Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 200, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1915 — THRILLING STORY OF SIEGE OF VAN [ARTICLE]

THRILLING STORY OF SIEGE OF VAN

Told by United States Missionaries Who Were on Scene at the Time. BARRICADE THE BUILDINGS Ten Thousand Cared for in the Town in Weeks Before Russians Arrived —Provide ingenious Against Turk Bullets. New York. —Letters from the staff of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions who were in .’an, the old Armenian city in eastern Turkey, during the recent troublous times, have just been received at the offices of the board by way of Petrograd. They tell a thrilling story of the last desperate weeks before the Russians arrived, when Turks were determined to crush the Armenians, when the mission premises were crowded with refugees and the houses barricaded against shot and shell. The wife of Dr. Clarence D. Ussher thus tells the story of the siege: “As you know, there has been a long-standing and well-grounded dissatisfaction on the part of the Armenians with the insincerity and Injustice of the ‘Young Turk’ party in power. This feeling has grown strong since Turkey declared war against Russia six months ago v “This suicidal rush into the fray was a most unpopular move among Modern and Chrißtlan alike, but Its consequences bore most hqavlly upon tiie latter, who were pressed into service and then deprived of their arms and forced to work as day laborers without proper food or care. Thousands died of typhus and neglect. Punish Rebels, Was Order. “It was small wonder that as many as possible exemption from service or refused to be enlisted. The government naturally regarded their course as nothing less than treason, so when a strong governor-general, the brother-in-law of Enver Bey, was appointed to Van, his first concern was to punish the rebelß. “Three weks ago last Friday the military head of this revolutionary faction, with two of his companions, was killed at command of the vail, who had sent them to Shaddakh as official peace commissioners to settle a question between the government aHd the revolutionists. Another prominent Armenian leader, a member of parliament, was seized and deported to the capital. April 17, the day word was received of the assassination of the revolutionary leader, Ishan, Doctor Ussher and Mr. Yarrow (also of the American board) were called by the vail, wjjo told them plainly that he was determined to crush the rebellion If It Involved the extermination of the whole Armenian population, but that he would prefer not to injure the women and children. Refuse Turkish Guard. “As we proposed to open our premises to refugees he urged placing a guard of 50 Turkish soldiers here. We at first consented to the suggestion, but the revolutionists said experience had taught them the soldiers could not be trusted. They were unwilling to allow the soldiers to come. We have been thankful many times since that they refused to do so. “That evening we consulted with Signor Sbardone, Italian consular agent, the only consul left in the city to represent our Interests and those of other foreigners. It was midnight before our plans were made. That very evening neighbors began to bring in beds, carpets, boxes and wheat, as those who realized the situation considered our premises, those of the Germans and Sbardone’s the only safe places, j “The next day was Sunday, and we had church services as usual, but all daylong the sti'eams of people poured through the gates. Men, women and children were loaded with their household effects. The rich hired ‘hamals’ to bring piles of bedding and beautifully polished chests of clothing, and the poor hurried in with their pitiful

treasures of bare necessities. Little donkeys brought in large sacks of ffour and wheat. Hay Obtained for the Cattle. “Most of the horses in the city had already been seized by the government, but a few were found to bring hay for the cows, which had to be put in the basement of our old school building as our small stable was full. We have had such a rainy spring that the ground was too wet to store goods outside so we packed the basements of our new school buildings from floor to ceiling with boxes, bedding and bags of wheat and flour, reserving all rooms above for the people we knew would need them. “Before we had dressed Monday we had had applications for rooms from half a dozen families and by night we In our houses had a regular hotel of more than seventy people, while attic, wood room and halls were piled with goods of every description. “Ourfamily are all together in the middle bedroom, which is barricaded by a wall of large oil cans filled with earth. This shuts out most of the sunlight, but the windows are down from the top, and with three open doors we can get good ventilation. The sitting room windows are protected by bags of flour piled up on the wide sills and a triple hanging of heavy blankets across the bay windows to keep out the stray bullets. Bullet Holes in the Walls. “The need of such protection is evidenced by the many broken tiles on our roof, and forty or more bullet holes in the walls and the broken windows through which four balls have entered our living rooms. Sometimes the air hums with the constant flying of bullets over and through the prgmises,-end it is a miracle that so few have been hurt. It was an exciting moment when an unexpected cannon ball struck the wall of our house only ten Inches above the head of the mayor’s wife, who was outside the study door, and fell harmless at her feet. The same morning another cannon ball fell into the stable yard a few feet from where Neville (Dr.

Ussher's bod) was standing. He brought the empty shell in, still warm, to show us. “The benches from the church and seats from the school rooms have been removed to make floor space. Many are huddled in the low dark basement of the Chureh; the audience room and galleries are crowded. The schools are filled even to the hallways. The hospital is considered ordinarily to be full if it has 50 patients, now 140 are under its roof. There are at least 5,000 refugees on our premises, and as many more in the near vicinity. The German compound resembles ours and Sbardone feeds between thirty and forty at his table. How Armenians Make Ammunition. "The Armenians have shown wonderful ingenuity in making gunpowder, dynamite bombs and serviceable bullets. They make a mortar to throw bombs, and now are at work on four cannon, the only weapons the Turks have which they have not. I visited their cartridge factory last week. It was most interesting to see the process from the start, when disks of copper were cut from plates, to the finished product of a polished cartridge with even English lettering on the end. Everything was handmade, but between 2,000 and 3,000 cartridges is the daily output. “I never imagined that I could be so interested in munitions of war, or hope so fervently that the revolutionists should win, but it is now a question of sawing the remnant of the people from massacre and starvation, of defending their lives and homes from fiendish cruelty, and we exult over every advance of the little band and pray that in some way permanent help may come to them. “After three weeks of fighting in the city the Armenians have the advantage. But in the defenseless villages the story is very different. It is wholesale and systematic massacre of as many as possible and the taking of many prisoners and sending them later to the head of. the revolutionsts to be fed. In this way starvation will finish the slaughter. “From the first the most of our refugees were villagers, some from many miles away. When our premises could hold no more the houses near by and protected by the positions held by the revolutionists were filled. It is estimated that at least 10,000 fugitives are being fed in the gardens. It is impossible to do justice to their condition. Fleeting without time to collect their food, they come to us ragged, barefoot, hungry and sick from exposure and fear. “Many of the regular Turkish soldiers are averse to butchery, so the vali has promised plunder and glory to the lawless Kurds, who are nothing loath to do his will. One morning 40 women and children, dying or wounded from Turkish bullets, were brought to our hospital. Little ones crying pitifully for their mothers, who were killed while fleeing, and moth ers mourning for their children whoii. they had to leave behind on the plains Some of our orphan girls ask us it God will forgive them for leaving one child thus when as they were carry ing one and leading another they could not manage the third. I could tell you stories which would simply break your hearts, but it is needless to harrow your feelings.”