ALLIES AND FRIENDS AT SALONIKA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 12768, 10 February 1916, Page 5

ALLIES AND FRIENDS AT SALONIKA.

CITY WHERE GREAT FORCES ARE LANDING. POPULATION QUINTUPLED., 'Mr George Itcmviek, the "Chronicle's" special correspondent in the Balkans, has this to say of Salonika : My travels since the beginning of the war "have led me into no fewer than ten countries, and, indeed, into some strange and eerie corners of this wild and warring Europe. But I doubt if, among all tho places' I have seeu during tho past sixteen months between Calais and Cairo, any place is quite so curious aud, in many ways, so extraordinary as this city from which I .write, now one of the most important gateways of the vast theatre of war. Salonika (or, as the Greeks call it, Thessalouika) is now quite a familiar name to the people of England and France. •From the sea the city looks like many another of the Turkish Empire. It has climbed some distance up the slopes of the blue mountains which guard it on the north, climbed in narrow, badly-paved streets which are certainly no improvement on the trying thoroughfares of old Stamboul. Still, the old Wooden houses predominate throughout the greater part of the town, and there is little or no architectural beauty about the place, though a gorgeous Aegean sunrise or sunset gives it, when seen from the sea, that unreal aud elusive charm which all travellers wh-> have approached Constantinople by water know so well. Enchantment Lent by Distance. But here, too, the enchantment does not survive closer acquaintance. Here, too, tho Turk, apart from mosque and minaret, has left but little that is not squalid. Before the war the population was about 160,000, and it was mixed enough then in all conscience. Jews numbered about 80,000, Greeks 40,000, and Turks about the same. The Jews are undoubtedly tho most curious feature of the population of this mixed city. They can:;*, here from Spain, expelled at the timo of Ferdinand and Isabella. This is thei.- main habitation, though they are to be found as far north as, Belgrade. Curious I .}- chough, they still "speak the Spanish which Columbus spoke, and in their newspaper's it is spelled out in Hebrew characi ters. The war lias brought curious changes to many places on the map, but I doubt if any place has been treated so strangely by the events of this struggle as has the city of Salonika. ■ First of all, it was invaded by.an army of something, like 200,000 refugees from Thrace and Macedonia. These people live to-day, in a suburb built for them, in the northern outskirts of the town. The houses 'of this new town-are one-storey trick buildings, walls with a roof, simply. Their squalor reigns supreme, and-as one passes along the plaintive cry for alms is heard on all handsThen Greece mobilised, her new territories giving her an increased number of men which, I think, even she herself did not altogether expect." Into Salonika poured the greater part of .the- Hellenic army, just about-the time when many refugees "of the better class Were arriving from Serbia. Suburbs of Tents. . • Salonika's population jumped at abound to the neighbourhood- of 700,000. It became difficult to get room; food generally became scarce/.bread for'days was not to be had price, i'. 'A'mew -city of tents sprang up fir a night a'-]ittle beyond the city, and the roads and .streets became blocked with the slow-pated bullock 'waggon and the well-laden donkey which make up the. supply trains-of the Greekaxiny. But that was not all. Suddenly, almost before anyone realised what was happening, two additional armies began to pour into the already greatly overcrowded city.' There came the French in th«»ir now.. sky-blno uniformsand the British in their'-linaki. Intd the city tHey poureaVin their tens of thousands, jthe refugees' suburb" yet another new - town of tent? I sprang, tip on.,both,-sides.of tbe-northwafti-leading~-road..>-- - came

>'-v.i-z-.tl'j<\:. And v !mI a inedicy of inntonus fjn-j ?■:■:■< in ih<- .-ti'.'-t.-—French in fjveral varieti-. lUii:,b. Zmiaves. ic», Gn.-ek. pad \ It ail maizes a stiange ti:■- in:-'. And how i\w French feel at home h<-ic'. For Turk and Greek and .lev.- may speak their languages, but Salonika uses French, as its Esperanto. In the rcstouiants the menus a:e written in French as well as in Greek: even the "lustro'.' and the newsboy will address you in French—rf>f a kind —and in a very large number of cases French is the language of the family circle, this being due to the work of the excellent French educational missions. 'The."main drawback to- Salonika as a base'is the terrible- condition-of the'roads. The or Ihe -dust,''' on them is inches deep.' They are full" of holes, so that every' itep is something of a gamble. And along .these few roads "the armies of three countries- are. -busy- concentrating.*;' Long -lines of ;horses. move along; each side,; and •down; the. middle come, ponderous-motor waggons;- ' -; - ; "Heavy guns—the "Boche Chaser" and the : "Death Spitter," for they all have' their names—send the animal, trains scampering into a Turkish burial ground, where the tombstones lie scattered and broken; then a cannon will'slither athwart the route, and for a while everything comes to a standstill.

As French and- English soldiers get on well together, so do the two - military authorities work well side by side. Here is an example—one of many. A French officer was ordered to throw a pontoon bridge over a river near the city. "Sacred blue!" he muttered to himself, "nothing easier, provided the materials are ou iiand. But how to make a pontoon bridge out of fresh air, I ask myself!" A moment's thought. .... "But, perhaps, if I consult the British ..." "The British," were duly consulted. Yes; they had tho wherewithal to make a pontoon bridge. Could it be sent off to-night? Of course. At what time ? Eight o'clock? Right. And at eight o'clock the Frenchman was leaving Salonika station with his pontoons. "I am infinitely obliged to you for your help," cried the French officer to one of the British. "That's all light! That's what we're here for," was the Allied reply. And a word, too, must be said for the Greeks. Never has a single obstacle been put in the way of the Allies by the Greeks, who. in a delicate situation, have behaved with the highest degree of tact, considera ; tion, and kindness. And one cannot help finding out- that at the deeps of the Hellenic heart there is just'a little tug of disappointment that the Allies'cannon do not boom in fraternity with those of Greece.,