CONSTANTINOPLE TO-DAY

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160711, 26 July 1920, Page 7

CONSTANTINOPLE TO-DAY

BUSTLING, BUT DIRT-RIDDEN. CHANGE IN MORALS AND MANNERS. An Englishman recently resident in Constantinople sends, the “Near East” a description of conditions there today. The city is filthier than it was 40 years ago (he says). It is much overpopulated. Besides the Allied troops, officers, and so on, there are many Russians, Roumanians, Greeks, Armenians, and others, who have left tho provinces and sought refuge in the capital. Many Europeans and Jews from Salonika, Egypt, and Palestine, are flocking to the Eldorado that is to be—after tho signing of Peace and the definite settlement of the status of the city. / Meanwhile chaos exists, there being no recognised authority or governing body; everybody does practically as he likes, and in cases of trouble and difficulty one docs not know to whom to appeal. This is especially the case, of anyone who is not a subject of one or other of the AHies. Y T et even m the case of an Allied subject one is never sure of-obtaining redress through one’s own authorities. The cost of living is exorbitant, almost incredible. At the same time, while English people are rationed for sugar, coal, and other articles in Constantinople there is no rationing whatever, and one can obtain anything—* if only he pays the price. I was told this was the case also during the war. is no end of pastrycooks and confecAll shops are now well stocked; there tioners, where any amount of sweetstuffs can bo procured. In pre-w.u' days when wc wanted cream we had to order it 48 hours beforehand, whereas to-day cream can he had in quantities at 300 piastres the oke. Milk is Is 6d to 2s the quart. Large quantities of condensed milk are being consumed. All labour has to be paid for at figures which one never dreamed of in previous years. Traffic is very much congested. You see Turkish police, British Tommies (M.P.), French poilns, and Italian carabinieri regulating, or attempting to regulate, the traffic, notwithstanding which there are daily cases of people being run over by motor cars or lorries, all military, and among the principal offenders, I am very sorry to say, are the French. With all this there is any amount of buying aud selling, and everyone appears to be making money; all talk in thousands, no one in tens and hundreds. The morals, customs, and morals of the people have very much altered, the only things which remain unchanged are the Bosphorus and the blue sky. Devastating fires during tho last four or five years destroyed 20,000 buildings. Besides this, there has been an enormous increase of the population.