PITEOUS SCENES.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1922, Page 5

PITEOUS SCENES.

PANIC-STRICKEN GREEKS. CAMP ON SEASHORE. TURKISH ATROCITIES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Oct. 22, 5.5 p.m. London, Oct. 22. A graphic account of a panic among Greek villages on the shores of the Sea of Marmora has been received from Mr. Donohoe by the Daily Chronicle. The inhabitants are bent on leaving, fearing Turkish reprisals when the Allies withdraw. The entire population of the village has camped on the beach, awaiting transport. Wine stocks are poured into the sea, as it is impossible to transport it, while the grain has been abandoned. The refugees are badly panic-stricken. The women rushed waist-deep into the sea, holding their babies, and pleaded piteously to be taken aboard the already overcrowded ships. The British are doing their utmost to allay the panic. A sign of the unsettled, lawless state prevailing is that brigandage is rife in parts of Thrace, piracy is going on along the Marmora coast, and Turkish Cossacks, in fast-sailing, armed craft, are raizing Christian villages on the Asiatic side, looting and abducting the women.

The Daily Express’ special correspondent at Adrianople says the entire streets are forsaken, ready for Turkish occupation. The few Greeks remaining wear the fez, signifying their allegiance to Kemal. “I saw a ten miles’ stream of refugees, who had little or no food and passed many sleepless nights, give a great sigh of relief when they found themselves in Western Thrace. The whole population seems to be fleeing, and the wagons are almost breaking under their loads. Dr. Nansen has al ready spent thirty thousand for grain, and is sending l relief to the west,”

CONFERENCE NEXT MONTH.

MANY POWERS TO ATTEND. Received Oct. 22, 5.5 p.m. Panns, Oct. 20. Replying to Lord Curzon, M. Poincare agrees that the Near Eastern conference be held at Lausanne on November 13, at which Turkey, Greece, England, France, Italy, Japan, Roumania and Jugo-Slavia will be represented, while a Russian delegate has been invited to assist in dealing with the matter of the Straits.