From: Balmas, Bessarabia
28 January 1921

Worthy Editorship!

Despite the noisy ringing and the hypocritical telegraph reports from Lyon, it becomes clearer every day that the once so powerful empires are close to dying off.

With England and France, pride precedes the downfall and arrogance leads to ruin, and the entente does like such conditions. They want to subjugate the entire world. They turned Germany into a beggar. Poland they sullied as a scoundrel, and they had intended to forgo and increase their riches. They put the squeeze on Turkey. Greece plainly told them to lay-off. They established the League of Nations, but they had in mind to enslave every country. Already at the beginning of the war they had driven Russia into the net so that it is not as yet set free. In the beginning, Russia was their ally and now it is their biggest enemy. Only England and France have brought the whole universe into misery.

They wanted to incite Rumania against the Bolshevists. But since it refused to do so, they lowered the rate of exchange of the money so much that nobody can make a living any more. France set its’ exchange rate to 5 to 6 lei per franc. The franc was only 87 kopeks (Note: 100 kopeks to a lei) worth during peacetime (before WWI) and even with the lei. And what did they do with Greece? They staged explosive situations among the people against King Konstantin.

(Note: the next 5 lines of the text are illegible)

That made the alliance uncomfortable, but a German proverb has to prove itself as true: God’s mills grind slowly but utterly fine. Surely the hour will arrive when the scourge of God will come down because their horror deeds are too big.

Recently, the situation in Constantinople deals with the leftovers of the “Wrangel” army, which were taken to Constantinople. Among them are many Germans, members of the army and civilians. So far citizens of Germany are the minority. They receive identification documents from the Swedish embassy in Constantinople. That enables them to travel home. Colonists that can somehow prove their ancestry also receive documents.

The Swedish embassy does an outstanding job in this matter. But the embassy can only help those who come to it. For many people who are in this misery, it is impossible to get there. Many can not leave the ships. Others are straying through the streets of Constantinople. The French have prohibited speaking German in Constantinople.

But the Turks, these shunned heathens, are helping the Germans as much as possible. The French round up the Germans and the Russians in the streets of Constantinople and take them onto the ships.

While sneering, the black people take care of this business amidst a horrible chaos. One out of three times there will be something to eat. Dirt and unsanitary conditions are indescribable, but they are surpassed by the conditions in the camps on the islands, where the unfortunates are being transported. That is where they gradually succumb to the conditions. The black French supervised by the white French guard mistreat these prisoners. Whoever is able should help these unfortunate people.

The weather here is very bad. For four days now, we have had a terrible wind, which damaged homes and toppled stacks of straw.

There are also weddings here in Balmas. The following couples were married: Sebastian Mosser, son of Johann to Veronika Maier, daughter of Joseph; Johannes Merk, son of Johannes to Alisia Bulach, daughter of Johannes; Christian Boehler, son of Joseph to Lea Gross, daughter of Johannes from Emmental. Johannes Bulach invites his godfather Joseph Kauer to the wedding. He wants him to come to Balmas. He soon will become the best man because it is his turn with his son Jakob.

Where is my Uncle Anton Bleischwitz? He used to live in Regina, Canada. Likewise, Kaspar Haberloch who used to reside in Aberdeen, South Dakota and Joseph Kuhn are being asked for their addresses.

In closing I greet all friends and relatives, as well as the readers and the editorship.

Respectfully,
Martin Matteri