CAPTURES IN TURKEY.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1916, Page 6

CAPTURES IN TURKEY.

'WHERE TIIEY ABE LIVING. A New Zealand officer who is held by flip Turks as a prisoner of war at A/ion Kara Hissar. where most of the New Zealanders held captive in Turkey are interned, lias written the following interesting letter about the place and his life there. "We get a lovely view from our windows of the plain, bounded by ridae after ridge of mountains. We are ;)00 feet above sea level. The air i« bracing, the climate is ideal, and the atmosphere wonderfully clear. The plain round here is under cultivation, but little i? got form the soil, tl'fe main cron being poppies for opium—hence "Afion opium." The town clusters at the foot of a range of hills winding about their base like an enormous snake. From the centre rises a gigantic rock with precipitous sides, on which is perched the citadel with its massive walls and turrets, vast ivater tanks carved in solid rock, which enabled it hundreds of years ago to resist a siege for six years.

"Tie streets in the town are fairly wide,-and. paved with cobbles very irregularly. The bouses, except, a few public buildings—mosques and baths—are all made of mud and wood, with tiles laid Dn the roofs. , The walls are whitewashed, and the ceilings are of wood. iTbere is not a scrap of paint anywhere inside or out. The windows are covered with wooden trellis work shutters, so that inmates can look out without- being seen. . . . Shopping in the town is most amusing, being one perpetual haggle, in which a vocabulary of only about 20 words is needed.