CITY OF REFUGEES

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 September 1920, Page 7

CITY OF REFUGEES

RUSSIANS REACH CONSTANTINOB LE 3 (By Sir Philip Gibbs.) CONSTANTINOPLE; May. Among all the varied nationalities and races which crowd this fantastic city of Constantinople and its neighbouring islands, I find the Russians most attractive as a human study. One’s pity goes out to them, for they 'are in a desperate up-heaval—-the aristocrats and bourgeoisie cf a.i Old Order, which has been destroyed in violence —and now, after perilous escapes and the squalid misery of a long retreat, they have found a sanctuary in this international port, with what little they could save but of the wreckage of their old life. Before Denikin’s army melted away, and, with a recognition of absolute defeat, he took refuge on a British ship lying out here in the Golden Horn, Constatriinople,! and the islands of the Sea of Marmora, had already been invaded by Russian people in flight before the Red advances. They had escaped from Odessa and the Black Sea towns-. Some of them had a long history of other escapes from Petrograd and Moscow and a hundred cities in the north, since the beginning of revolution. LAST OF THE REFUGEES. Now, a few months ago the Russian colony at Constantinople was joined by the last of the ■ refugees—Denikin’s disbanded officers, with their wives and children, landowners who had lived on the edge of the Red tide until its waves threatened to engulf them, professors, university students, dancing girls, singers, admirals without a fleet, princesses who had served under the Red Cross, women of adventure who had followed the troops, and political agents of the counter revolution, which was washed out in blood and tears. ■' - I meet all these people now in the Grand Rue de Pera, in the hotel where I am staying, in little restaurants where I like to dine because of the strange company at the tables, and in cabarets where some of them sing for a livelihood. Many of them still live luxuriously and with a strange fantastic gaiety, not counting the cost or glancing at the black shadows ahead. THE FALLEN ROUBLE. They have no money of their own worth anything in the world’s- markets. The Russian rouble, .of which there are many varieties in the paper—the Romanoff rouble, the Don rouble, the Denikin rouble —is changed into Turkish, money at a hideous discount. Whereas in the old days a rouble was worth about 4s 2J,' it now requires 2000 roubles to buy a Turkish pound, which is equal to -4s in our money at the present rate of exchange, That is to' say, the Russian pays 2000 times what he used to do for everything ■ he buys in Turkey. The cost of living in Constantinople is the highest in Europe, or, I fancy, in the world. A cup of chocolate and a little cake costs a Turkish pound. To a Russian 1 paying in his own money, it costs 2000 roubles. At the Pera Palace Hotel the simplest dinner costs three Turkish pounds. To a Russian with Denikin money it costs 6000 roubles. The rent of a house hired by. a group of Russians in a back street in Constantinople is seven million roubles, which before the war would have built a palace. Such an exchange is so frightful that Russians who have nothing but their own money have no means of life, however rich. ] LIVING ON FAMILY JEWELS. ] Some of tlicJß i have other things, and J live in luxury while they last. They estaped the Revolution with their family jewels sewn up in their clothes, or fore- j seeing the end, bought diamonds with 3 al the money they had.' The women brought away their furs, silk dresses, lace petticoats, and the rings on their fingers. It is with these goods that they get the | means of life and a little fun. ( In this hotel where I am staying a Don , Cossack gave a banquet to four friends. They drank champagne. There was ‘ laughter at the feast. At the end of the .meal the Cossack officer called for his bill, and, after a glance, took off his wife’s fur tippet, handed it to the waiter and said, “I pay with that.” It was valued by an J expert on the premises, and the Cossack | received 50 piastres (or 2s Id) change. A rope of pearls worn at the Court of the Romanoffs finds its way into the wooden shops of Greek merchants in Constantinople pearl by pearl. There are quiet transactions done in the shady corners of restaurants and coffee-houses, where Russian officers put their hands in their pouches and take out some shining stone, and say ‘/How much?” to some Levantine gentleman with sharp eyes under a red fez. j The thought of the day when there will c be no other little stone in the leather s pouch does not seem to worry some of I these Russian notables. They ara the ; leaders of night life in Constantinople. c They sit at the gambling tables in the s night-clubs. They dance with their little j ladies on the polished floors of crowded rooms where life is “gay.” c But they are few compared with the t mass of their compatriots, who, in this g city, and on the island of Prinkipo and c other islands between the Bosphorus and r the Dardanelles, take in each other’s } washing, as it were, and struggle hard"to j make a livin gby any kind of alborir, and, failing that, live on the relief provided by British, French, Italian, and American missions. At Prinkipo—Prince’s Island—the ,1 ■British provide the poorest Russians with 1 rations; and billet them, out in villas .which ( have been commandeered for this pur- ‘ pose. There are many well-born Russians ( who are, utterly dependent on this charity, 1 and Russian officers, still in patchwork -1 uniforms/ with -Imperial, decorations on ; their breasts, net; as porters, or do any rough labour they can' get.; , 1 - ;J -■ . - - '■■■■;' > A-; ■ j ARISTOCRATIC WAITRESSES. i ■ ' r >.: ... . " J 'i In Constantinople they are helping each.' (.ther cohragconsly to scrape along.-They i have established little restaurants, where i one is waited on at table by ladies who s are new to this kind of work, but charm- 1 ing and industrious. Most of their cus- 1 itemers are of- their own/race- .and class, t md one’s waitress - chats between the -' ■oqj’ses , with her clients, fingering the . necklace of some young lady, - who is studying the menu. Russian officers how to the lady at the,, cash desk, and kiss the hands of the girl *- who directs the service. She wears “Fobbed”' hair arid a blouse of 'fine Rus-;; siau lace above her pleated frock and pina.te - / , ’ ' 1 L....... :

‘i fore. An orchestra plays old Russian folk tunes with a wild rhythm and an Oriental harmony of queer half-tones and unex-

pected chords. There is one house in Pera which is called the Foyer Russe. It is the house rented at the equivalent of 7,000,000 Denikin roubles, and has been organised as a home and eating-house-for poor “emigres” of the Old,-Regime by a group of Russian friends, formerly of high social standing, now serving as cooks, plate-washers, bedmakers, and waiters. AN EX-ADMIRAL’S WORK. It was an ex-admiral of the Russian Fleet who invited me to breakfast at this place, where he does his share of wbrk. With him was an ex-officer of high rank before the" Revolution. The waiters at the tables around us were young men of aristocratic and middle-class families. They provide a good meal for 60 piastres, which is' about 2s, and a miracle of mercy in Constantinople. To-night they gave a concert at suppertime, and a famous singer from the Imperial Opera and other good musicians entertained the company, while young exofficers in the white blouse of the Russian “mnjik” carried round plates of caviaie, smoked salmon, and Russian stew. The enemies of Bolshevism were reduced to an equality of poverty, and bore it gallantly. The Russian actors, singers, and dancers who have drifted into this city have organised a theatre of their own, and give performances which include a very good “corps de ballet” and well-known artists. As most of their patrons are Russians, apart from a few British officers from the Army, and Fleet and a sprinkling of Greeks and Turks, it is an adaptation of the old system of taking in each other’s washing which seemed the only means of livelihood to the French emigres in 1793. THE YIDDISH YVETTE GUILBERT. The audience is enthusiastic in its applause, especially to little ladies who are olviously amateurs, by stress of circumstances among the professional crowd. The Russian Jews, not altogether in brotherly union with the orthodox Russians, though companions in misfortune, have a variety show, of their own, at which the great star is Liza Kramer. She is the Yvette Giulbert of the Yiddish world, a wonderful artist, I am sure, though I could not understand a word she seng. She spoke with roguish eyes, with comical vulgarities of gesture as a woman of the people, with queer little noises in her throat, and character in every movement of her body and hands. CARELESS ABOUT THE MORROW. One saw the spirit of the Russian ghetto in this, woman’s songs and speech, Which excited her audience to immense enthusiasm - and great, gusts of laughter.' She was a prisoner of the Bolshevik soldiers, who ■ made her sing to them for hours, song-' after song, and then lot her .go,. unwillingly. - i " Like the French emigres a century ago,® -many of these Russian victims of revolu-| „tion -are living from. hsnd to mouth, eat- / ing up what little capital they have with ) a feverish appetite for pleasure, and letting the morrow come with carelessness. “To-morrow!” they say, and shrug then-shoulders-with a laughing grimace. They see no good to-morrow for Russia or themselves. Meanwhile, it is worst for the women who have sold all their furs and aU their lew els, and have nothing left to sell except their . beauty, which has a brief value-to the, Devil in .this city, ■.<