Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1919 — ANOTHER CHAPTER OF BRUTALITY [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER CHAPTER OF BRUTALITY

America Must Go to the Relief of Survivors of the Armenian and Syrian Races —Cardinal Gibbons Makes Strong Appeal in Behalf of These Persecuted People

Nothing can be more convincing of the heed for the Armenian and Syrian Relief funds than official testimony contained in the British Blue Book on “The Treatment of the Armenians.' The following is from Document No. 117, and the statement was made by Miss M., a Swiss resident of Turkey. “I have just returned from a ride on horseback through the Baghtche Osmanla plain, where thousands of exiles are lying out in the fields and on the roads without any shelter and completely at the mercy of all manner of brigands. Last night, about twelve o’clock, a little camp was suddenly attacked, there were between fifty and sixty persons in it. 1 found man and women badly wounded — bodies slashed open, ~ broken skulls and* terrible knife wounds. Fortunately I was provided with clothes, so 1 could change their blood-soaked things and then bring them to the next Inn where they were nursed. Many of them were so much exhausted from the enormous loss of blood that they died. —The Armenians have been valiant fighters since the begining of the race. They were overwhelmed by sheer numbers when the Turks first came out of the East with their legions of Janissaries, and they have since been persecuted because, of the same disproportion. From a nation of 21,000,000 the Armenians have shrunk to 4,000,000 and these will perish unless America helps them. There has been no weak submission to the massacres by their Turkish overlords. • Document 180: The villages on

the southern and eastern slopes of Jlbal Mousa are included administra* tively in the Vilayet of Aleppo. Wb<M order for deportation were isaued tho Armenians of the villages preferred resistance to death to accepting tho tirades of their TurhUh rulers, and retired into the , fastness of their mountain which rises northwest of the villages and on its farther flank falls steeply into ths sen. The subjoined narrative was translated from a statement by a refugee by the Rev. Stephen Trowbridge, Secretary to the American Red Cross at Cairo, Egypt: With 15.000 Mohammedan troops they surrounded Mousa Dagb on tho landward side"/ Their plan was to starve us out. On the seaward there was no harbor nor any communieOF tlon with a seaport; tho mountain sloped steeply to the sea. We were fully occupied with care 'Of our wounded and reparation of damage done by a previous attach. Our wonkon made two large flags on one of which I printed in large clear English. “Christians in Distress! Rescue!* The Turks again attacked us by several approaches, and we had some severe fighltag, but never at such close quarters as during the first engagement. From one point of vantage we were able to roll boulders do,wn the precipitous mountain side with disastrous effect to the enemy. Our-powder and cartridges were run* ning low. and the Turks evidently had some Idea of the straits we were in, because they began shouting insolent summons to surrender. Those were* anxious days and long nigbtal One Sunday morning, the fifty-third day of our defense, I was startled by hearing a man shout at the top of his voice. He came through the encampment to my hut.—“A battleship is coming and has answered our waving. Thank God!” he exclaimed. It was the French "Cuichen,” a fourfunnel ship. The captain heard our plight and sent a wireless to the fia»ship and before long the Admiral's ship arrived. We were taken aboard four French cruisers and one English and two days Inter arrived in Port Said. It is the survivors of such horrors as these who are to b" beneficiaries of the fund of $30,000,000 to be raised in the United States In January.