FAMINE SCENES IN ASIA MINOR.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1657, 10 June 1875, Page 3

FAMINE SCENES IN ASIA MINOR.

A correspondent of the Levant Herald writing from Talas on February 26, says :— borne hundred persons from Guemerek alone removed to the neighbourhood of Adana, and almost half of them perished. Of three families, for instance, composed of fifteen members, only three are alive. Now there are in Guemerek more than three hundred refugees, almost naked and on the actual verge of starvation. Many of these having no other shelter for the night, are obliged to sleep in stables and expose*? places, almost without covering. The abundance of grain in the Sivas region, instead of being a blessing to these poor villages, has proved a curse ; because on account of their being under the Sivas vilaet, they have received no help from any source, and have not even shared the leniency of the tax-gatherers shown to other famine-stricken villages. The poor are so despondent that they do not know to whom to apply for aid. lam sure that hundreds would have died if some help had not been furnished through the efforts of the English Central Relief Committee. It is heartrending for any one who visits these villages to Bee the suffering, the nakedness, the pallid hue of starvation on the countenances. Who knows how many are dying from sickness and misery caused by destitution ? I know three brothers who are youug and strong, but for want of work can only beg from door to door. Those who have long suffered from famine become reduced almost to the level of the brutes. Family ties are disregarded, and men will sell their children for bread and commit the most atrocious crimes, almost without a reproof of conscience. Such moral degradation is fearful. Yet, while they are in this condition, tax-gatherers and the agents fo multezims are collecting money, beating and throwing into prison those who are not able to pay their debts.