Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-08-05

LEVANT FULL
OF WRETCHED
WAR VICTIMS
Doleful Beyond Description
Is Condition of CONSTANT
nOpIe Refugees.
AMERICANS GIVE AID

AMERICANS GIVE AID
CONSTANTINOPLE, July 10 - (By
Man)-With ConstantiDople so filed be-
yond its capacity with thousands Of IN
derfed, nl-clothed, destitute refugees
that many OF them have no other place
to lie down at night than dirty alley
cutters. the constant stream of homeless
families that steadily makes its way for
the metropolis is overlooking into the
adjacent territory.
They have been coming in apparently
unending procession for months. With
the renewed military activity of the
Greeks and the Turkish Nationalist their
number has been increased by added
thousands who have fed from villages
near the lines TO escpae Turkish exces.
At Ismidt, about twenty-five miles across
the BospOrus, on the peninsula to which
it has given its name, a little band of
American relief workers, Of which a Mis-
souri, girl Is a member, are being worked
night and day to care for approximately
twenty thousand refugees. About two
thirds Of this number are Greeks. the
rest Armenians, with children forming
a large fraction OF both groups.
NERVOUS DRAIN
Is HEAVY.
The drain on the energies Of the work
ers of the Near East Relief is severe, so
severe That Miss Sabra C Bradley, a
niece of Judge David II. Harris, So
Court street, Fulton, No, in all Of her
two years service in the war regions Of
the Levant declares that she has never
experienced such a situation. And she
Il -
IN the districts Of Asia Minor that border
on the Black Sea, where the Near East
Relief has found its most difficult prob
lens
Proper shelter and housing. OF course.
is out of the question. Not only are
present buildings lacking to care for
such a vast army Of refugees. but funds
and materials are not available for the
construction of new ones
Just beyond Ismidt are the hunting
lodge and stables of a former Sultan.
Abdul Azziz. They are more than half
a century old and in sad lack of repair,
but TO the hundreds of Greeks and Ar
menians gathered in them. they repre-
sent greater luxury than they ever did
to the comfort loving Sultan and his gay
courtiers. who sported there in the gold
en- days of the Turkish Empire.
FOOD SCARCE
AS SHELTER.
Food is as scarce as shelter. Miss
Bradley tells Of children who walk daily
into Ismidt and the adjoining town of
Derindje for the allowance Of milk that
the relief organization supplies them. In
more fortunate lands fond parents would
not trust many Of these tots on legs
judged to have not yet grown strong
enough to support their tiny bodies.
Every dOy, according to the Missouri
girl. there comes an appeal from each
IF the countless villages nearby, appeals
for food from furnished mouths, or cloth
ing to protect almost naked bodies from
the bitter weather. Rags, so tattered
that they are little more than shreds,
dirty and i'll smelling, form the only
garments that most Of the refugees
possess
II is the rainy season and the roads
are little better than big pools OF mud
and nauseating slime. Conditions in
side wretched novels, OF necessity called
homes. are not much better. During the
early activities Of the allies against the
Turkish NatiOnalists. when the Nation
llist movement was just beginning, the
Peninsula Of Ismidt suffered severely
from subsequent bomba rdment and few
buildings remain intact. Through huge
aOIes gaping in the walls and roofs the
water flows in.
i5OO FAMILIES
IN MISERY.
These conditions are best illustrated
by that OF the village Of Rahmieh Keuy.
at the head Of the peninsula, described
by one Of Miss Bradley's co-workers.
Here 100 families exist in the utmost
misery. UndernOurished and worn by
undiminishing hardships, they are easy
prey to innumerable diseases that flour
ish under such conditions Demands
upon physicians of the Near East Relief
and upon the store of medicines, accord
ing to this worker, can hardly be filed.
From time 20 time. all too infrequent-
IL from the necessity, old clothes sent
lief unit in the district. =.
I'VE are almost trampled TO death by
the rush OF half naked wretches that
dash for us when We distribute these
clothes" Miss Mradley declares. ITO
those that we are able to clOthe the gar
ments are better than medicine To one
village where we took a shipment for
distribution we included in the bundle
some children's clothes. We were met
by the usual rush of refugees and the
clothes disappeared rapidly. At last only
the baby clothes were left Upon inves-
LEGATION We found that not a single baby
among the relatively large number that
We had found there previously remained
They had all died from exposure and
lack OF proper care"