OCR Text |
Show Greek Refugees Tell of Outrages Saloniki. High upon the hills of the bustling Macedonian city Is a picturesque pic-turesque settlement wdiere 3.000 Greek refugees, driven from Asia Minor by the massacre of 1014, make their homes. Hundreds of other Greeks who were interned by the Bulgarians Bul-garians in Dobrudja during the war have joined them recently. The houses in this refugee camp were constructed con-structed by the Greek government. A space equivalent to a large New York furnished room is allotted to a family fam-ily nf from five to eight. The settlement has been given the pretentious name of "The Quarter of the Triumvirate" in honor of Greece's three great modern patriots Premier Venizelos, Admiral Kountouriotis and Genera Danglais, who, repudiating King Constantine, espoused the cause of the allies wdien Germany sought to win over the Greek army. . Grateful to United States. Many of the people have been helped by the American lied Cross and speak gratefully of the United States and its people. As' the Associated Tress correspondent correspond-ent was visiting the village, two ox carts loaded with Greek refugees who had been driven by the Turks from the villages along the sea of Marmora in 1913 and 1914, and who. during the present war, were expelled from Macedonia Mace-donia by the r.ulgurs, made their way slowdy up .the steep mountain road. The refugees had just come from Dobrudja, to the south of Koumauhi. where they were practically exiled by the Bulgars. They had been nearly two months on the way, and virtually all the food and aid they got came from the American Red Cross, which has relief posts along the line leading from Bulgaria into Macedonia. Many were little tots from one to five years old. The wonder was how these little lit-tle ones, sickly and under-nourished, were able to survive the long trip by train, motortruck and ox cart. The faces of these returning refugees refu-gees wore an inexpressibly sad and harrassed look. For five years they were driven hither and yon by Turk and Bulgar, and had never known what it was during that time tn have a roof and shelter. Under the Bulgars. they were forced to live in the open fields or in dugouts or stables. Eighteen Eight-een hours a day at hard labor under constant intimidation was the lot of some of them. Three-fifths of a pound of black bread a day was the pitiful' recompense they received from the Bulgars. Often (hose too weak to work were beaten by their ruthless masters. One refugee declared to the correspondent corre-spondent that at one time there were more than sixty deaths a day among the refugee colony In Dobrudja from malnutrition, exhaustion and . exposure. expos-ure. - In certain sections, he said, the Greeks were forced to live largely on the rinds of watermelons which the Bulgarian soldiers threw in the streets. Tell Bitter Experience. The older residents of this refugee "suburb" of Saloniki. most of whom had fled from different parts of Asia Minor during the wholesale massacres there in 1914. have bitter experiences to "relate about their treatment by the Turks. Some of these people lived in the city , of Phocis, w here the whole Christian population either had been driven out or were killed by the Turks. The women wept as they told about the outrages of the Moslems. ' The worst story was that told by an intelligent, intel-ligent, peasant woman, who declared that in a butcher-shop opposite her home in Phocis she saw the Turks take a young girl who was considered the most attractive ' in town and cut her body into pieces. They hung the pieces on meat hooks nnd offered them for public sale, she said, to show the Turks' contempt for Greek Christians. Chris-tians. What most impresses the eye of the visitor in. speaking with these unfortunate unfor-tunate people is their ,sad, wan and furrowed faces. They have been driven about by the invading foe until they have reached the point almost al-most of despair and distraction. |