A PEOPLE IN FLIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 18147, 11 December 1922, Page 2

A PEOPLE IN FLIGHT

TRAGIC THRACIAN SCENES, PICTURESQUE CHAOS, ■A correspondent o'f ‘The Times,’ writing on October 21, 'describes the flight of the Greek population from Thrace: Only those who, like myself, have now followed up the stream of refugees from source to mouth can fully appreciate in all its significance the tragedy of this vast flight, which has depopulated one of the richest provinces of Greece, left Adrianople a half-empty nutshell, and is destined, unless the responsible authorities _ at Athens quickly decide upon and put into execution a sound .scheme of organisation for relief, to swamp the arid plains and mountains of Old Greece with helpless hordes of starving and homeless outcasts. It is difficult, in face of this wholesale catastrophe, at once to avoid exaggeration and do justice to the difficulties and inevitable hardships. Alien every reasonable deduction is made, one is forced to record an appalling total of min and human misery. As soon as the Greeks that the Turks wore coming they were seized with unreasoning panic, and began preparations for flight. Houses, homesteads, harvest, and tobacco crop were either abandoned absolutely or sold for ridiculously small sums to adventurous speculators. They were deaf to all arguments of common sense. Their one idea was to get away before the departure of the Greek troops, lest the Kemalists should suddenly appear in their midst and cut their throats wholesale. The natural consequence has been terrible chaos, which is now stretching in varying degrees from one end of Greece to the’ other, ami which at present is most noticeable at the two extremities of the main lines of flight. ON THE ROAD. .There have been mo merits d uri ng my fiver day journey from Athens to Adrianopio, where 1 arrived at 6 o'clock .this morning, when 1 was almost led away by the piclureequeness of the scene to forget the nnderlyiur tragedy. The small children were mostlv buoyantly happy and merry, and ■appealed to* regard their journey as a form of glorified school treat. Even the adults were wonderfully patient and resigned, aiaK with true Oriental fatalism, prepared to drift on whither destiny might call. Tim delays and discomforts of the miserable train journey to Salonika or elsewhere were borne will! uncomplaining stolidity, broken onlv at the stations, wheie the UuveJJeis got oud to haggle with wayside

vendors for chest-nuts, bread, Turkish delight, nougat, and all manner of sticky, h a 1 fnelting swee t moats. Some of the. families have already found at least temporary new homes. Along one stretch of the old battle front many Bulgarian trenches and dug-outs have been occupied. At Bures a few enterprising families had erupt into old dismantled “pill boxes.” Hound Drama other families had installed themselves outside the station in hollowed-out hayricks, which, with lighted fires before the entrance, gave the appearance of a Red; Indian encampment. At Dedcagach, bombarded; and still gaping and-unrepaired shanties had each their tenants, who were huddled together amidst fallen walls and hanging floors. UNENDING STREAM. But the great Irek is still in full flood. When I motored this morning along the banks of the Alaritz.i over the tree-lined stretch of paved road which leads from Karagach to Adrianople, the. whole roadway, as far as the eye pould travel, was. one moving mass of jostling humanity and droves of animals. Cart after cart, with not a foot of space between them, came slowly forward in unending procession. With the exception of a few light horsedrawn vehicles, the earls were all of tire flamaiHar Eastern pattern, dragged) by teams of steaming cxcu and piled high with all the portable goods of the owners—tables, chairs, blankets, chickens, children, carpets, agricultural implements, cooking utensils, all heaped, together in reckless confusion and hearing down heavily upon the rickety, patched-up wheels. Now and again the whole procession was brought to a halt as some wheel or polo.gaveNvay beneath the strain, and a babel of voices broke out until the stream parted on cither side of the wreckage and. swept past, leaving a, family amidst the collapse of its household. On either side of the roadway wore herds of cattle, sheep, and pigs, feeding amid brushwood or lying down for a. brief rest before they were again urged on by their drovers. It wan a spectacle never to bo forgotten, unending as a Glimpse show, Biblical in its coloring and composition, with its brightly-dressed men and their womenfolk trudging across a plain amidst their herds avid their flock to find new homes they laicw not where. IN ADPJANORLE. And so at last across the narrow bridge spanning the .Maritza into Adrianople. Jt is hard lo estimate at present what proportion of the population will eventually be left behind. For the moment the streets are cmywded by the oncoming throng. A large number of shops ami cafes are still open, and against (lie walls of Ilia it,uses kU kyuls *4 disdainfully.

smiling Turks, gazing upon the rout of [ their enemies. But many houses are locked and closely .shuttered; you may traverse whole streets without finding one building ivith any outward signs of life.. In some cases Iho doors of the houses have boon left wide open, and you may go inside to find a building from which every stick of 'furniture and every ornament have been removed, No wonder that Iho Turk smiles. The Greek Government is faced with an appalling transportation problem, There is mile after mile of single-track line, doubled only at waysido stations, and running into several tracks only at a few important stations, such as Dedoagach, Seres, and Drama. Ait this end of the line the refugee grains are simply passed on from station to station, but at big towns, such as Salonika, where the railway accommodation is greater, the difficulty of controlling tiro traffic is naturally much increased. At these bases something like permanent provision must_ -bo made for several weeks to conic against ' tho constant flow of refugees, many of whom will ere then havo eaten the last of their poultry and other provisions, and will be reduced, to the bare Government ration of a quarter of a loaf daily. Much may doubtless bo done by British and other sympathisers by gifts ol money, blankets, and food, but it is no less essential that a helping hand be given a„ bases bv persona experienced in rebel worK ana ready to devote their whole time to tho task. If utter tragedy is to bo avonted they will bo needed, and needed quickly.