IN TURKEY

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 127, 31 May 1919, Page 11

IN TURKEY

THROUGH THE DARDANELLES

CONSTANTINOPLE TO-DAY,

The Daily Chronicle special correspondent at Constantinople affords an insight into life in.that city to-day: —

The entrance to the Straits of the Dardanelles gives the traveller the impression of d drive through a battlefield a few days after the battle. On' the right and left shores of the straits carcases of battleships find steamers are lying stranded, some of them showing only the funnels liko huge crosses on their tombs, some being half under water, and many stranded on the cliffs. Near the village of Sed-ul-Eahr fivo liners are stranded close to each* other.

Many of the Turkish forts still show signs of tho magnificent- light put up by our ships to force the entrance of these Btraitu. Bat that ia all

Up and down the Dardanelles large steamers and cargoes are passing through the channel, which has cleared of Tniutis, briugiiig food to the starving population •uf the liilkans, just as in old pexie days. The journey through the JJ«rdaiieltes to Constantinople is safe, for the mines have been located by the British, mine-sweepers, and.the place cleared. The dangerous zons is ia the Black Sea., where nobody can say where the rtunes have been laid, this being tfc<* work'of the Turks, who don't know themselves. BYZANTINE SINCERITY. When I reached Constantinople the Golden Horn was full of Allied men-of-war, all having on their topmast the French ilag, in honour of General Franchet d'Esperey, who arrived a few hours before. The streets were packed with a crowd shouting "Vive la Franco1" and "Vive les Allies!" It was the same crowd that shouted a few months ago "Hoch 1" And bands were playing, and children, dressed in their Sunday clothes, were singing the -"Marseillaise," which they had to learn to replace the "Heil dir im Siegeskranz," sung last March to celebrate the victories of the Central Powers on the Western front. flowers being too expensive, the General, who was riding on a beautiful horse, held,by two coloured soldiers, was received by the population with confetti and serpentines; We are in the Carnival season now! Next morning the Constantinople Press, printed in that funny French slang that' is .spoken here, had dithambryie articles on the French General. I succeeded in getting a copy of a paper (also printed in French) that appeared some two years ago. It used then practically the same phrases as. to-day; for instance : "The sun is shilling again on i our city," and : "The geniality, of the. General has crashed onr enemies," etc., i but, of course, it referred then to i "Mackensen. ' Now they -had to change the name only, and put. instead of. Jlaekensen "Franchet d'Esperey." The rest is the same, and also the feelings:. It is Byzantine sincerity; .'•'■■.. "VIVE LES ALLIES." .■ j. I walked slowly up the dirty narrow I streets which lead from Galata to Pera. Hundreds of little frhops are full of all kinds of food. On every window were painted the Allied flags, and in a shop window, under the white paint on which, ■ware printed in red letters, "Vive les Allies!" I could see written in black letters on the glass the old "Oott strafe England." The cosn;onylitan . local people here always needed a master; who he is, it does not matter-as Jong as it is; not the Turk. And ■ the more masters there are the belter. The more the merrier!1 It gives ground for so many moro intrigues. .' ; Hunting for rooms in Constantinople is nearly as bad as in .'Paris,- for the town is overcrowded .. with-"'..Allied, officers, officials, Turkish Pashas; who all try to get shelter in the two or three <:ood hotels.

All prices here are fantastic. A lunch ;osts about four Turkish pounds, and a Jitiner never less than five. But in exnange one can get everything one wants •.1 this town. Any amount of butter, ream, sugar, meat, sweets of all kinds ■>,nd descriptions. Any amount and all kinds of wines and beer. The owners of the former German "Bier Halle .■aye changed the "i" of the first word -iid taken off the "c" of the second and i aye a new English expression, the Beer Hall."

The restaurants are packed, and from >arly -morning until late at. night tho .afes are crowddd with people gazing ■it each other or talking international politics, in front of a cup of Turkish ■offee or a few excellent cakes with cream, i But on the sidewalks of the disgustingly filthy streets, half-dressed children are lying in' the mud.

Pera is in full carnival. Every day, afternoon leas with music, and every night a couple of dances; people are living here as if war and misery had never raged in these rogions. At a dance given by a "new: rich", two days ago1 I calculated, from the number of bottles of champagne, liqueur, etc., that he could have supplied with bread and fish at least 100 families for three months. But of course he would not have had the honour of entertaining young Allied officers. >•' A TERRIBLE CONTRAST. The ladies showed at the beginning their disgust for the horrible "Bosches," but half an hour.later, when they forgot themselves a little, they could not help saying how charming and nice the German lieutenants were, and the nice presents they, used to bring to the 'flappers of the house. "The French are, of course, very nice, but so dreadfully stingy." ' That is Pera, as it was 50 years ago, and will be 50 years hence. But across the' bridge, only a mile from this brilliant quarter, on the'other side of the water, the most horrible and indescribable misery is reigning. It is the Turkish quarter; for whom the war was not a source of enjoyment,, neither an occasion of making millions in less than a month. Here women and children die by hundreds of starvation under the eyes of a Government unable and incapable of ' taking the slightest remedial measure.