RUSSIAN REFUGEES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16267, 6 November 1920, Page 16

RUSSIAN REFUGEES.

♦ SWARMING INTO EVERY PART OF EUROPE. EXODUS FROM 'LAND OF BOLSHEVIKS. (Correspondent Now York “Sun and Herald.”) ' CONSTANTINOPLE, August 3. The Russians—refugees for the most part—are now invading every country in Europe. Tho traveller to-day finds them on .every hand. Constantinople, of course, lias most of them—refugees from tho groat • South Russia, the Crimea and tho Caucasus—but they have also gone into Rumania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Italy, France, England and Germany. Those with funds have managed somehow to get. into the more comfortable countries of the present day, like Switzerland, Holland and Denmark. But tho majority are scattered through tho Balkan Peninsula. What was merely an evacuation six months ago has now become an exodus to Europe. It is as if one found, all in a week’s travel through the United States, remnants of another race, wearing strange clothes and speaking an unfamiliar- language, in New Y T ork, Chicago, New Orleans and San Francisco, and then groups interspersed in Mio towns en route. OLD NOBILITY SCATTERED. The Russians of the nobility and sur- I riving members of the Romanoff family aro as if scattered to the four winds. Tho Grand Duchess Olga, sister of the Czar, and who was found by the American Red Cross living in a box car, has gone to Denmark. Other members of the Romanoff household, beaded by the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, tho widow of tho Grand Duke Vladimir, arc in. France. Princess _ Ouroussofr is running a largo hospital iu Egypt, near Cairo. Several others of the nobility aro living in obscurity in England. Sprinkled among the thousands of Russian women and children refugees now distributed in the Balkans are convalescent soldiers from General Denikin’s shattered army. They aro in hospitals in Belgrade, the picturesque capital of Serbia; in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia; iu Bucharest, the seat of Rumania’s Government, which is again living up to its reputation as tho Little Paris of .the East, and iu Constantinople, where the allied armies are in occupation. In South Serbia there is a, big camp of them. They brought their tents along and .set up a camp in the mountains. Prinkipo Island, in the Sea of Marmora, which most Americans heard of for tho first time when President Wilson proposed it to the, Paris peace-’ makers as a good place to meet the Bolshevists, is now tho temporary refuge fo.r thousands of families of officers of Denikin’s army. Every week that passes it receives a new consignment, while some of these who have been there since spring manage to emigrate to Belgrade, Bucharest or Sofia, where they are equally welcome. EXODUS FROM SHORES OF BLACK SEA. When it was decided to evacuate the Russians from tho northern shores of the Black Sea tho Allies divided the job. Some of the Balkan States liarmg greeted with little enthusiasm at first tho idea of receiving thousands of refugees from a country nheie the typhus lever is a national scourge, it was decided to take the refugees to the Princes Islands, off Constantinople, and divide them for caro and rehabilitation among the British, French, Italians and Americans. The Americans drew tho island of Proti, probably tho most miserable of the group, where there was no fresh water and nothing else to cause any one to go there unless ship-wrecked on its shore. Even then one would not want to remain longer than it took a passing ship to take one off. Tho British took their refugees to the island of Prinkipo, tho French selected the island of Malta, while the Italians wore satisfied with the island of Antigone. Subsequently several shiploads were sent to the Greek island of Cyprus. U.S. IN RESCUE WORK. The American naval vessels, destroyers and submarine chasers which took part in the rescue of the refugees from suclv ports as Odessa, Novorossisk and Sebastopol aro still in tho Black Sea, standing by, waiting for the next big e ~. , s - The Talk in tho American official colony in Constantinople is that they are soon to bo reinforced by a half dozen more United States warships now in European waters. It mav be that they aro coming to help evacuate tho thousands of Russians who have crowded down into the neck of the Caucasian peninsula, where they are now sandwiched between the Bolshevist army and what is left .of the Turkish National army. In any event their plight is a sad one. They cannot bo evacuated by land because transportation over the interior railroads is impossible owing to lack of equipment. Incidentally the Americans have dono a good job in this rescue work through their Red Cross, which had\tho cooperation of the naval vessels, and, like Uncle Sam’s ships, they are still standing by and helping the Allies in the difficult task of sorting out the typhus infected Russians from the stream that ■is being washed through Constantinople j to the rest of Europe. Tho Red Cross j is not only caring for the 1000 ro- | fngees on the American island of Proti, but it is also transporting newcomers by railroad to places of safety in friendly countries such ais Rumania, Serbia and Bulgaria. They have managed to make quite a respectable looking island out of Proti. They have converted its solitary dirty hotel into something quite habitable, established an orphanage, put up barracks and a numbei of tents and Imported fresh water by the hogshead from the mainland. Every now and then a subchaser in the service of Uncle Sam’s navy, and incidentally of mankind, speeds up to the Proti dock like qu express train and drops off a load of food’ and a delousing plant. No Russian leaves the island without passing through the plant. EFFORTS TO'REUNITE FAMILIES. The Balkar. States, of course, have long since relented on their stand against having the Russians como right in. This change took place immediately they learned the Americans and British were giving the refugees a bath and clean clothes before "sending their guests on to the beautiful cities of Belgrade and Bucharest. One feature of the work of the Americans and British is tho effort to reunite families which were divided in tho rush to put the big Black Sea between themselves and the Russian armies. How long this humanitarian effort can continue depends, of course, on tho subsequent political relations between Russia and the rest of Europe. The British, whoso interests are greatest, have the largest number of ships in Turkish waters, and these aro being reinforced almost weekly by new arrivals from Mediterranean waters The British share of tho burden of crowds of their own and Russian refugees is by far the largest and will continue to bo so. Like tho Americans, they aro employing Russian labour, mostly demobilised soldiers. Russians are being put into places of Greek and other native clerks under, the British High Commission operating

in Gonstantmoplc in connection with (lie occupation ol tho Sultan’s city. FIGHT AGAINST SPOTTED FEVER. Constantinople, owing to its geographical position, now lias the bulk'Of tliQ refugees from Russia, who present a problem in housing, feeding and sanitation flpit is taxing to the utmost the resourceful ness of tho British' authorities iu control of tho situation. Every ship that comes down the Black nea brings refugees. Others are streaming iu afoot through the Caucasus. The influx moans the Americans and British must remain in these parts for a long time to como in order to co-opera to iu the fight against the spotted fever, which is the disease brought out by the refugees. Dclousmg and disinfecting plants are still at work on tho stragglers from Denikin’s army, whoso retreat was a terrible fall back into dirt, disease and privation. The "Western peoples now standing guard iu Constantinople must keep the plague from spreading to their lands.