New-York tribune., 1922-10-08
Aid to Greeks
Greatest Relief
Task il, History
Assistance for Fugitives Is
Made More Difficult Be-
cause Only Few of Them
Are Able Bodied Men
Many u. S. Units Now
Forces Operating in Every
Refugee Center; a Plea
TO Their Relatives Abroad

CoNSTANTlNOPLE. Oct. T (By The
Associated Press) ).-Declarinp that the
migration of half million Greeks. due
to the Near East conflict, offered the
most colossal problem of its kind in
history, ii. c. Jaquith. director. of the
Near East Relief Administration hore,
addressed group Of Relief Administra-
Tors IN a conference in this city to-
gay. In he meeting were Admiral
MARK l.. Bristol and DR.. Fridtjof Nan
sen. who represents the Intern ational
Red Cross and the League of Nations.
Mr.. Jaquith has just returned from
tour OF all the principal points where
refugees are being established. DR..
Nansen expects to leave in a few days
Tor Angora, where he will discuss with
Mustapha kemal Pasha certain phases
of the relief work in Anatolia and
Ihrace. Meanwhile the League of Ma
tons committee, which. with the Red
Gross, already is active in relief work.
is preparing to establish seven stations
IN Ihrace for refugee relief To-day's
conference was the first Of an impor-
tant series on relief problems.
Few Are Able. Bodied
Mr.. Jaquith's tour Of the refugee
centers took him to the islands of the
Aegean and along the shores Of Greece.
He dWelt upon the bigness of the
problem presented.
"This situation is unique as COM
pared with the other large refugee
movements of the last few years" ne
said in opening the conference, "be-
cause there are virtually no able.
bodied men among the present refu-
gees. The action of the Turks in
tp
Minor without their bread winners
complexities many fold the difficulties
OF caring for the fugitives. At least
So per cent Of the half million exiles
may be classed as DEPENDENT women
and children and old men. The other
b per cent are young boys or men
above the military age who still are
capable Of manual labor. The need for
charity will, therefore, be much larger
and will continue longer than in the
case, for example, Of the Russian ref
ugee movement of the last few years,
where invariably a large proportion
of the fugitives were able bodied men. -
Ihe conferees expressed their con-
viction that the Greek government
would be unable to shoulder the bur
den alone. Hopes were voiced that
any loans to Greece by the Allies for
reconstruction would be granted only
on condition that certain definite
proportion of the funds be used to
insure the proper care of the refugees
Only u. S. and Britain Aid
Thus far the United States is the
only nation that has assisted in the
relief work on any considerable scale.
British naval units have been very
helpf1 in connection with the evacua-
ton, and the British also have ad-
vanced considerable funds for relief,
but the other nations have confined
themselves almost entirely to assist
ing their own nationals.
The Americans now have relief units
operating in every refugee center. The
last fortnight has seen the establish
ment in each center of an american
personal service bureau" which is
making personal canvas of all the
refugees for the purpose of finding
all persons who have relatives or
friends in America, England or other
countries who can be appealed to di-
rectiy for assistance. 1t is expected
this bureau thus will be able to pro
vide support for a large number of
refugees.