HARD TIMES IN TURKEY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 November 1924, Page 7

HARD TIMES IN TURKEY.

INSULTS TO EUROPEANS. • Visitors to. Constantinople who have recently returned to" England confirm the views expressed by the Constantinople correspondent of the London Times, and by many Turkish writers, as to the general decline of commerce in Turkey and the consequent impoverishment of the country. Smyrna has had a fair fruit crop, but the city and its hinterland are still far from economic convalescence, yabour is scarce, expensive, and unreliable. It is almost impossible to find Turks who will stick to a job in a mine, quarry, or warehouse, for any length of time, and the- Moslem newcomers from Europe who were exchanged for the Greeks of lonia have been very much neglected, and do not esoiJy settle down, though they, are l-.aroer workers than the native Anatolians. In Constantinople the departure of a certain number of European iesidents, of many wealthy Turks connected with the Imperial Family, and of the members of the House of Osman with their large establishments, not to mention great numbers of Greek and American merchants, has brought about a. very serious fall in the value of house property. Commercial stagnation and uncertainty as to the future keep down the price of houses and flats, but the Turkish middle class is too poor to profit thereby. A block of excellent flats built in a good quarter of Pera shortly after the armistice fpr about £IB,OOO, is now on the market at a price of under £4OOO. In another suburb houses which fetched £3OOO a few years ago cannot be sold at more than a third of their value. The exodus of Princes, Pashas, and merchants has glutted the market with furniture, which is sold at 25 per cent, of its value, but does not find many purchasers. A disagreeable feature of the last few month’s has been the revival of incivility, sometimes amounting to insult, towards Europeans, including women, on the part of soldiers and even officers. Such cases were frequent in the later days of the Hamidiun regime, but were severely dealt with by the Unionist- military authorities after the Revolution of 1.908. In one recent instance a party of English girls returning from a cinematograph theatre with their escort were insulted by some Turks, and one of their male relatives who intervened was thrown down and severely beaten on the head with ;ii belt wielded by an N.C.O. A general fracas ensued as members of the British colony came to the rescue of their womenfolk, and the aggressors were finally overpowered and handed over to the local police authorities, who having taken down much evidence, discharged them. A similar incident at a Black Sea port, where some Turkish officers appea.y to have insulted the family of the Soviet Consul, resulted in a. strong protest on the part of the .Soviet Government. ,