THE REFUGEES FROM ASIA MINOR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2630, 27 November 1915, Page 7

THE REFUGEES FROM ASIA MINOR

(By Malcolm Ros6.)

INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS

Writing from somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean, Mr. Malcolm Ross, the New Zealand Official War Correspondent, in a- dispatch dated September 20, gives an interesting impression of the refugees at Mytilene. Ho says:.

To this place, in their thousands aud scoros of thousands, have come the refugees from the coast of Asia, only a few miles away, presenting a ' serious problem for tho local authorities and for tlio Greek Government. The exodus began before the war—in May and Juno —and continued until the island, which nominally supports a population of about 120,000, and had 80,000 additional people cast upon it. The exodus, says a refugee, is the direct result of the policy and action of "the Committee of Union and Progress," established by the Young Turkish Party. The villages along tlie coast are essentially Greek villages, but the Young Turk Party •wi)S in want of money, so, under the guise of Ottomanising tho Greeks, it commenced ,to levy toll. It began by pretending to make soldiers of them, but, instead of calling upon "tlvreo ages," as in the case of their own people, it called up many more. The Greeks soon found that this making of tliem into soldiers was a mere pretence. The Turkish Government did not, at that time, want more soldiers. What it wanted was money, aud ever more money. In accordance with this policy the Greek recruits were not really trained as soldiers, but were given lough work—such as road-making—ta do, the. alternative being that tho Greeks would either buy thoir. freedom by individual payments of £40, or would leave the country, in which latter case thoir property would bo Confiscated by the Turkish Government'. : Of the three things—serving as so-called soldiers, buying their freedom, or leaving the country and their property—the Greeks who came within tho ecope of tha proclamation generally chose tho last, and 60 the migration to Mytilene commenced, r'

From Aivali, _with 30,000 inhabitants, and all the • villages to Smyrna, and oven further south, the exodus commenced, 'till at ono time there must have been 80,000 refugees in Mytilene. Since then some of these have extended their migration to Salonika, Macedonia, ICavalla, and Piraeuß; but at the present time'there must be still 75,000 refugees on the Island of Mytilene. In the ; villages in Asia Minor, whence these migrants hare come, there are only old men and women and boys left. What is happening to them no one knows, for the father or the son on Mytilene dare.'not return to tha continent. Communication between the island and the mainland is stopped, unless by some brigand or by some spy, risking a venture under cover of the darkness. For it is not only the Greok peasant who has .coins'to the island from the continent. In tho oapital you may perchance hear the report of a revolver iu tho night-time, and German gold is at work nere as elsewhere. But .so long as the olives are yet to gather fto'remaining population of the coastal villages, it may bo inferred, will not be maltreated, though they may be Tialf-starved. One does not like to speculate upon what may happen when winter comes. Even in' Mytilene, where the Greek Government makes an allowance of six francs a month per head, you may see whole families sleepmg in this streets, or camped, with all their little wargs, aiidj.p'enates done up in a .bundle,.under,fsomo olive tree by the wayside. Iu Asia Minor the Hooks and the horde and th 6 .houses, both of Greeks , and ■ Armenians, have been taken. - After the picking of "the olives it may be the turn of the women and children to be taken, Many have already disappeared.

, k Sad story. A young lace-maker, brought in to the houso of a friend, had a sad story to tell. The old serving woman has sadder tales. At the soup-kitchon where an English journalist is providing a dinner for refugees' ohildren, there is a pretty dark-eyed girl of nine or ten, for herself and her baby sister—tho sole survivors of a family. What has happened to the others she does not know. ' Many of theso refugees, now ill 'poverty, were a few mouths ago well-to-do. The young Greek, of quiet and charming manner married to an Englishwoman of a family that has been in Turkey for' about two hundred years, and through whose efforts this soup-kitohoii is maintained—has, on the way thither, watched tho smoke of his burning estate rising -across the Straits. He occupied the position almost of a feudal baron, taking an interest iu the welfare of the peasantry, their churches, and their institutions.. But ho, like tho others, had to seek refuge in the neighbouring island. Ono has been told stories of massaore that- one did not toliove— such' as the body of a girl having been hung up in a butcher's shop, and pieces of flesh out off and thrown at tho passing Christians. He says witnesses of the incident can bo produced. He brings" in one whose friends and relatives saw it. That is the nearest we can-got to the truth. But of rapine and' murder done in the broad light of day in the' highways and, byways, there'are tales in plenty, ajid they are tnie tales. Actual photographs bear witness of suoh. It may be that one side is no more blameworthy than the other: that it. is. six of one and. half a dozon of the other—that one. day it is tho Turk that does the massacring, and another day it is the so-called Christiam . Even our friend who is succouring thoSfe Greeks—who were' Turkish subjects—does not blame the Turks altogether. .He says they were instigated by others., Amongst the women gathered. :about tho soup-kitohen is one who saw much of the foul deeds Sone on the opposite coast. By disguising herself as aai old woman, she escaped notice, and scoured her own safety, whilo her friends and relations were butchered or carried off to .Turkish houses. . Many girls were carried off into tho intorior, and their fate and whereabouts are unknown.