CONSTANTINOPLE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2030, 17 August 1920, Page 11

CONSTANTINOPLE.

DEAREST CITY OF EUROPE. EUSSIAN INVASION OF THE CAPITAL. The British—or the Allies—occupy Constantinople, but the Russians possess it. There were at least .'{o,ooo of them in March. The last British warship-to leave Novorossisk for the Crimea had 2400 on the upper deck, and from there and Batum they pour westwards to the Bosphorus, writes the Constantinople correspondent of the "Chronicle." They are a motley mixture —fat, emotionless Caucasian princes in belted mantles and huge fur caps; Cossacks iu black skirted coats with queer swords and V-shaped bandoliers on the breast filled with ivory-headed dummy cartridges; some women, slim and fair, turned out like Bond Street, but painted a? no Western woman dare, trailing half-pound ear-rings and exotic perfumes, and tripping on the cobbles or in the mud of Pera on heels six inches high; Other women, greasy and bulbous, in gay but dirty ~ silks, with Mongolian eyes hidden under heavy lids, affecting imitation gold lorgnettes, often with a broken glass; boys, youths, and men, nearly ail-in uniforms, real or fancy, some in navy epps and cavalry boots; on every other breast a star or ribbons, and thousands in good British khaki of every conceivable cut. They are Russiauising Constantinople. You cannot escape bortch, the Russian soup,, in any Pera restaurant. They spend end jess daylight hours in talk and night hours in cards and drinking. They throng hotel lobbies and bloek the corridors and cafes. All are spending money and some are making it. ■ They are running Russian kinemas, theatres, and night clubs. Of the lastnamed there are 20 going on till four or five in the morning; it costs 10/- to get in, the cheapest drink is 5/-, and a :bottle of champagne 50/-. They, have started Russian restaurants —one with impoverished ladies for waitresses is excellent —a bank, and a newspaper. Constantinople has now a daily Press iu Turkish, English, French, Greek, Armenian and Russian.

.Wherever they gather of an evening someone talks of the previous night's magnificent losses or gains at cards. They never weary of gambling. They look on life as a gamble with the gambler's easy way of taking all things lightly. Some have been evacuated before the Reds at least half <a dozen times, losing parents, husbands, brothers, or sons. But they do not seem to worry.

As long as they have money to spend or can find someone to spend for them, they loiter along with the most indefinite notion of tho future, and none of doing anything to set themselves or their nation afoot. For ready cash they sell their furs and jewels in the same nonchalant way.

One of them took a gem to a dealer and casually asked £IOOO. It was an absurd price, and being told so he drifted across the street to another shop. The dealer was interested in the result* and asked him when ho came out again what he had got. "£98." "But you asked me for £1000! " " Oh, I just happened to think of that." The £9B was no doubt spent with as little thought. Even a Scotsman would soon spend £IOO in Constantinople, for it is easily the dearest city in Europe. An hotel bill, without any extravagance or luxury, runs from £3O to £SO for a week.' Nearly every other nationality says the price of food and accommodation is sheer robbery. All join in blaming the Russians. Prices in Constantinople would be high in any case, but they nggravate the crisis. If Constantinople does not like them, they like Constantinople, and with their impractical temperament they do nothing to ease the overcrowding by striking out for cheaper spots. Probably it is just as well, for I doubt if any other city would be so placid under the invasion.