DEADEST CITY IN EUROPE

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1920, Page 1

DEADEST CITY IN EUROPE

RUSSIAN INVASION OF CONSTANTINOPLE. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 1. The British.—or the Allies—occupy Constantinople, but the Russians possess it. There were at least 30,000 of them in March. The last British warship to leave Novorossisk for the Crimea had 2,400 on the upper deck, and from there and Batum they pour westwards to the Bosphorus. They are a motley mixture—fat, emotionless Caucasian princes in belted mantles and huge fur caps; Cossacks in black skirted coats with queer swords and V-shaped bandoliers on the breast filled with ivory-headed dummy cartridges; some women, slim and fair, turned out like Bond street, but painted as no Western woman dare, trailing half-pound earrings and exotic perfumes, and tripping on the cobbles or in the mud of Pera on heels 6 inches high ; otter women, greasy and bulbous, in gay but dirty silks, with Mongol .an eyes hidden under heavy ’ids, nlfecling imitation gold lorgnettes, o'ton with a broken giass; hoys, youths, and men, nearly all in uniforms, real or fancy, some in navy caps and cavalry boo. on every other breast a star or ribbon and thousands of good British khaki every coneeiablo cut.

They aro Russiauising Constantinople You cannot escape “ bortcli,” the Rus. siun soup, in any restaurant. They spend endless daylight hours in talk and night hours in cards and drinking. They throng hotel lobbies and block the corridors and cafes. All are spending money and some are making it.

KINEMAB AND NIGHT CLUBS,

They are running Russian kinomas, theatres, and night clubs. Of the last mimed there are twenty going on till four or five in the morning; it costs 10s to get in, the cheapest drink is ss, and a bottle of champagne 50s. They have started Russian restaurants—one with impoverished ladies for waitresses is excellent—a bank, and a newspaper. Constantinople has now a daily press in Turkish, English, French, Greek, Armenian, and Russian. Whenever they gather of ah evening someone talks of the previous nights magnificent losses or gains at cards. They never weary of gambling. They look on life as a gamble with the gambler’s easy way of talcing all things light, jy. Some have been evacuated before the Reds at least half a dozen times, losing parents, husbands, brothers, or sons. But they do not seem to worry. As long as they have money to spend or can find someone to spend for them, they loiter along, with the most indefinite notion of the future, and none of doing anything to set themselves or their nation afoot. For ready cash they sell their furs and jewels in the same nonchalant way. One of them took a gem to a dealer and casually asked £IOOO. It was an absurd price, and being told so he drifted across the street to another shop. The dealer was interested in the result and asked him when he came out again what he had got. “ £98,” “ But you asked me for £1000!” “Oh, I just happened to think of that.” The £9B was no doubt spent with as little thought. Even a Scotsman would soon spend £IOO in Constantinople, for it is esaily the dearest city in Europe. An hotel bill, without any extravagance or luxury, runs from £3O to £SO a week. Nearly every other nationality says the price of food and accommodation is sheer robbery. All ioin in blaming the Russians. Prices in Constantinople would he high in any case, but they aggravate the crisis. If Constantinople does not, like them, they like Constantinople, and with their impractical temperament they no nothing to ease the overcrowding by striking out for cheaper spots. Probably it is just as well, for I doubt if any other city would be so placid under the invasion.