Evening star., 1924-10-17
In TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL y. COLLINS,

The greatest tragedy of migration
that the world has ever known is
nearing Its completion. in the COM
pulsory interchange of certain peoples
of Greece and Turkey.
x
And Moses and Aaron went in and
told Pharaoh; Thus said the Lord God
of Israel: Let my people go,'"
"And they that were numbered were
6o3, ,55O-fghting men. That did not
include the women and children, nor
the Levites-perhaps total of 2,000,-
900 people.
The migration out of Egypt which
occurred nearly $500 years ago,
affects all civilization to this day. 1t
was voluntary and was inspired by a
great longing for freedom and a re-
stored nationality. The stupendous
task of moving and sustaining such
an unorganized body can be appre-
ciated only by those who had expert
ence in feeding and transporting an
equal number of organized soldiers
of the American expeditionary forces
in the World War.
Since February, 1923, a hopelessly
unorganized and compulsory migra-
tion of peoples has been moving out
of Greece into Turkey, and out of
Turkey into Greece. Up to last July
~ It was officially reported that $685.
053 Turks had been forcibly elected
from Greece, and 54,S11 Greeks had
been sent out of Turkey. The mutual
migration had been at the rate of
nearly 5000 day. and it was expect
ed that the hegira would be COM
pleted by October 80.
These people, who, with their an
cestors, had occupied homes in enemy
lands for centuries, have been forced
to sacrifice their property, yet have
been required to feed themselves en-
route-or starve, except for the help
given by the Near East Relief and
other similar international organiza-
tions. Thousands of emigrants have
been huddled, unsheltered, at ports,
waiting, perhaps weeks. for transpor-
tation across the Bosporus, and then,
from Smyrna in Turkey, or from GER
tain ports in Greece, to the lands
which have been contemporaneously
evacuated by the out-driven aliens of
the respective countries.
X X X X
In a countercharge. by Greece, an
swering complaint made by Turkey
that Greece was forcing Turks to va
cate their homes before the agreed
date, the Greeks set forth the condi-
tions of suffering as follows:
Thousands of Greek refugees con-
centrated at Mersina are in q state
of horrible misery. Thirty thousand
refugees are gathered on the shores
of the Euxene, under the same con-
ditions, and many hundreds in Con-
stantinople without the slightest for
eign supervision, for the Turkish gov
ernment, contrary to the required
reciprocity, refuses to consent to the
formation of mixed subcommittee
like those operating in Greece"
The Greek and Turkish emigrants
on both sides Of the Bosporus are
under the control of their enemies at
the embarkation. Even when landing
at the ports of their native countries
they have been received by strangers
and held groups, until they could be
transported to Anatolia, in Turkey, or
to Eastern Thrace, in Greece, as the
case might be. Confusion, homeless
ness, poverty, disbursement, expos
ure, hunger, sickness and death have
marked every step of this unparal-
leled interchange of populations
The movement of these peoples
originated with DR.. Nansen, the Arc
tic explorer, At the peace conferences