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68 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
left we could see a number of white specks that looked like
tents. It turned out to be a parade-ground for the Red army
of Georgia, which was camped outside the town.
At ten o’clock in the morning we arrived at the station.
Here we were met by a number of consuls, the Italian, Persian,
Turkish, German and others, also by Mr. Yarrow, the American
representative of the Near East Relief, who invited us to stay
at its house while we were in Tiflis. Mr. V. Wehrlin, repre
sentative in Moscow of the International Red Cross, was
likewise present, håving just arrived from Russia to collect
information about the health measures in Transcaucasia.
We left the station in motor-cars. As usual it was on the
outskirts of the town, so we had to drive for a couple of
kilometres through suburbs—the so-called German quarter,
formerly inhabited by immigrants from Wiirtemberg who
settled here more than a century ago (in 1818). Then wre
drove over a bridge and an island in the Kura called the
Madatovski Island, then over another bridge, and up an
incline from the river, and found ourselves in the main street
of the modern town—a broad, stately promenade called
Golovinski Prospekt. On the left side was the opera, and on
the right, occupying the most conspicuous site, a big Russian
church with round domes. This was formerly known as
the garrison cathedral, in the days when the Russian garrison
stationed in the town used to attend service there. The
large impressive edifice farther on to the right was the
Government building, once the Russian viceroy’s palace.
And farther on again was a big building, not yet completed,
which was to be the great museum.
There were other buildings, too ; but all that we saw here
was rather commonplace, the usual colourless architecture of
Europe, except the Russian church and some churches in the
old Georgian or Armenian style, with towers rising above
the surrounding houses. There was little else that struck one
as Oriental, or set one’s imagination to work. Nor was
there much of the Eastern richness of colour about the people
one saw on the promenade ; the men chiefly wore the usual
simple Soviet blouses and soft Soviet caps, while the women
—the renowned Georgian beauties—did not secm to diffcr
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