so, of course, it will be
impossible to get into until there's an
armistica, and if the Turks push in on
the other side the Armenians will be
out of luck. The Near casters there
now are safe and undoubtedly can
carry on, because none of these peo-
pies here interfere, as they are all be-
ing helped, regardless of nationality.
Things are certainly in mixup and
10 STE lLC NtilCAClt t1OOPo
and get all the dope of what's doing
all over the east, it doesn't look like
the peace conference settled anything.
"They were having election riots
when we were in Athens, and now we
read that Venizelos has been beaten by
the royalists. who want the old king,
whose abdication the allies forced,
back. That will upset all Venizelos'
policies of a reunited Greece, and the
allies undoubtedly will cut diplomatic
relations with Greece if the old king
(his wife is the kaiser's sister, comes
back. That will mean another mess,
suppose. It's gay life for the people
out here-one day they are in power,
the next beating it for their lives.
Last evening went with some peo-
pie to a concert at the Russian 'Y',
The singers were from the opera at
Moscow and Petrograd, and were sim