BELGRADE

Press, Volume L, Issue 15034, 31 July 1914, Page 8

BELGRADE

\ TUKKIS7I TOWN EUROPEANISED.

Belgrade, commonly known to travellers as the "White Town." is hardly up to the reouiremems of modern warfare, but asa beauty spot it bears favourable comparison with most of the quaintly pjcturesque towns of the Balkans. 'Gradually however, the Turkish element is disappearing, and the peculiar Asiatic appearance is giving place lo a more modern, European aspect. The town has a white, gay appearance, and with its broad, widesnreading streets, is a pleasing sight to the eve. The inhabitants are ftlav. in most * cases clumsily built. Occasionally, however, the influence of Turkish Tartar, or Magyar blood is discernible in the cast of the eye. a tinge in the skin, or the unusual sight of a neat figure. Outwardly, Belgrade is really European. It has, in fact, the appearance of a Russian town cleansed by the work of scavengers well instructed in the advantages of sanitation and whitewash. This docs not imply that Belgrade is spotlessly clean, nor. again, entirely without odour, for in the lower parts of tho citadel a tlu'ck, rather peculiar smell of defective drainaye, "possibly decayed Turk."-says Mr Foster Fraser, pervades the atmosphere. Within easy memory. Belgrade was entirely Turkish, but the Turks and their wheezy puns havo prone, with tho exception of a few decrepit old men who still have strength left "to crawl to tho mosque, kneel on their ragged carpets, and worship Allah. The capital has been entirely rebuilt, however, under the Servian influence, and every evidence of Turkish occupation is removed. Electric cars rush hither and thither, while electric bulbs flash merrily .it street corners, in the shops, and in the houses. Everything is Europeanised: the hotels are designed with a view to copying the large London restaurants, and if not equal to them in quality, are at least their equal in tariff. The smart German waiter, wellversed in the English language, is all that could be desired, and as you sit beneath the limes and sip Turkish coffee —the only Turkish legacy acceptable to tho Servians—the bustle and hurry of the new are in strange contrast to tho peace and tranquility of tho old.