Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-02-15

Poodle as he was called in Cony
High Days. was graduated from Cony
High school in 1917. lie attended
| University of Maine and Carnegie In
stitute Of Technology. He was a
tcachor at the American University
at Beirut, Syria. for one year. From
there he went to Constantinople.
where he became engaged in Near
East Relief work a year ago last July.
lie has headquarters in Constanti-
nople but travels through Syria and
Smyrna. 1t was in his travels that
! ne met the famous Renal Pasha. The
Dennis letter is as follows:
NEAR EAST RELIEF
Ortakeny, Constantinople,
January 9Th, 1923.
| Dear Mother and Dad.
l will try to give you brief resume
of the work we are doing in and
around COnstantinople at the present
| time.
| On June LIST. 1922, all our Relief
work in the city proper had ceased
and our program was one OF strictly
orphanage work. This continued I'M
til the breakdown of the Greek Forces
! in Asia Minor when the refugees
began to pour into the city again. i. (
| These were mostly Armenians COM
!
Moudania. this being the natural
outlet Of the Broussa Nilayet. an area
of approximately 300 square miles.
| The ma iiority OF this refugees were
| takcr across the sea of MarmOra 10
| Rodosto. but some eight or nine thou
| sand driftcd into t0Nstantnopic i'll
| n practically destitute condition, hay
| in" been forced to fee on practically
a moments notice and having no time
| to collect their few possessions.
With III? influx of these people into
the city. we We're obliged to once
| more embark on an eXtensiVe~fro-
gram Of Relief. Four large refugee
campS housing some 5000 people
We're opened and 1000 rations of food
, a day distributed. This number has
been steadily growing with the inflow
| of Armenian refugees from the Black
Sea coast towns. These people simply
! accumulate here in the city and there
| is no other place they can go. 1t Is
very difficult to secure work which
| means that we are obliged to give
them practically full support.
| AS you can well imagine. these
refugee camps are nothing of a palace.
! the people being crowded tour or
! five families in Il ten by ten room.
| Thus far, thanks to very careful at
tention as 10 tne SttIlitIis CuIlNltt'iIH,
we have been able to avert any serl-
Gus epidemics, but this is due more
than anything else to the hardy con-
| dition of the people. all of them be-
! ing of the rough peasant type. 1t is
almost impossible to picture the m
t1rior of these camps especially IN
the winter. when all of the people
are obliged to stay indoors. You find
them huddled around small fires try
ing to keep warm. for the houses
are damp and cold ard they nave
| pitifully few clothes. In spite OF the
! crowded condition. each of the fam
| lilies tries to maintain its own little
home. keeping it very neat and clean:
| much more than one would expect in
place of this sort.
| In addition to the Armenian
! refugees, we are now confronted with
the problem of the thousands or
Greek refugees pouring out of the
interior in answer to the Turks per-
mission that they may leave. Most
of these people coming from points
of the Interior such as Sivas. Mar
sovan, etc, are obliged to walk over
the mountains thickly covered with
snow. There are along the route at