C. F. CRATHERN '20 RETURNS FROM WORK IN NEAR EAST

C. F. Crathern, formerly of the class of 1920 and ex-captain of cross country, has resumed his studies at Dartmouth after spending 15 months with the Greek Army in Greece and with the Near East Relief behind the Turkish lines. He joined the Y. M. C. A. forces for work overseas in July, 1920, and was sent to Athens to assist in athletic and recreational work in the Greek Army. This kind of work was entirely new to the Greeks and Crathern and the other Y. M. C. A. men were commissioned in the Greek Army and the job of organizing an athletic program was put into their hands. They arranged games and other forms of recreation similar to the work done by the Y. M. C. A. in France. The work was so successful that a department was formed by the Greek Army officials to carry on the work and the Americans were no longer needed.

Crathern then started work with the Near East Relief and reached with great difficulty the portion of Asia Minor within the Turkish lines. It is interesting to note that while he was inside the Turkish lines he was still an officer in the Greek Army. On Thanksgiving Day he received word that his father was seriously sick at Eurfa in northern Mesopotamia. Crathern secured a leave of absence and spent the next three months getting to Eurfa, succeeding finally by going through Syria. The Turks took him prisoner at Eurfa, and as his father was too sick to be moved; he, with a few other Red Cross men, escaped by striking across the desert in .an ambulance. They crossed the Euphrates River at Birejik by putting a small round boat under each wheel of the automobile and poling it across, finally arriving at Beirut, Syria, where they learned that the Turks had released the other prisoners left at Eurfa.

Crathern worked last spring through Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt. He spent the past summer coming home byway of the Balkanis, ( Hungary, Austria, Germany, France and England, spending some time in each of these countries.