THE CHOLERA SCOURGE IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1644, 10 January 1913, Page 8

THE CHOLERA SCOURGE IN CONSTANTINOPLE.

TERRIBLE STORY OF AN EYE- ' <vV WITNESS. The correspondent of tho "Manchester Guardian," writing from Constantinople oil November 19 states:— ' I.could jioti : v bpliev.e;.it possiblo't-hhtithe beautiful Church of St. Sophia , could be turned inlb' a lazar-house for cholera. I was. told a thousand;patients had been so I went over to 'sce'for . myself..' The; first'' thirig that met my: viciv. was" an 1 .-immense '. .pile of,, rough, coffins lying against the .'railings of the great west courtyard. Tliea I believed., '■ V A"very, close; "cordon of.soldiers ..with - fixed bayonets was placed round, the outer , walls, so close; that' I, guessed tlieroj must'.be .more' than cholera patients inside; Hundreds' of. soldiers-v were'.--'.-'straining.-through the : iron, railings ; begging forbread; lemons, anything; to eat- or drink;: These,, 1 was told,- -'were: .-deserters.--Thch I knew, the reason for tho strong cordon of., soldiors, because I knew-well the Turks would never take, such'care of plague-stricken iuen. •■: '' ". .V ■ Going round to. the east , entrance, wc ■ found ■no cordon; only .' some.- soldiers mounted guard, to preventonyone; leaving: the mosque. ITirough this open dofirs ' we could see soldiers lying about - the floor: ,Ono-pitiable ; sight was a. group of poor fellows not apparently yet. stricken; begging: to be allowed ;to;,;kave .the .place of pestilence but in. vain. Theio they must/wait. was something so very Turkish in this 1 idea of: placing -the de--serters :outsido the courtyard,' and the poor; deserted- cholera-stricken inside , the mosque.: I.:'cannot' but. feel that . this placiiig of the infectcd in Sofia l was die-, tated by stupid cunning.. They wo'nld feel sure tho Bulgarians would not niarch straight to St. Sophia and \liold a ,ser- : vice, as the Greeks' did at :Salonika, if : they .had. the church full of pestilence. Going round by the museum and down into the grounds of the seraglio—the old' -palace—l was face, to face with the most awful sight I have ever seen. From the railway, where, they had been dumped out on the ground; bearers were carrying stricken soldiers on stretchers and laying them down in the open street. ; The cholera sheds were "so-full wo could seo men lying with'their feet but of tho door.: On the other side of the-street workmen were hammering, away making coffins, in full view of' the: poor fellows lying, sitting, and,_ rolling' on tho ground. ' Very pathetic, it was to see tho patience (if. these poor souls. Now' and again 0110 in, delirium would oall 6n Allah to help •hiiju . iFrom nian no help was given.' Absolutely no attention, of' any kind-was 'shontf 'these poor, soldiers, not even a cup of cold ,water.;' There were no attendants hear; only a solitary 'soldier with; fixed bayonet standing guard to see that they did not leave the place till , death took ithem." While Ave stood there two carts' passed ,us. They were ful^of dead; soldiers who had been thrown in just as they had died,. some with their clothes half, off, all thrown together'like dead dogs. . The only attendants seemed to be those ready to receive the dead carts as they, arrived, but for the' sick- and the" dying there was none to help., - Yesterday at San Stefano an American surgeon, who is here on Red Cross work, tetimated that he saw 1500 sick, dying; and.dead all round the. railway track where . they had been' put out of the train. . Most of them were cases of cholera and dysentery. Of both diseases the soldiers seem to die in a few hours. Of course, there was.no medical or any other aid . being given them. They were just left to' die.