Evening star., 1923-01-21

Ehe sufferers In the near east IL
6rawns in q letter received by Mrs.
Robert Lansing from Mrs. Sherman
Miles, formerly secretary OF the
washington committee for Russian
refugee relief. who Is now In Con-
stantinopie. Mrs. Lansing is head Of
the local committee for Russian
refugee relief.
Mrs. Miles letter follows, in part:
Text OF Mrs. Miles Letter.
Conditions are even worse than
had feared. 1t is impossible to paint
Sn sufficiently drab colors the utter
snisery among these poor people. And
the worst of 1t is that before them
Sies the prospect of even more awful
conditions, If such a thing Is possible,
for thew must all be evacuated now,
and no country wants them. mere
the majority have In one way or an
other been able to hnd pereh o5
some kind, however precarious. ana
the Turk, in spite of all that IS sal1
against him. is individually kino
hearted Also they help each other
in emergencies, and there are MANY
foreigners here. .,o,,ar
several of the refugee houses WIN
Mrs. Bristol. They are all sreat;
barn-like places in various stages oI
delapidation. The floors are Inuu, ~,
and the wind and rain oeaI IN
Through the crevices and paneless
windows Men without families are
put together in one huge haii, sleep
ing on bare boards, mostly Witnou.
Il sign of q mattress or plahke,t-a.
it's as cold here as in "ashilIs = loI''
plus a penetrating dampness. Qua,
fers for families are made by sriii
e " across,
are hung rags of every conceiSdoIe
kind In this way tiny rooms arr
formed, about six or elght ~.
square and in this space l1 "hole
families live, work and nie, aha i,,tiner
babies are born. There Is no hed'l =
of course. except little fires mace IN
old buckets of stray scraps OF Woou'
over which all their cooking Is uohe'
and it's marvel the Whote place
hasn't gone up in flames long ago.
Women and men. too. huddle to the
scant light at the open windows try
ing to do embroidery or painting
but their poor hands are so sun WIN
cold that they can't do much. ohe
woman with Near-old papH Mho
had been abandoned by her husband,
was doing laundry work in her post
age-stamp apartment. the stoeS All
lined with clothes drying, ana sne
came out with shining face to thahk
the commandant for giving her
TO earn something. Until recently
they were given one meal day from
the Rockefeller fund administered
by the American Relief Association.
but now the funds for that nave run
SO low that only women. children
and old men can bc fed. The rest
must shift for themselves as best
they can.
Courage Is Astounding.
..'Tbeir courage is astounding.
They never whine or Suik. ana al
ways put their best foot forward ana
Joke about anything. Their grai-
tude for the least thing is pathetic.
and when you have nothing TO give
them they smile and apologize Tor
having bothered YOU. You should
have seen their faces light up Wheh
they saw Mrs. Bristol and heard their
chorus of appreciation Tor American
aid. If you give them work they
thank you as though you were con-
ferring a magnificent favor. and tDey
do it in spirit that is marvellous.
All the Americans have Russians as
servants. They are or the upper
class and have before always had an
establishment and servants of their
own, yet never is there the least ref
erence to their former comforts ana
luXuries. and they perform the most
menial work cheerfully and with a
thoroughness and devotion that is
touching.
THE narrowing part. though. rs
that there is so littleztwoTk to give
them and more and more are thrown
out Of work as many people are
leaving because of the political crisis
and all work is closing down. The
one thing the Near East Relief did
for Russians was to give them en-
broidery work. on which many man.
aged to support themselves. but now
this, too. has stopped and those peo-
NIL M a
mon sight to see men. often armless
or leglesS going along the streets
with only a cotton shirt on and lit
orally shaking from head to foot with
cold. and good second hand over
coats can be bought for little over
a dollar each. Miss Ruggles and Miss
Mitchell buy them by the hundreds.
butt there are never enough and
money is fast giving out.
Russians Must Go.
"The Turks say the Russianss must.
all go. and certainly it would net be
safe for them TO remain under
kemalist regime. among whom the
bolshevist influence is strong. The
league of nations is evacuating seven
or eight thousand, principally TO Bull
garia, where the only opening for
them is work in the mines at starva-
tion wages.
'In Bulgaria there is no RELIEF
agency but the Russian Red Cross
and the Union of ZemStvos are
swamped. Funds from here will have
to be sent to relieve the distress
there. The league of nations is ne
gotiating with Serbia to take 5000,
but even with that there will be left
about 10000 refugees here with no
provision for their evacuation.
Red Cross funds are exhausted
and headquarters at home refuses to
send anything more, which means
that long before this Will reach you
the greatest mother in the world
will have closed her doors here on
all relief work, and among other
things all the sick the Red Cross