CAPTIVES IN TURKEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16888, 28 December 1916, Page 5

CAPTIVES IN TURKEY

I WHERE THEY ARE LIVING. A New Zealand officer who is held by the Turks as a prisoner of war at Afion Kara Ilissar, where most of the New Zcalanders held captive in Turkey are interned, hag written the following interesting letter about the place and his life there: — " We get a lovely vimv from our windows of the plain, bounded hv ridge after ridg-j of mountains. We are 3000 ft above sea-level. The air is bracing, the climate is ideal, and the atmosphere wonderfully cleaf. The plain round here is und'.r cultivation; but little is got from the soil, the main crop being poppies for opium—hence ' Afion Opium.' The town clusters at the foot of a range of hills winding about their base, like an enormous snake. From the erntre rises a gigantic rock with precipitous sides, on which is perched the citadel with its massive walls and turrets, vast water tanks carved in solid rook, which enabled it hundreds of years ago to resist a s e re for six years

" The streets in the town are fairly wide, and paved with cobbles verv irregularly. The houses, except a few p'ibl : e buildings— mosques and baths —are all made of mud and wood, with tiles laid on tho roofs. The walls are whitewashed, and the eeilings are of wood. There is not a scrap of paint anywhere. inside or out. The windows #ro covered with wooden trellis work shutters, so I hat inmates ean look- out w : thout being secn._ , . Shopping in the town is nio ; t amusing, beinrr one perpetual haggle, in whieh vocabulary of only about 20 wtrds is needed."