Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1919 — AMERICA MUST HELP ARMENIANS [ARTICLE]

AMERICA MUST HELP ARMENIANS

Turkish Brutality Almost Inconceivable, Has Nearly Destroyed the Race—lnfants Thrown Into Fire Where Mothers Were Being Roasted Allvo by the Barbarians

MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT

Cleceland H. Dedge, Treasurer Armenian and Syrian Rallaf, W John St., New York.—The appropriation aekod of Congress for handling food relief la not Intended In any way to take the place of the subscription being aaked for relief and rehabitation In the Near East. I hope that thio subscrlptlon will not In any way be Interrupted or reduced. The need Is Immediate and very great. WOODROW WILSON.

Details of the slaughter of Armenians during the world war Is not a record of Irresponsible reports but of documents sufficiently buttressed with provable facts to find credence In minds of officials of the Britlst foreign office. The following extracts are from the British Blue Book on “The Treatment of Armenians," and need no introduction. Read ’these and determine if the appeal for peoples of unhappy lands Ln “the Belgium of Asia" have right to part of our prosperity. Indiana’s quota In the national drive for the Armenian and Syrian relief fund is equivalent to saving 21,000 lives; Ilves that have fortunately escaped the determination of the Turk to hunt down the race to extinction: “On the 25th day of June the Turks surrounded the town of Bltllc and cut Its communication with the neighboring Armenian villages; then most of the able-bodied men were taken from their families by domlciallary visits. During the following few days all the men under arrest were shot outside the town, and buried in deep trenches dug by the victims themselves. The young women and children were distributed among the rabble, and the remainder, the “useless” lot were driven to the south and drowned in the Tigris. Any attempt at resistance, however brave, were easily quelled by the regular troops. The recalcitrants, after- firing their last cartridges, either took poison by whole families or destroyed themselves in their homes in order not to fall into the hands of the Turks. “It Is In such ‘gentlemanly’ fashion that the Turks disposed of about 15,000 Armenians.” In the town of Moush Itself the Armenians, under leadership of Gotoyan and others, entrenched themselves in the churches and stonebuilt houses and fought for four days

in self-defense. The Turkish artillery, manned by German officers, made short work of all the Armenian positions. Every one of the Armenians, leaders as well as men, were killed fighting, and when the silence of death •'reigned over the ruins of churches and the rest, the Moslem rabble made a descent upon the women and children and drove them out of the town into large camps which bad already been prepared for the peasant women and children. The shortest method for disposing of the women and children concentrated In the various camps was to burn them. Fire was set to large wooden sheda-Jn Alldjan, Megrakom, Kbaskegh, and other Armenian villages and these absolutely helpless women and children roasted to death. Many went mad and threw their children away. -Some knelt down and prayed amid the flames in which their' bodies were burning. Others shrieked and cried for help which came from nowhere. And the executioners, who seemed to have been unmoved by this unparalleled savagery, grasped infants by one leg and hurled them into the fire, callng out to the burning mothers: “Here are your lions!” -

This Is the testimony of Sister D. A., German Red Cross nurse in Turkey, as set down in Document 64 of the British Blue Book on “Treatment of Armenianns:” The Armenian children In the German orphanage at H. were away with the rest. “My orders, said |he Vail (official) "are to deport all Armenians. I cannot make an exception of these.” He announced, however, that a German orphanage was to be established for any children that remained and shortly after he called on Sister D. A. and asked her to visit It. She found about 700 Armenian children In a good building. For every twelve or fifteen children there was one Armenian nurse, and they were well clothed and fed. "See what care the government is taking of the Armenians,” the Vail said and she returned home surprised and pleased. , But when she visited the orphanage several days later there were only thirteen of the 700 left —the rest had disappeared. They had been taken to a lake six hours’ journey by road from the town and drowned. Three hundred orphan children were subsequently collected and suffered the same fate as their predecessors.