CONSTANTINOPLE TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 249, 15 July 1920, Page 7

CONSTANTINOPLE TO-DAY

BUSTLING, BUT DIRT-RIDDEN. An Englishman recently resident in Constantinople sends'the ''Near East." a description- of conditions there to-day. , Tho city is filthier than it was 40 years ago (he Buys). It is much over-populated. Besides the Allied troops, officers, and so on, there are many Russians, Rumanians, Greeks, Armenians, and others, who have left the provinces and sought refuge in the capital. Many Europeans and Jews from Salonika, Egvpt, and Palestine are flocking to tho Eldorado that is to beafter the signing of peace and the definite sottlenflji? of the status of the city. -Meanwhile chaos exists, there being no recognised authority or governing body; everybody does practically as he likes, and in cases of trouble or difficulty one does not know to whom to appeal. This is especially the case of anyone who is not a subject' of one or other of the. Allies. Yet even in the case of an Allied ' subject one is never sure of obtaining redress through one's own authorities. Tho cost of living is exorbitant, almost : At the same time, while i English people are rationed for sugar, i coal, and other articles in Constantinople i there is no rationing whatever and one i can obtain anything—if lie only pays the ; price. I was told this was the case also i durinpr. the war. All shops are now , well stocked; thero are no end of pastry-, i cooks and confectioners, where any j amount of ewejtstuffa can be procured. ( In pre-war days, when 'we wanted cream \ we had to order it 48 hours beforehand, j whereas to-day cream can be had in quantities at 300 ninstres the oke. Milk is is. 6d. to 2s. the quart. Large quantities of condensed milk are being consumed. All labour has to bo paid for at figures which one never dreamed of in previous yer/?s. Traffic is very much congested. ( YVni see Turkish police, British Tommies (M.P.). French poilns, and Italian earnbinieri Tegulnting, or attempting to regulate, the traffic, notwithstanding which thero are daily cases of neoplc beiiur run over by motor-cars or lorries, all military, and among the principal offenders, lam ! verv sorry to say. are the French. With all tlr's there is any amount of * buying aim selling, and everyone appeavs to be making money': all talk in thou- e sands, no one in tens and hundreds. The , morals, enstoms, and consciences of the rvrnle hnTo very much altered, the only things which remain. unchanged are Hie i Bosporus and the blue ?ky. Devastating f fires dnrin? the Inst four or five years 1 destroyed 20,000 buildings. Besides'this. the.ro has been an enormous increase of J the population. ' ,