CONSTANTINOPLE'S "BLACK HOLE"

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 558, 12 April 1913, Page 2

CONSTANTINOPLE'S "BLACK HOLE"

(London Chronicle'B Corresponds:.l.)

San Stefano, the little township of a treaty and a tragedy, ia a delightful place, looking out on the lovely Sea of Marmora, and about eighty minutes' run by boat from Constantinople. It ia the leaat Turkish place in all Turkey, though it stands but ten mileß from the great city's walls.

Here roses are budding, though the year's course is almost spent. But San Stefano to-day is a town of tragedy. Into it, as I have described previously, the cholera-stricken soldiers of the Turkish army fcnve been poured, sent by the trainload to die unattended in the etreets*and fields of the town, till the whole* place was strewn thick with dead bodies. The Turk made no attempt to stem the awful onslaught of disease or to relieve those stricken by it. He can be fus3y and officious, practical never. For instance, in the hotel I have mentioned a German war correspondent, sent down here by the military authorities, as many others would have been had they not rebelled against the absurd treatment meted out to them, took cholera and died. Immediately a Turkish officer appeared on the scene with a squad of men. A guard was placed round the hotel, no one was allowed to enter or leave. Excellent precautions, no doubt, did that herald an outbreak of cholera, but stupid and idle when the whole place is practically a cholera camp. The same authorities which made such ado about one case could let hundreds died around about them and leave thuosands unattended. That is the Turk all over. To-day the dead and dying are no longer seen about the streets. On Saturday San Stefano was an inferno of human agony; to-day the sick are being attended to. The streets are strewn with white powder; the air reeks of disinfectant. Cartloads and shiploads of food, medical stores, bedding have been poured into the town. Brave battle is being waged against disease. Death and agony no longer confront one openly. Order and comfort have been brought into the camp of death by a gallant little band.

It was on Friday, when men were dying at the rate of 600 a day, that the first effort was made to stay the raavges of the grim disease. The Rev. Robert Frew, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, who has for eleven years been chaplain to the Dutch Legation at the Union Chapel, in Constantinople, visited the place. Here he was met by Miss Alt, a Swis* lady who Uvea here, and they at once began their work of mercy.

Ol course they Were assured by the Turks that everything was going well, and that excellent progress was being made in fighting the cholera. They would have it at first that they reauired nothing; but the persistent inquiries of Mr Frew soon showed that they required everything. The dead were being left for long hours among the dying. Both were huddled in rooms, unventilated, like sacks in a cellar. The siok had no beds to lie on; their misery was extreme, Miss Alt and Mr Frew immediately got to work. They enlißted the help of the American Red Crescent and Mr Hoffman Philip, of the American Embassy in Constantinople, came bravely to their aid, coming down here every day and working from morning till night. British help was also forthcoming, part of Lady Lowther'B fund being applied to the buying of necessaries. In the past two or three days the dead have been got rid of; the refuse which made the air foul beyond words has been burned; many of the sick have been decently housed in the Greek school; hundreds of lives that would have been wasted are being x saved. Into the concentration camp by the station something like order has been brought. The tents where the sick lie are now descent and comfortable. A large wooden building is being quickly run up. In a day or two another camp will be opened, and San Stefano will be able to cope satisfactorily with the stream of cholera victims which is pouring in from the front.

Luckily the weather has become colder, and that cicrumstance is greatly in favour of those who are doing this noble work of saving the victims of disease.

There is yet a great deal of work to be done, need still for funds. The war is dragging painfully to its close, yet for a long time money will be required to make smaller than would otherwise be the case that titanic list of souls which the cities, towns and villages of the Balkan Peninsula will have to bold in remembrance.

To-day, before coming here, I went to some of the mosques in Constantinople. There the conditions are still hideous beyond language. At Santa Sophia, for instance, there are more than 4000 stricken soldiers mostly suffering from cholera. They cram the Bacred buildings, and in the courtyard one can hear them groaning and see them dying. A cordon of soldiers is on guard all round. The very air seems dark with the shadow of the raven plumage of death. For the past week not a single doctor has visited this awful hell of suffering. A doctor who passed there this morning counted 136 dead bodies in the courtyard. The only food which the poor wretches receive is hard bread in chunks. Yesterday two municipal doctors were sent to see what they could do. Bat they fled before the hideous spectacle. Soma of the stricken drag themselves to the railings, in the vain hope that there may be someone about who will give them Water. But no! The soldiers keep" a wide clear space neyond the railings; the ground beyond is painted green with disinfectant. Those who have pity and might be able to render a little temporary comfort are held at bay by fixed bayonets. No one may enter; no one may leave.

In one corner o£ the courtyard is a grim sight. Stricken men look down on a narrow street. There others are sawing wood and hammering nails. They are making the

coffins in which the weary watchers will soon be carried away! That is horror at ita highest. It ia scarcely to be believed, but it i 9 there to the gaze of all. At the mosque of Sultan Ahmed the same conditions prevail. The proudest and most sacred of the edifices of Islam have been turned by the god of War into the most infernal dens of horror which imagination can possibly conjure up, The Black Hole of Calcutta beside them sinks into insignfiicance. The local authorities onfess their complete impotence, and as one wanders through Stamtioul one wonders that its twisting, rank streets are not swept by an epidemic which would clear it of tha living. Only the cold, bright weather stands sentinel and guard against a frightful visitation. It is the only guard, for the Prefect of the city, Djp.mil Pasha, has declared that it "could be difficult to combat an epidemic." And a confession like that means much.

Should a spell of warm weather come—and that is what is expected a this time of the year-a terrifying spread of cholera is inevitable.