The Washington times., 1923-03-23
REFUGEES FEAR
TOBURY own
DEAD
Fear contagion, and Bodies
Are Left to Rot for Days
n Near East.
p. International News Service.


NEW YORK. March 23.--Ameri.
can physicians find refugees in
Constantinople concentration camps
afraid to bury their dead for fear
Of contracting disease, and bodies
wrapped only in rags lie rotting
for days among the living refugees,
a Constantinople dispatch TO Near
East Relief headquarters here de-
clared. The cable, which is from
H. c. Jaquith, director of the relief.
organization, paints an appalling
picture of conditions In the camps
and the harbor. The cable follows.
'Today's shipload Of exiles from
Asiatic Turkey increased to $4,000
the total number Of refugees now
at ConstantinOpie. Sick, destitute
and without food, clothing or
homes to 60 to, they present q
tremendous relief problem calling
for prompt. energetic action, II all
are not TO perish and C0nstanti-
nople- be menaced by the worst cpl.
demic Of diseases In its tragic his
to their assistance, with American
doctors, nurses, medicines, food
stuffs and clothing, thus assuming
new responsibility, severely taxing
its limited resources.
Refugees Hi Ships.
In the barber, crowded with
twenty-One warshipS Of seven dit.
ferent nations, are four refugee
ships crammed with depOrtees from
Asia Minor waiting for days to be
landed. Ashore, at eleven diff.
fefent places along the beautiful
Bosphorus, earlier arrivals are hud-
died together In windowless, door
less, leaky buildings, under condi-
lions beyond description. AfIoat
ana ashore smallpox, typhus. dysen.I
terry and pneumonia 60 unchecked.
Yesterdays death toll was seventy
two Weakened by days Of travel
BY wagon and on foot from the
interior 3 OF Anatolia to the Black
Sea ports Of Trebiz0nd and Sam
SCUM, these Wretched people fall
easy victims to disease. Many Of
those who survived their march OF
terror to the sea died on sllipboard
and SO per cent Of those who lived
through the voyage in filthy,
crowded ships were deceased on ar
rival here. On one ship two hun.
bred died out Of twenty-five hun.
dred, and DIR. Wilfred Post, Of
Princeton. called 1t a Black Hole
OF Calcutta"
Many Are Dying.
At Scutari, where the worst
conditions prevail, ten thousand
deportees are existing in Selimie
barracks and stables. Deaths
average twenty-five daily. Typhus
today claimed the last OF q family
Of twelve to tall victims to that
disease since arrival here. The
fourth physician to die of the same
maiady while attending refugees
stlcct1mbed yesterday. On one OF
his rounds DR.. Post counted hun.
dred dead bodies. To many,
wrapped In bundles of rags, death
had come days before the living
knew 1t. One room contained fifty
three bodies.
Refugees were afraid to bury
them for fear OF contracting disease.
Three thousand people, who a few
weeks ago were prosperous farmers
in Anatolia. live on mud floors Of
stables, where many of them be.
come staring skeletons from under
nourishment and are waiting to die.
Children are brought into the world
a few feet from where a village
priest offers prayers over dead.
Pneumonia RACES.
mo less terrifying are scenes at
Boadjikeui Camp and other deposi.
tories Of destitute and starving ex.
Hes Especially heartrehding is the
plight OF twelve hundred dumped
into the sheIterless cove at Asiatic
KAYAK a few days ago, where they
are exposed to cold and rain and
where pneumonia is moving them
down. Turkish gendarmes who
guard these concentration places
have strict orders from Angora pro-
lnibiting the taking Of photographs.
Word has just been received
that the Turkish steamship Guile.
NAL. which brought four thousand
from the Black Sea to San Stefano.
is returning to Trebizond for adj
ditional deportees to dump into
these overcrowded camps and await
removal to Greece. This. not
withstanding the fact that Greece,
which already absorbed more than
q million, has officially notified the
Turks that Greece could take no