A NATIONAL TEST OF BROTHERHOOD America's Opportunity to Relieve Suffering in Armenia, Syria, Persia, and Palestine J0 A CALL TO AMERICA TJUNDREDS of thousands of people in the near East are in dire distress — other hundreds of thousands have per- ished. The survivors must be relieved and saved. To help meet this appalling situation, the Congress of the United States passed a resolution asking President Wilson to appoint a time for making an appeal and receiving gifts for the suf- ferers. The President has designated October 21, 22 for this purpose. This handbook is designed to place information at the disposal of those who deliver addresses or sermons or who make personal appeals to persons with financial ability in behalf of those who are in such distress. WE are not keeping up with the world's suffering today. But though we stop thinking of these millions, living on the verge of destitution, THEY CANNOT STOP DYING; though we may be calloused to suffering, they cannot be calloused to starvation." Extract from the sermon of a minister who backed up his sermon by raising $10,000 for relief work in a week. ARE WE GROWING CALLOUS? "'Another collection!' says some reader, and hastily turns the page. Not so fast. If America, calloused by repeated appeals, shall lose her grace of compassion, then she will be the chief sufferer from the war. From the successive calls which have been made upon her sympathy since August, 1914, she can form some faint conception of the demands which human waywardness and sorrow and sin made and still make upon the exhaustless heart of the great God, who is a God of love. 'We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.' "Christianity is blamed for not averting the catastrophe under whose scourge the world now writhes. The charge may be groundless, but if our brethren are sick and starving while we who profess to be His disciples sit in comfort and luxury, we shall hardly escape the con- demnation of the world or of Him who lived and died to teach us that all mankind are brothers." — A quotation from an editorial in The Christian Advocate, Sept. 21, 1916. A PICTURE DARK AND TERRIBLE A Massacre, the most dreadful of modern times. Pillage and deportation on a scale probably never before attempted. At least a million Armenian survivors destitute. In Syria, Persia and Palestine, wide-spread hunger, disease and death. One cablegram announced that the refugees were eating grass. A later message reports that the grass is dried up and that the emaciated victims are eating carrion, the street dogs and even human flesh. Another winter is approaching, and homeless, pen- niless multitudes have no shelter, clothing or food. The cry for rescue comes to us. Can we, dare we, withhold the help we can give? SOURCES OF FACTS. The facts contained in the following pages have been collected from many sources. It is deemed unnecessary in many cases to give credit for them or to indicate their origin for valid reasons, although there are abundant means for doing so in the possession of those interested in helping the peoples of Asia Minor in this hour of awful tragedy. Careful and extensive investigation has been made by persons whose authority, veracity and integrity are unquestioned. These witnesses are so numerous and their statements are so well authenticated that the facts here given may be used in the confidence that they are as accurate as is possible in the midst of the disturbed conditions existing in the war zones. Indeed, it is probable that they understate rather than overstate the situation. After the main facts in this handbook were in type, proof of a book of nearly seven hundred pages of docu- ments and other facts collected by Viscount Bryce was sent to the Committee. The facts in the Bryce book intensify many fold the impressions of suffering and need given by the comparatively few facts which are included in this handbook. Some will regret the repetition of so many sickening details. Would that it were not necessary to repeat them, but this seems to be the only possible means of bringing home with vividness an unforgettable appeal as to the awful needs. Some of the facts included are intended only to deepen the conviction of those who make addresses in con- nection with the campaign to secure relief funds and not for public recital. A TRAGEDY OF TERRIFIC PROPORTIONS. In the present world crisis where millions are subjected to strain and horror on a scale which staggers the imagination, there is a group of nations whose appeal to humanity is heart-rending in the extreme. Innocent non-combatants have been subjected to treatment almost in- conceivable. Some of the facts as related by different authorities, many of them eye witnesses, follow. The first is the story of Armenia's tragedy as given by Herbert A. Gibbons in a book entitled The Blackest Page in Modern History. Dr. Gibbons was for years a correspondent on Turkish affairs for various European and American papers. He has spent many years in touch with Turkey, was in Adana during the massacre of 1909 and has written extensively on Turkish affairs. In the autumn of 1914, the Turks began to mobilize Christians as well as Moslems for the army. For six months, in every part of Tur- key, they called upon the Armenians for military service. Exemption money was accepted from those who could pay. A few weeks later the exemption certificates were disregarded, and their holders enrolled. The younger classes of Armenians, who did not live too far from Constantinople, were placed, as in the Balkan wars, in the active army. The older ones, and all the Armenians enrolled in the more distant regions, were utilized for road, railway, and fortification building. Wherever they were called, and to whatever task they were put, the' Armenians did their duty, and worked for the defence of Turkey. They proved themselves brave soldiers and intelligent and industrious laborers. A new era of Armenian massacres began. At first, in order that the task might be accomplished with the least possible risk, the virile masculine Armenian population still left in the cities and villages was summoned to assemble at a convenient place, generally outside the town, and gendarmes and police saw to it that the summons was obeyed. None was overlooked. When they had rounded up the Armenian men, they butchered them. This method of procedure was generally feasible in small places. The Armenian notables were assassinated in the streets or in their homes. If it was an interior city, the men were sent off under guard to "another town." In a few hours the guard would return without their prisoners. If it was a coast city, the Armenians were taken away in boats outside the harbor to "another port." The boats re- turned astonishingly soon without the passengers. 3 Then, in order to prevent the possibility of trouble from Arme- nians mobilized for railway and road construction, they were divided in companies of from three hundred to five hundred and put to work at intervals of several miles. Regiments of the Turkish regu.ar army were sent "to put down the Armenian revolution, and came suddenly upon the little groups of workers plying pickaxe crowbar, and shovel. The "rebels" were riddled with bullets before they knew what was happening. The few who managed to flee were followed by mounted men, and shot or sabred. ******* No hamlet was too insignificant to be missed. The news was given by town criers that EVERY Armenian was to be ready to leave at a certain hour for an unknown deatination. There were no exceptions for the aged, the ill, the women in pregnancy On.y rich merchants and bankers and good-looking women and girls were alowcd to escape by professing Islam, and let it be said to their everlasting honor that few availed themselves of this means of cccape The time given varied from two days to six hours. No household goods, no animals, no extra clothing could be taken along. Food supply and bedding was limited to what a person could carry. And they had to go ON FOOT under the burning sun through parched valleys and over snow-covered mountain passes, a journey of from three to eight weeks. When they passed through Christian villages where the deporta- tion order had not yet been received, the travellers were not allowed to receive food or ministrations of any sort. The sick and the aged and the wee children fell by the roadside, and did not rise again. WOMEN IN CHILDBIRTH WERE URGED ALONG BY BAY- ONETS AND WHIPS UNTIL THE MOMENT OF DELIVER- ANCE CAME, AND WERE LEFT TO BLEED TO DEATH. The likely girls were seized for harems, or raped day after day by the guards until death came as a merciful release. Those who could committed suicide. Mothers went crazy, and threw their children into the river to end their sufferings. Hundreds of thousands of women and children died of hunger, of thirst, of exposure, of shame. The pitiful caravans thinned out, first daily, and later hourly. Death became the one thing to be longed for, for how can hope live, how can strength remain, even to the fittest, in a journey that has no end? And if they turned to right or left from that road to hell, they were shot or speared. Kurds and mounted peasants hunted down those who succeeded in escaping the roadside guards. I had just written the above paragraph when an English woman whom I have known for many years came to my home. She left Adana, in Cilicia, only a month ago. Her story is the same as that of a hundred others. I have the identical facts, one eye-witness tes- timony corroborating the other, from American, English, German, and Swiss sources. This English woman said to me, "The deporta- tion is still going on. From the interior along the Bagdad Railway they are still being sent through Adana on the journey of death. As far as the railway exists, it is being used to hurry the work of exter- mination faster than the caravans from the regions where there are no railways. Oh! if they would only massacre them, and be done with it, as in the Hamidian daysl I stood there at the Adana rail- way station, and from the carriages the women would hold up their children, and cry for water. They had got beyond a desire for bread. Only water! There was a pump. I went down on my knees to beg the Turklch guard to let me give them a drink. But the train moved on, end ;he lact I heard was the cry of those lost souls. That was not once. It was almost every day the same thing." A SHORTER ACCOUNT FROM THE REPORT OF THE AMERICAN BOARD. Of the two million Armenians in Turkey one year ago, at least one million have been killed, driven from the country, forced into Islam, have perished on the way to exile or been deported to northern Arabia. The Armenians in the army were first brutally put to death; then followed those who had purchased exemption and nearly all able- bodied males above twelve years of age. After this the remaining men, women and children were sent out upon a journey of months, mostly on foot, to the arid regions of Syria and northern Arabia. These helpless, hopeless refugees were forced out from their homes with little preparation for the journey and with no shelter from the storms or protection from the cold or heat. A man following one of these caravans for twenty-five miles reported to a United States Consul that he counted over five hundred dead bodies on the road. WOMEN GIVING BIRTH TO CHILDREN UPON THE ROAD WERE FORBIDDEN TO DELAY BY THE WAY, AND OFTEN DIED FROM HEMORRHAGE AS THEY STRUGGLED ON. Children by the hundred were cast into rivers by their parents to save them from mortal suffering. A United States Consul reported that he saw refugees brained with clubs because they, when starving, crowded their guards for food. ARMENIAN PROFESSORS IN AMERICAN COLLEGES, WITH UNIVERSITY DEGREES FROM EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES, WERE TORTURED BY PULL- ING OUT THEIR HAIR AND BEARD AND THEIR FINGER NAILS, BY HANGING THEM UP BY THE ARMS FOR HOURS, AND BY BEATING. THEY WERE AFTERWARDS KILLED. Comely women and girls have been in great numbers forcibly taken into Mohammedan harems. Entire towns have been driven to accept Islam to save themselves from death. 5 A THIRD DESCRIPTION. The Armenians defended themselves, barricading the Armenian section ot the city, in which the American Board mission premises chanced to tail, and ior a month withstood the attack of the Turkish army. Beginning April 20, the siege continued until the middle of May. The Turks withdrew from Van toward Bitlis, two or three days before the Russian troops entered the city. This defense of the Armenians against the attack of the Turks was reported through- out the Turkish empire as an uprising of the Armenians against the Government, and exaggerated stories were circulated of the way in which the Armenians had massacred Turkish men, women and chil- dren in cold blood. This inflamed the Mohammedans of Turkey against the Armenians and led to the carrying out of their policy of extermination with wanton cruelty. At the same time it led to the killing of many, if not all, of the Armenian members of the Turkish army, and to the arrest, imprisonment, and, for the most part, death, of the majority at least of able-bodied Armenian men, as well as others, who were not connected with the army, many of whom had paid the allotted price for exemption from military service. As soon as the men were thus disposed of, with still greater vigor and violence the deportation of the Armenians from their homes toward northern Arabia was begun. First the regions of Erzroom, Van, Erzingan, Bitlis and Harpoot were attacked, and Armenian women and children, with the few remaining men, were started upon their journey south and east, over hundreds of miles of mountain and plain, toward Oorfa, Aleppo, and the regions beyond. These helpless caravans were unprovided with food or shelter for the journey; they were frequently attacked on the way by brigands, Kurds, and even their own guards. The men who started with the caravans were nearly if not quite all killed before the journey was half done. A large number of women were taken by force from the groups for Moslem harems,, and the roads over which these caravans travelled were lined with the bodies of those unable to survive the hardships of the journey. The story is the same from all parts of the country. This method of deportation extended gradually westward so as to include Sivas and its environs, Marsovan, Bardizag, Brousa, later Cesarea and Konia, and many other regions. Zeitoon, in the Central Turkey field, was one of the first places attacked in that region. Zeitoon was an Armenian city, and the Armenians had been unusually aggressive and independent. This city was practically depopulated, as was Hadjin. Cesarea, Tarsus, Adana, Marash and Aintab, and their environs, were spared in the earlier stages of the deportations, and it was hoped that they might be spared to the end, but, early in September, when there were rumors that the Allies might land at Mersine, there was a great drive of the Armenians from these centers toward Aleppo, although, in this latter case, the men were not treated with the same severity, they were elsewhere and earlier in the season. 6 ™Zx wa h s ereat loss of life attending the journey of these cara- vans and wh,le waiting at the railheads or at railway stations for transportation. One group seen at Adana, that had come from Konia, reported that at least one-half of the party starting with the caravan had died on the way. A group seen by the United States Consul at Harpoot, corning from Erzingan and Erzroom at the north, reported about one-half their number as having perished on the road, and they were still two hundred miles from Aleppo, their objective. It is difficult even to estimate the number of Armenians that have perished or have suffered intensely from this attack. If we assume that, at the beginning of the war, there were 2,000,000 Armenians m Turkey— and this number is usually conceded to be fairly conse-va- tive and approximately accurate-it is probably not an exaggeration to say that at least one-half of these, or 1,000,000, have felt the blow with intensity. Large numbers were able to flee, from the provinces of Erzroom, Trebizond and Van, into Russia and Persia, leaving everything that they possessed behind. Many of these are in a desper ate condition of need at the present time. INDIVIDUAL TESTIMONIES. The Council of the Supreme Patriarch and Katholikos of all Arme- nians, writes to the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief from Etchmiadzin, the Armenian Canterbury, on January 1 1916 (new style). From this letter, published in translation in the "New Armenia," March 1, 1916, we quote the following passages: "At their second retirement from Van in July, the Armenian resi- dents were bereft of all their possessions— houses, agricultural imple- ments, and domestic animals— at the same time having their homes burned up. IN THE LITERAL SENSE OF THE WORD 100 000 TO 120,000 ARMENIANS ARRIVED AT ETCHMIADZIN STRIPPED EVEN OF THEIR OUTER GARMENTS. Thirty-five thousand to 40,000 of them were accommodated in Etchmaidzin. "In Etchmaidzin alone 11,000 people died, and in the country round about it about 40,000 people died. Through the means that the local committee used, the disease was gradually checked. • "From 5,000 to 6,000 orphans and exhausted and worn-out people found refuge in the orphanages. They were like skeletons in human form. Through our care to-day they are safe and sound in Etch- miadzin, Dipghis, Baku, Erivan, Gharakilisa, and Ashtarak. TESTIMONY OF A WIDOW. A week before anything was done to , the villages all around had been emptied and their inhabitants had become victims of the gendarmes and marauding bands. Three days before the starting of the Armenians from , after a week's imprisonment, Bishop had been hanged, with seven other notables. After these hangings, seven or eight other notables were killed in their own houses for refusing to go out of the city. Seventy or eighty other 7 Armenians, after being beaten in prison, were taken to the woods and killed. The Armenian population of was sent off in three batches; I was among the third batch. My husband died eight years ago, leaving me and my eight-year-old daughter and my mother extensive possessions, so that we were living in comfort. Since mobUzation began, the Commandant has been living in my house free of rent. He told me not to go, but I felt I must share the fate of my people. I took three horses with me, loaded with provisions. My daughter had some five-lira pieces around her neck, and I carried some twenty liras and four diamond rings on my person. All else that we had was left behind. Our party left June 1 (old style), fifteen gendarmes going with us. The party numbered four or five hundred persons. We had got only two hours away from home when bands of villagers and brigands in large numbers, with rifles, guns, axes, etc., surrounded us on the road, and robbed us of all we had. The gendarmes took my three horses and sold them to Turkish mouhadjirs, pocketing the money. They took my money and that from my daughter's neck, also ail our food. After this they separated the men, one by one, and shot them all within six or seven days — every male above 15 years old. By my side were killed two priests, one of them over 90 years of age. These bandsmen took all the good-looking women and carried them off on their horses. Very many women and girls were thus carried off to the mountains, among them my sister, whose one-year-old baby they threw away; a Turk picked it up and carried it off, I know not where. My mother walked till she could walk no farther, and dropped by the roadside on a mountain-top. We found on the road many of those who had been in the previous sections carried from ; some women were among the killed, with their husbands and sons. We also came across some old people and little, infants still alive but in a pitiful condition, having shouted their voices away. We were not allowed to sleep at night in the villages, but lay down outside. Under cover of the night indescribable deeds were committed by the gendarmes, bandsmen and villagers. Many of us died from hunger and strokes of apoplexy. Others were left by the roadside, too feeble to go on. One morning we saw fifty to sixty wagons with about thirty Turkish widows, whose husbands had been killed in the war; and these were going to Constantinople. One of these women made a sign to one of the gendarmes to kill a certain Armenian whom she pointed out. The gendarmes asked her if she did not wish to kill him herself, at which she said, "Why not?" and, drawing a revolver from her pocket, shot and killed him. Each one of these Turkish hanums had five or six Armenian girls of ten or under with her. BOYS THE TURKS NEVER WISHED TO TAKE; THEY KILLED ALL, OF WHATEVER AGE. These women wanted to take my daughter, too, but she would not be separated from me. Finally we were both taken into their wagons on our promising to become Moslems. As soon as we entered the araba, they began to teach us how to be Moslems, and changed our names, calling me and her . The worst and most unimaginable horrors were reserved for us at the banks of the Euphrates and in the Erzingian plain. The muti- lated bodies of women, girls and little children made everybody shudder. The bandsman were doing all sorts of awful deeds to the women and girls that were with us, whose cries went up to heaven. At the Euphrates, the bandsmen and gendarmes threw into the river all the remaining children under fifteen years old. Those that could swim were shot down as they struggled in the water. After seven days we reached . Not an Armenian was left alive there. The Turkish women took my daughter and me to the bath, and there showed us many other women and girls that had accepted Islam. Between there and , the fields and hillsides were dotted with swollen and blackened corpses that filled and fouled the air with their stench. On this road we met six women wearing the feradje and with children in their arms. But when the gen- darmes lifted their veils, they found that they were men in disguise, so they shot them. After thirty-two days' journey we reached . EXTRACTS FROM OTHER AUTHENTIC REPORTS The exiles are forbidden to take anything with them. For that matter, in the districts under military occupation there is nothing left to take, as the military authorities have exerted themselves to carry off, for their own use, everything that they could lay hands on. * * * * "One thousand six hundred Armenians have had their throats cut in the prisons at Diyarbekir. THE ARASHNORT WAS MUTI- LATED, DRENCHED WITH ALCOHOL, AND BURNT ALIVE IN THE PRISON YARD, IN THE MIDDLE OF A CAROUSING CROWD OF GENDARMES, WHO EVEN ACCOMPANIED THE SCENE WITH MUSIC. The massacres at Beniani, Adeyaman and Selefeka have been carried out diabolically; there is not a single man left over the age of thirteen. The girls have been outraged merci- lessly; we have seen their mutilated corpses tied together in batches of four, eight and ten, and cast into the Euphrates. The majority have been mutilated in an indescribable manner." * * * * "At Vezir Kopru (District of Marsovan) all Armenian women and girls from seven to forty years have been sold at auction. Women were also presented to the buyers without payment." * * * * "I AM AMAZED AT THE SELF-CONTROL OF THE AR- MENIANS, FOR THOUGH THE TURKS DID NOT SPARE A SINGLE WOUNDED ARMENIAN, THE ARMENIANS ARE HELPING US TO SAVE THE TURKS— A THING THAT I DO NOT BELIEVE EVEN EUROPEANS WOULD DO." 9 "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 sheds in Alidjan, Megrokam, Khaskegh, and other Armenian villages, AND THESE ABSOLUTELY HELPLESS WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE 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 seem to hav* been unmoved by this unparalleled savagery, grasped the infants by one leg and hurled them into the fire calling out to the burning mothers, "Here are your lions." Turkish prisoners who had apparently witnessed some of these scenes, were horrified and maddened at remembering the sight. They told the Russians that the stench of the burning human flesh permeated the air for many days afterwards." * * * * "As I stand at my window in the morning I see one after another of the little bodies carried by, wrapped mostly in a ragged piece of patch-work;' and THE CONDITION OF THE LIVING IS MORE PITIFUL THAN THAT OF THE DEAD— hungry, ragged, dirty, sick, cold, wet, swarming with vermin — thousands of them. Not for all the wealth of all the rulers of Europe would I bear for one hour their responsibility for the suffering and misery of this one little corner of the world alone. A helpless, unarmed Christian community turned over to the sword and possession of Islam!" * * * * "Professor A. Served College 35 years; representative of the Americans with the government, Protestant "Akabed," professor of Turkish and history. Besides previous trouble, arrested May 1 with- out charge; hair of head, moustache and beard pulled out, in vain effort to secure damaging confessions; starved and hung by arms for a day and a night, and severely beaten several times; taken out towards Diyarbekir about June 20th, and murdered in general mas- sacre on the road. "Professor B. Served College 33 years, studied at Ann Arbor, professor of mathematics. Arrested about June 5th, and shared Pro- fessor A's fate on the road. "Professor C. Taken to witness a man beaten almost to death; became mentally deranged; started with his family about July 5th into exile under guard, and murdered beyond Malatia. Principal of Preparatory Department; studied at Princeton; served College 20 years. "Professor D. Served College 16 years; studied at Edinburgh- professor of mental and moral science. Arrested with Professor A and suffered same tortures; also had three fingernails pulled out by the roots; killed in same massacre." 10 PRESENT CONDITIONS. The facts already given contain much information about present needs and conditions, but the following will present abundant additional evidence. The number and location of survivors needing assistance are as accurate and complete as possible. SUMMARY OF THE AWFUL FACTS. Armenian population of Turkey, Persia and Syria before the European War 2,000,000 Armenians massacred or died of wounds, disease or exhaus- tion, about 850,000 Survivors, about 1,150,000 Total number of Syrians in Syria, the Lebanon region, Persia, and in the whole of what is called The Levant, over. . . . 3,000,000 Number of Syrians who have perished, over 100,000 Amount of money needed at once for relief of Armenians and Syrians $5,000,000 A FEW ILLUSTRATIONS OF NEED ARE GIVEN MORE IN DETAIL. Erzroom seems to have been dealt with most savagely. Less than 200 Armenians out of 20,000 in the city itself escaped death or depor- tation; that is, exile. Of these, thirty were saved in the house of Mr. Stapleton. The Armenians report that when the Moslems came and demanded that these girls be delivered over to them, Mr. Staple- ton replied, "You must kill me before you can touch them." Recent reports say that in the villages around Erzroom, Armenian women and children are appearing, singly and in groups, and are in the greatest need. Whose heart is not moved with pity for and desire to preserve these remnants who have escaped from the greatest destruction! Our opportunity is a wonderful one, to save the rem- nant, to aid in the restoration, to prepare for the return of the 200,000 fugitives now in Persia and the Caucasus. The ravages which disease has wrought are noticeable in the fact that the children do not number as many as the grown people. Of the 234,000 refugees now enrolled in the Caucasus and Persia, but 88,000 are children under 15 years of age. There are 81,000 women and 65,000 men. Rachel is indeed weeping for her children. The young lives could not stand the hardships of the terrible flight and weeks of more terrible suffering and disease afterwards. In Aleppo, reLef funds are so inadequate that many exiles in the destitute places have only grass to eat, and they are dying of starva- tion by hundreds. In Turkey alone, and not including the relief of the Armenians in the Caucasus, $52,800 a month is needed to keep these destitute people alive. Reports have been received from a wide district, including Deir Zor and other places on the River Euphrates and in the Arabian Desert. Eye-witnesses have seen thousands of deported Armenians under tents, in the open, in caravans on the march, descending the river in boats and in all phases of their miserable life. Only in a few places does the Turkish government issue any rations, and those are quite insufficient. The people, therefore, are themselves forced to satisfy their hunger with food begged in that scanty land or found in the parched fields. They were found eating grass, herbs and locusts, and, in desperate cases, dead animals and human bodies are reported to have been eaten. Naturally, the death rate from starvation and sickness is very high and is increased by the brutal treatment of the authorities, whose bearing toward the exiles as they are being driven back and forth over the desert is not unlike that of slave-drivers. With few excep- tions, no shelter of any kind was provided, and the people coming from a cold climate are left under the scorching desert sun without food and water. Temporary amelioration can only be obtained by the few able to r"7 the officials. The misery ana hopelessness of the situation is such that many of the exiles are reported to have resorted to suicide. Illustrating the methoos employed, it is reported that a group of one hundred children were gathered and placed in the care of an educated young widow from Hadjln. Two weeks later these children were deported Subsequently, from two survivors found further down the caravan route, it was learned that the rest of the children had perished The house-mother in whose charge the children had been placed, crazed by the loss of her charges, was among the deported moving on. Boat loads sent from Zor down the river arrived at Ana, one hundred and thirty miles away, with three-fifths of the passengers missing "There appears, in short, to be in execution a steady policy to exterminate from sTc^'h 7° ChargC ° f maSS3Cre - Their ^struction from so-called natural causes seems decided upon." "Refugees are located in broken down houses, damp sheds stalls fshed^ ^' T hCre SiCknCSS " Unavoid ^le for th'em, where the fam ver' f u:l l T C ° ld ' damP Carth > With0ut ™y what- ever. If this condition continues, half the refugees will die. "Everywhere comes the cry of cold and hungry people, mostly women and children. Stoves, you may say, there are none. All are hair-naked. Mothers in despair have put aside their babies, unwilling to look upon their pale, livid limbs. Tears have dried from their eyes and words of complaint been silenced from their lips." The annual report of the Medical Department in Urumia says: "A sad case was that of the mother of a girl of twelve who was being taken away to a life of slavery. The mother protested and tried to save her child, who was ruthlessly torn from her. As the daughter was being dragged away, the mother made so much trouble for her oppressors, and clung to them so tenaciously, that they stabbed her twelve times before she fell, helpless to save her little girl from her fate. This woman recovered from her wounds. Some people were shot as they ran, and children that they were carrying were killed or wounded with them. In some cases men were lined up so that several could be shot with one bullet in order not to waste ammunition on them. "At the height of the epidemic not less than two thousand were sick, and the mortality reached forty-eight daily, and the fact that four thousand died, besides the one thousand who were killed, will help to make vivid the terrible conditions that prevailed in our crowded premises. All ranks have suffered — preachers, teachers, physicians, etc., as well as the poor, for all had to live in the same unhygienic surroundings. "One of the most terrible things that came to the notice of the Medical Department was the treatment of Syrian women and girls by the Turks, Kurds and local Mohammedans. After the massacre in the village of , almost all of the women and girls were outraged, and two little girls, aged eight and ten, died in the hands of Moslem villains. A MOTHER SAID THAT NOT A WOMAN OR GIRL ABOVE TWELVE (AND SOME YOUNGER) IN THE VILLAGE ESCAPED VIOLATION. THIS IS THE USUAL RE- PORT FROM THE VILLAGES. A MISSIONARY IN URUMIA, PERSIA. Dr. then quotes from a letter written by Rev. Dr. , a missionary in Urumia, on the 8th of November. It shows that in the midst of the heavy work of relieving present suffering there had been up to that time no opportunity to attend to the work of burying the dead, massacred in April. "Politically, things are in apparently good order. People are easily frightened and are nervous, but we have good hopes. Yesterday I went to the Halla of Icrr.ael Agha, and from there Kasha and some men went with me up the road to the place where the Gawar men were murdered by the Turks. It was a gruesome sight! Perhaps the worst I h-ve seen at all. There were seventy-one or two bodies; we could not tell exactly because of the conditions. It is about six months since the murder. Some were in fairly good condition— dried, like a 13 mummy. Others were torn to pieces by the wild animals. Some had been daggered in several places, as evident from the cuts in the skin. The most of them had been shot. The ground about was littered with empty shells. It was a long way off from the Kalla, and a half hour's walk from the main road into the most rugged gorge I have seen for some time. I suppose the Turks thought no word could get out from there — a secret, solitary, rocky gorge. How those three wounded men succeeded in getting out and reaching the city is more of a marvel than I thought it was at the time. The record of massacre burials now stands as follows: "At Charbash, forty in one grave, among them a bishop. At Guelpashen, fifty-one in one grave, among them the most innocent persons ; n the country; and now, above the Kalla of Ismael A^ha, seventy in one grave, among them leading merchants of Gawar. "These one hundred and sixty-one persons, buried by me, came to their death in the most cruel manner possible, at the hands of regular Turkish troops in company with Kurds under their command." THE NEED INCREASING. The condition of the Armenians since their deportation has at all times been most pitiable, but recent reports which have reached the office of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief acquaint us with a situation which is even more terrible than before. A report from Aleppo says: "Our messenger has safely returned from Deir Zor and we hope to be able to send him again in a few days. The misery in Deir Zor seems to be indescribable. There are now about 50,000 Armenians in Deir Zor. Thousands have been sent far- ther south and of those who have been sent on not more than 20 per cent, remain alive. Of the first caravan numbering about 600 people which was sent from Deir Zor to Ana the Arabs killed 500 on the way. In a word, there are only remnants of the people who have been sent from their homes left down there. Not more than one-quarter of the people coming from Marash and the surrounding country have sur- vived, and the survivors are in a miserable condition and must sooner or later perish. Aintab people reached Deir Zor without greatly diminished numbers, but as they brought nothing with them they are dying of hunger by the hundreds. Farther down there on the cara- van road there are large camps remaining, but they are vigilantly guarded and it is scarcely possible to send them help." Another crying need of the Armenians comes from the thousands of orphans who have survived the deportation and are now con- centrated in and about Aleppo district. "In Konia proper and sur- rounding villages it is estimated there are 2,000 orphans, and this number is constantly increasing. In a native letter from Haleb last week the number of orphans at that place was estimated at 25,000 " A recent despatch says: "Vali here (Aleppo) is all the time talking ot sending the orphans to Constantinople, but he is not willing that any of the missionaries or Armenians should accompany them. It is plain to us that they wish to destroy the children in one way or another." STARVING IN LEBANON. We quote the following from the Near East Magazine of London, issue of June 9, 1916: "To one who is acquainted with Lebanon it is not difficult to un- derstand how the whole population of such a province can be starved. The chief means of livelihood of the Lebanese are the rearing of the silkworm, the cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables, the rearing of cattle on a small scale, and transport by mules, donkeys, etc. The blockade has killed the silkworm industry; the commandeering of all sound cattle and beasts of burden has ruined the limited agricultural resources of the mountain and the muleteer's business, while the locusts have put the finishing touch to the work of desolation." "Whole families are alleged to have disappeared and some of the villages lost MORE THAN ONE-THIRD OF THEIR POPULA- TION." "The death roll in Lebanon has attained the appalling figure of 80,000." The Al Ahram, one of the greatest representatives of the Arabic Press in Egypt, which until recently denied that there was a famine in Mt. Lebanon, now affirms that 80,000 have died from starvation up to May 1, 1916. It reiterates what we copied above from the Near East Magazine, and adds: "Many are dying of hunger on the highways and in the woods, where they go seeking grass and weeds, but find the ground barren, the locusts having consumed all vegetation." MISSIONARY PROPERTY REQUISITIONED. "As you probably know, all our property has been requisitioned by the Turks at Marsovan, Sivas and Cesarea, and the missionaries have all been forcibly sent to Constantinople. Five hundred thousand dollars' worth of American property at Marsovan alone has fallen into their hands. They have now got all my worldly possessions, my library, all my personal effects and those of my family, household furniture, etc., which we had with difficulty accumulated through years. I had a talk with Mr. , who arrived from Smyrna last Friday. He says the food situation in that city is desperate and that the people are dying in large numbers from starvation. "The Marsovan girls saved by Miss Willard are now all lost again. This is very hard for us to bear. The girls and women who were being cared for by the missionaries in Cesarea were forced to become Mohammedans the same day they were taken." STATEMENT OF GERMAN TEACHERS. The following are extracts from a letter written in October, 1915, r German teachers in the High School at Aleppo: "In face of the horrible scenes which take place daily near our school buildings before our very eyes, our school work has sunk to a level which is an insult to all human sentiments. How can we masters possibly read the stories of 'Snow-white and the Seven Dwarfs' with our Armenian children, how can we bring ourselves to decline and conjugate, when in the courtyards opposite and next to our school buildings death is reaping a harvest among the starv- ing compatriots of our pupils? "Girls, boys, and women, all practically naked, lie on the ground breathing their last sighs amid the dying and among the coffins put out ready for them. "Forty to fifty people reduced to skeletons are all that is left of the 2,000 to 3,000 healthy peasant women driven down here from . Upper Armenia. The good-looking ones are decimated by the vice of their gaolers, whilst the ugly ones are victimized by beatings, hunger and thirst. Even those lying at the water's edge are not allowed to drink. Europeans are prohibited from distributing bread among them. More than a hundred corpses are taken out daily from Aleppo. "All this is taking place before the eyes of highly placed Turkish officials. Forty to fifty people reduced to skeletons are lying heaped up in a yard near our school. They are practically insane, and have forgotten how to eat. If one offers them bread they push it indif- ferently aside. They utter low groans and await death. "The more refined Turks and Arabs shake their heads sorrowfully when they see br.utal soldiers bringing convoys through the town of women far advanced in pregnancy, whom they beat with cudgels, these poor wretches being hardly able to drag themselves along. "There are, moreover, dreadful hecatombs of human beings, as shown in the enclosed decree of Djemal Pasha. "This is a proof that in certain places the light is feared, but people have not yet the will to put an end to these scenes, which are de- grading to mankind. "We know that the Foreign Office has already received descrip- tions of the local condition of affairs from other sources. Since, however, the procedure of deportation has in no way been ameliorated' we feel it more than ever our duty to submit this report for your perusal. "Above all, we realize to the full the danger with which German prestige is here threatened. "DIRECTOR HUBER, "DR. NIEPAGE, "DR. GRAETNER, "M. SPIELER." r6 RELIEF MEASURES IN TURKEY. The American Committee is cooperating with strong commissioners in Turkey, Persia, the Russian Caucasus and elsewhere, composed of American Consuls, missionaries and others, thus giving assurance of wise and effective use of all funds entrusted to their care. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau rendered great service while in Turkey, and since his return to America, both before and since his resignation as Ambas- sador, has done much to arouse America to help the Armenians. Offi- cials of foreign governments have given freelv of time, strength and leadership to help the relief commissioner's. Missionaries have thrown themselves into this work with a devotion that should inspire heroic sacrifice on the part of those who support them at home. At least eight of these have died under the terrific strain. The greatest contribution in all this relief work is not being made by members of the Committee, who are giving their time, nor by generous contributors in America, who are giving their money, but the supreme sacrifice is on the part of the faithful commissioners, who, disregard- ing all hardship and personal dangers, devote themselves to ministry to the sick, destitute and dying. These are they of whom the world is not worthy. Such service and sacrifice, shared by members of their families, make the largest contributions of money seem paltry. When the story of the year has--been written in detail it will reveal a list of heroes and heroines who counted not their lives dear unto themselves, but who, for the sake of the people to whom they had given their lives, remained, in the face of peril and even threatened death, in order that they might serve best those whom they loved and the country for which they had decided in earlier years to make the supreme sacrifice. Among the last things which Dr. S. G. Wilson, Chairman of the Caucasus Relief Commission, did before he was fatally stricken with typhoid at Tabriz, was to send a report to the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. The following quotations are the voice of a martyr, who laid down his life on June 2nd, 1916. What an ideal work it is to repair the ravages of war and restore the refugees to their old homes. This we have been attempting in the wake of the victorious Russian army. Its steady advance along the whole line from Trebizond to Kerind has given us the opportunity. So already there are thousands of sprouting harvest-fields in the districts of Van and Alasgard, with the promise of food for thou- sands of families. Since the vernal equinox there has been a small but steady stream of returning refugees-strong, vigorous men, mostly farmers. They wisely left their families in the security of the Caucasus, themselves daring the risk of possible retreat. The Russian Government gave free transport to the refugees on the railway as far as Julfa, the Per- sian border. Thence they started on foot, via Khoi, a tramp of about one hundred and fifty miles. The Union of cities and the Red Cross established a series of hos- pices on this road, where free lodging and food were given to the refugees, the sick were taken care of and officials and the relief force entertained. Most of these were groups of Kirghiz tents, structures of very thick felt over a light framework of wood. It is with a thrill of joy that one comes in sight of the Red Cross Flag in the far-off Persian mountains. Blessed is the service under this banner of sacrifice. These repatriated Christians had need of everything. All had been swept away in the avalanche of loot and destruction. Many things could wait the return of the families. Before the house was the field. Our first care was given to providing farm implements, seed and cattle. I remained in Khoi to make purchases and to be in reach of the money centres, Tiflis and Tabriz, while Dr. Macallum and Mr. Gracey went on to Van to make distribution. Oxen, cows, buffaloes, wagons, plowshares, spades, sickles, grain, and various garden seeds were among our purchases. The accomplishment of such a task is not easy, at present, for Persia and the Caucasus have been and are being drawn on for army supplies to an unprecedented extent. To prevent interference with the army commissariat we were limited as to our markets. Fortu- nately for the refugees, they and the Armenian Committees had no limita.ions put upon them. Transportation was another difficulty, as pack animals were liable to be commandeered for the army. Even the Persians in certain cities prohibited the export of grain lest there be scarcity and rise of prices. The Persians were also dissatisfied .with the military export of beef-cattle and held a mass meeting in Tabriz to protest against it as liable to cause scarcity for farm labor and the meat markets. As an offset to these difficulties and the manifold trials of the refu- gees there was a remarkable providence. THE UNREAPED HAR- VEST OF LAST YEAR REMAINED SAFE IN THE FIELDS. This was true in a number of districts of Van. The villages had remained without inhabitants. A few thousands only had gathered in the city of Van. There was a small army of occupation which had foraged on the standing wheat. The winter had passed with unusual mildness. No hail or storms had beaten upon the standing grain. So when in April the refugees returned, they thrust in the sickles which we put into their hands and reaped abundantly. This grain and the undisturbed wheat stores in the pits in the villages give bread to many till the harvest time. I should mention that we brought from the Caucacus about 30,000 pieces of bedding and clothing for distribution. This work of reconstruction has not been without its risks. So in Urumia there has been imminent danger, while the Nestorians were rebuilding the homes and re-establishing their altars. The battle raged but a few hours' distant between Kurds and Russians, and any day might have seen Urumia become the battle field again, even as has happened to Soujbulak, where the ebb and flow of war has left noth- ing but ruin and desolation. So it might have been at Van. Indeed, when the Turkish force retook Bitlis, the people in Van were preparing for another flight. But thanks to the onward, successful sweep of the Russian army, the danger has more and more receded. The wisdom of taking the risk has been justified, and a harvest will not only furnish food for the people, but make the army commissariat easier. A CRY FROM TURKEY. The following communications have just been received by the Com- mittee from sources well known by the chairman of the committee. The documents are through official channels and are absolutely trust- worthy. For obvious reasons names are suppressed. Their publication would bring disaster upon the writers and their friends. DEIR ZOR, FROM LETTERS FROM AINTAB (JUNE 22). The greatness of the work here can neither with words, nor with the pen, be properly described; one must see in order to understand the conditions prevailing. Ah, dear sister, Deir Zor needs help, un- usual help. Please tell people so. Tell our missionaries that THEIR COLLEGE CHILDREN, YOUNG MEN AND GIRLS, ARE DY- ING OF HUNGER. To look at them breaks one's heart. We have need of hands that reach out to help, of people ready to help, faithful to their duty. Perhaps they are astonished at this cry for help. But I am not thinking of myself, but of the crowds of children outside, that are crying for bread, of the many pure young girls who, driven by hunger and loneliness at home, seek refuge at the hearths of Arabian men, to whom they are sold for bread; the women, the mothers, who are wandering about in despair to find bread for the little ones; the young people who, weakened by hunger, appear like old people prematurely aged. The responsibility of having seen this compels me to write. The work that is done here for these most needy people is very great, but yet it does not meet the need. We must daily buy back at least three or four young girls, else they will be completely lost. The number of those who implore aid is end- less. A little boy said to his mother: "Mother, here is the cooking- stove and the pot, why don't you cook us something to eat?" The little one had not eaten anything for two days. Another child: "MOTHER, WILL EVER THE TIME COME AGAIN THAT I CAN EAT AS MUCH AS I LIKE?" THE PEOPLE KILL AND EAT THE STREET DOGS. A short time ago they killed and ate a dying man. An eyewitness told me this. A woman cut off her hair and sold it for bread. I SAW A WOMAN, WHO FROM THE STREET ATE THE CLOTTED BLOOD OF AN ANIMAL. UP TILL NOW ALL FED THEMSELVES WITH GRASS, BUT 19 THAT, TOO, IS NOW DRIED UP. Last week we came in a house of which the occupants had not eaten anything since three days. The wife had a child in her arms and tried to give it a crumb of bread to eat. The child could not move, it groaned and died in her arms. In this very moment I came in with C; he gave her a lira. The woman took it and then cried, in tears: "Ah, if you had brought this only one day earlier, my child would have been still alive." A family went to bed hungry; the child could not sleep and cried for bread. At last the Arabian owner of the house was moved with compassion and gave the little one a piece of bread. The child took it, was going to eat it, but then bethought himself, held it close to hi'm and said: "When I eat it now I will be hungry again to-morrow," and with the feeling to have the bread near him, went off to sleep. A mother threw herself into the Euphrates, after she had seen her child die of hunger; a father did the same. On account of the general dearness, the need increases very much. When one gives a few madjids, the people pay first their bread debts, have bread for a few days, and hunger presents itself again. Whenever and wherever there is any help, God will use it and us— no trouble will be too much for us. Dear sister, if you could only see NOW many of our women and girls whom you have known! The work, that with the help of God you have begun, will later show its fruit. The fruit will exceed your ex- pectations. During the last weeks I have with G. visited so many houses, that we learned to know well all Deir Zor and its poor. It is impossible to remain totally hidden . . . G. is at work morning, afternoon and night; he really has the needs of the poor and unfortu- nate at heart, and ever and again he puts his life in danger to save some. 12th July. .The need is great. The people live on what we are able to give them. The people that we meet in the street hardly look like human beings; if one has money it is not necessary to look for the poor, you find them in crowds. Rich and poor do not exist any more. If one should go from door to door distributing gifts, one could be sure to have given nothing unnecessary. Certainly a morning will follow this dark night, but the Lord will triumph only when faithful watchmen of the night keep their posts, loyally fulfill- ing their duty. May God use you as such!" From a letter from Hamam, dated June 25: "There are about 1,000 tents. As far as health goes, we are well; but much of what we see and experience here, compels us to write to you. There are here many hundreds of miserable, abandoned children, women and men, who, weakened by hunger and illness, wander about the tents, looking very pitiful. At every meal come at least twenty or thirty begging for a piece of bread. Many families have eaten nothing for several days and do not have the courage to beg. The number of such families increases from day to day. What will be the end? If it goes on like that much longer, the greater part of the people, perhaps all, will perish of hunger and misery. THE PEOPLE FIGHT FOR THE CLOTTED BLOOD OF KILLED ANIMALS; THEY GNAW THE BONES which they find on dung-hills; they look for grains of oats in horse-dung, to eat them; THEY EAT THE FLESH OF FALLEN ANIMALS AND MEN. MANY WHO CANNOT BEAR 20 IT ANY LONGER, THROW THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHIL- DREN INTO THE EUPHRATES. SUCH HORRIBLE THINGS WE SEE DAILY AND CAN DO NOTHING BUT IMPLORE GOD FOR HELP AND MERCY. And we consider it our duty to inform you of this terrible need. Dear sister, we beseech you, for Christ's sake, to come in some way to the aid of this poor, miserable people, to save it from horrible starvation. If possible, send someone who himself can see all this. When at all possible, SEND SOME RICH AND LASTING HELP. Everything is very dear. One family needs for bread alone from fifteen to twenty piasters per day. From Sepka (June, 1916) : "With this letter I come to you as the representative of many prayers and cries of need. I ask for a crowd of more than 2,500 miserable, hungry people, dried ap to skeletons. Many were already here, crowds of new ones have been added. MANY DIE OF HUNGER EVERY DAY. THE GRAVE-DIG- GERS ARE ALWAYS BUSY. THE GROANS AND LAMENTA- TIONS IN THE MARKET PLACE, IN THE STREETS, AND OUT IN THE QUIET DESERT GIVE OUR HEARTS NO REST. THE CHILDREN ON THE DUNG-HILLS! AH! WHAT AM I TRYING TO DESCRIBE! THE PEN FAILS ME! I BEG FOR THEM FOR HELP, FOR MERCY. ANOTHER PICTURE OF RELIEF ACTIVITIES In consultation with the other Relief Committees, we selected Hyots Tsore as the region for our work. It is a beautiful and fertile valley, through which the Khoshap river flows down into Lake Van. It contains forty villages, now in ruins, but many of the people have come back and every day there are new arrivals. In view of the needs of the army it is forbidden to buy animals or seed in the province of Van. We secured permission, however, to buy buffaloes, as they are not used for food by the soldiers. In addition to the oxen, cows and buffaloes sent us by Dr. Wilson from Khoi, we purchased an even greater number from drovers who brought them from Persia. As soon as we had animals enough, Mr. Gracey went out to the villages with an Armenian volunteer from America as a guard, and gave tickets to the farmers who were to get oxen. These tickets were at once brought in to me and I delivered the animals according to the arrangements made in the village. Our plan was to give a yoke of oxen to each three families and care was taken to group together only such families as would probably get on harmoniously. Our hope is that later we may be able to give a yoke of oxen to every two families. We do not give the animals outright, but take a note from each recipient, by which he promises to pay to us or to any committee or person designated by us, the value of the animals received. Payment is to be made in three annual instalments, beginning November 1, 1917. In fixing the price we take off from twenty-five to fifty per cent, of what we have paid, as the price of oxen is now from three to six times greater than under normal conditions. Cows are given chiefly to widows, orphans and to families where there are little children. The Governor and the General-in-command very kindly give an official document to all who get animals, confirming their possession and forbidding their requisition for any purpose whatever. We gave plowshares, shovels and sickles to the families which got oxen or buffaloes. In the month covered by this report, we gave 400 oxen to 600 families, 100 cows to 200 widows, orphans, invalids and infants, and 50 buffaloes to 75 families. It proved impossible to procure seed grain in large quantities from Persia. We learned, however, that if we gave money to the farmers they could purchase seed for themselves in the villages round about. In this way between three and four thousand bushels of wheat and barley were bought, and, we have every reason to believe, were actually sown. We took notes also from the farmers for this, by which they promised to give back to us at harvest time the same amount of seed as they had received. Our idea is that this grain can either be given out again as seed or be used for food as seems best. When the Governor heard of our method of distributing seed, he was greatly pleased and gave us 10,000 rubles, the sum we have expended, and we handed over to him the notes we had taken from the farmers. He indicated that he would give us more money, as needed, for the same purpose. We also provided the people of our district with considerable quantities of potatoes, beans, lentils, corn and all kinds of vegetable seeds, for which they were very grateful. There is a great scarcity of tools of all kinds in Van, but we were able to set up a number of tradesmen, tailors, carpenters, bakers and others. Much more could wisely be done along this line as the people return. SYRIA'S TERRIBLE PLIGHT America has not had so much information about conditions in that portion of the Turkish Empire known as "Syria." There is now no Syrian nation. But in what is known commonly as Syria, there are three to four million people whose needs are as great as those of the Armenians. It is even asserted that in much of the region known as "Lebanon," the privations are greater. Syria is sharing Armenia's late. Called by its inhabitants "the land of roses," it is now a land of misery and woe. Mohammedans as well as Christians are dying of starvation and disease. « Communication with the outside world is difficult. The people cannot let the world know their condition and the situation there is known chiefly from refugees who have escaped to Egypt. A pam- phlet published by the Syrian-Mt. Lebanon Relief Committee of New York asserts that 100,000 have perished in the Lebanon region alone. It is cut off from the world. The military and naval blockade cut off all food supplies, but now the Turkish government has cabled the Ameri- 22 can State Department that relief supplies may enter and be distributed. The silk factories are closed. The threshing floors are deserted. The fields are a barren waste. The able-bodied men have been drafted into the army. The aged men, the women and children are dying from starvation. They are living on grass and herbs. And a plague of locusts last spring has left little of either. The Syrians in America have done nobly. They have given about one million dollars. They are observing fast days and are sending the savings to their brothers in Syria. Four hundred thousand in the Lebanon region alone are in the grip of hunger and disease, facing famine, and a slow, lingering, harrowing death. They cry to the world for help in their terrible agony of body and mind. Deliver- ance to this simple, gentle, hospitable people must come from Amer- ica, or it will not come at all. The Nestorian Christians, about 200,000 of them, are commonly called Assyrians, though they speak the Syrian language. In Janu- ary of last year they were subjected to massacre and pillage. No city or village escaped. Typhoid and other diseases broke out among them. Many thousands of them died. They have been, and still are, in a pitiable plight. The story of the Armenians could be told over again in the case of these Nestorian Christians, who at great cost, for many centuries, have held fast their Christian faith. They have been shot down, robbed, their property burned or plundered, their women and children subjected to nameless outrages. An account from an absolutely unimpeachable source, tells of the experiences of the Mountaineers of Mar Shimun. They escaped to Persia. They number about 100,000. Of these about 75,000 came to Salmas almost naked, destitute of everything and shivering with cold. Salmas had already been plundered and in many cases the refugees could not even be sheltered in the houses. Relief to some extent came to them from Russia and England. Over 200 girls and women were carried off into captivity and forced to accept Moham- medan husbands. These people must have help or be annihilated. Just as this hand-book is going to press, a cablegram is received by the American Committee from Rev. Mr. Vanneman in Tabriz, dated Sept. 27, 1916. It says "Relief Committee" needs for winter: Food, $160,000; bedding, $100,000; clothing, $25,000; seed, $10,000; orphanage, $10,000— Total, $305,000. This is a sample merely of appeals from Syrian sources. The needs are unimaginably great. I 23 AMERICA'S RESPONSE THUS FAR. The American Board representing the Congregational Churches which for seventy-five years has been at work in Turkey first took up the work of alleviating suffering. A considerable sum was sent through their treasury. Then several independent committees were organized to raise funds. Later all these were united under the title of the American Com- mittee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, composed of a strong and representative group of men. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America included an appeal for Armenians in a message to the churches in behalf of War Relief in June, 1916, entitled "The Opportunity and Test of American Christianity." An appeal to Sunday Schools in behalf of children in Bible lands to take offerings on Memorial Day was circulated. On August 26th the public press announced that President Wilson had appointed October 21st and 22nd as days for American- contribu- tions to Armenian and Syrian relief. This was in response to a resolu- tion passed by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States calling upon the President to designate a day for this purpose. About one-fifth of the money asked for has been secured. Nearly one-half of this amount has been given .by three large givers and one organization, the balance by a few hundred churches and other or- ganizations and a comparatively small number of individual givers. The great mass of American citizens have given nothing to alleviate this suffering. The expenses of the committee are provided for privately, so that every dollar given goes to meet the appalling need. HOW SOME GIVE The following is an extract from a typical letter received by the Committee from a minister and his wife: Though financially limited ourselves, receiving a salary of but $20 per month as pastor of churches, we have decided to give one- half of this amount monthly for six months to relieve Armenian suffering and destitution, desiring the consolation only of Him who centuries ago in those lands said: "I was hungry and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a- stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me* I was in prison and ye came unto me." 24 Some are giving generously out of their abundance. Others are giv- ing with sacrifice out of their meager income. A laboring man enclosing a savings bank check wrote, "I am out of work and have no income, but I at least have my health and relatives and loved ones." Geo. W. Hartzel, Manufacturer, Black Walnut Lumber, Figured Walnut and Fancy Veneers, Saw-miil, South Ave., Piqua, Ohio, Res., 815 Hamon Ave., Dayton, Ohio. July 3, 1916. Am. Com. for Armenian and Syrian Relief, Mr. C. V. Vickrey. My dear Sir: Replying yrs 28 — I am enclosing another Ck $25. I have to tell you that my eldest daughter Ruth, made out the other check No. C39. $25.00 sent you — and that it was the last work of this kind she did before leaving our home for her home in heaven. She was an invalid for years, but kept our tithe funds and did all the paying and I assure you our loss is SEVERE. Oh! I wish I knew how best to do just the things Ruth would have me do — but after reading your circular — the impression seemed to say "Papa, duplicate the last remittance!" May God richly bless you and help to heal our wounded hearts, here and in Armenia. Very sincerely, (Signed) GEO. W. HARTZELL. A well dressed but unassuming man walked into the offices of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York, one day and inquired for the secretary. He named a middle western state as his home and said he had been thinking about making a contribution to help the Armenian refugees in Turkey and had concluded, from what he had read in the newspapers, that money is badly needed now. "I can give $5,000," he said, "but I would like to hear something about the facts." The assistant secretary of the committee, Walter Mallory, sum- marized the situation in accordance with information which had been received in recent letters and cablegrams. One of the facts stated by Mr. Mallory is that there are about a million Armenian and Syrian Christian refugees in Turkey and Persia, largely women and children, nearly all of whom are destitute. Deported from their homes by Turkish soldiers, many thousands are suffering for lack of the bare necessities of life. Then he began to tell of sacrifices which con- tributors to the relief fund had made. 25 The visitor listened to the story of the minister and his wife in Ohio, given above. "Well, ' said the stranger, "if they can make a sacrifice like that I think I can give $10,000." On the way to the office of Charles R. Crane, the treasurer, the donor was told of an old woman who wrote she had no money but would give her old paisley shawl— an heirloom which had been in the family many years and had once been her mother's. He listened also to a letter from the mother of a little girl, four years old, who had earned two cents sweeping the sidewalk. She wanted to give one cent to the Belgian babies and the other to the starving Armenians. "If other people are willing to give up things," commented the stranger, "I ought to be willing to do the same. I think that every one ought to help save this old Christian race. I believe I can give $15,000." Before he entered the treasurer's office the stranger seemed to make some mental calculations and when he wrote out his check it read $18,000. "Under no circumstances is my name to be made public," said the stranger, so the treasurer, to keep faith, personally deposited the check in the bank. IS SACRIFICE A REALITY? A Christian steward who has reversed the rule of giving by keeping one-tenth for personal use and giving away nine-tenths to bless and enrich the world in a recent letter says: "This lead-, me to ask, have we, you and I, realized what this war would have cost us, individually, if our nation had been drawn in with the others? "In the destruction and depreciation of so-called real property and the inevitable slump in stocks and bonds, the United States would alrcacy have lost thousands of millions of dollars. "Some thousands of this would have fallen on you and me and some thousands additional from increased taxes. "But that is a mere bagatelle when we think of those dear to us children and friends, who would now be in untimely graves. "Oh for true thankfulness, expressed in deeds, not words, that God has so far kept us out of carnage. "True, we have given the cost of a cannon and a few rounds of ammunition to the Belgians, and have been duly lauded therefor but that and all the rest of our gifts meant no sacrifice to you or me! "Some one has said, 'The measure of Christ's suffering for us is tne only true measure of our devotion to Him,' and on this basis blame -not pra:se-is due; and hoarded wealth will surely cry out against us when our accounts are audited, as they will be soon. "You and I may already be giving lavishly to God and humanity but war would FORCE from us thousands more. 26 "Let us rather gladly give it, as a thank offering that we and ours yet live, and that we may speed the coming of the King. "If this means selling some favorite investment, so much the better. "I have just cashed in a good one myself for another thank offering. "Let us 'Do it Now.' "Cold showers are healthy and bring a delightful afterglow." A. A. HYDE. WHAT IS NEEDED Ex-Ambassador Morgenthau, who represented our government in Constantinople during the early part of the war, estimates that $5,000,000 is needed for Armenia alone, to rehabilitate the scattered, broken families in their former homes now desolate or to establish and support them in new locations until they can again become self-supporting. But besides Armenia there is Syria, with a population of four million, many of whom ARE NOW DYING of hunger and privation, with the added hardships of a second winter fast approaching. A leading Moslem paper that formerly denied that there was need in Syria now grants that more than 100,000 have perished in one section of Syria. To this should be added the suffering in Palestine, in Persia, and among the refugees in Egypt, the Caucasus and elsewhere. One dollar will keep a person alive for a month. In some cases $25 will help to save and establish a whole family. One hundred dollars will buy a buffalo, $150 a yoke of oxen, $50 a cow. Other sums will provide farming implements, clothing, bedding, seed, medicines, materials for houses, etc. TURKISH GOVERNMENT PLEDGES COOPERATION The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief has been able to administer relief steadily throughout the past winter in certain refugee camps and important centers, working through official channels that insured effective administration. Now, however, the Turkish Government cables to the State Depart- ment at' Washington that relief may be distributed to the indigent in- habitants of Syria through representatives of the Red Crescent and the American Red Cross at Beirut jointly. Contributions should be sent to Charles R. Crane, Treasurer, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York. 27 HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF RELIEF DAYS L Personal suggestions to pastors and other speakers: 1. Master the facts in this handbook. 2. Tray much over the appeal you are to make in behalf of the sufferers. 3. Interview editors of local papers to make sure that facts con- cerning the situation and need, sent to them from New York, are published. Write a letter for publication on the subject to the editor over your own name. Encourage other members of the committee to write similar letters, giving publicity to the facts. 4. Preach at least one sermon or make an address on the subject. Following are some of the suggested texts which mi~ht be used: John 15:13; Isaiah 63:9; 1 John 3:17; Prov. 24:11,12; James 1:27. 5. See that the meetings are thoroughly advertised by means of posters, the church bulletin and public press. 6. Interview people of means to secure large individual contribu- tions. 7. See that the matter is thoroughly considered by your Church Federation or Association of Ministers. II. Work through churches, synagogues and other gatherings: 1. Every pastor to be asked to set aside October 22nd as Armenian- Syrian Relief Sunday, presenting the need and appealing to the congregation. 2. Every Sunday School superintendent and teacher to be asked to present Armenian-Syrian situation to members of the Sunday School, October 15th, distributing such literature and collection boxes as may be desired, with the understanding that they will be returned Sunday, October 22nd. III. Community organization: Every city where a local committee does not already exist is asked to organize a temporary Relief Committee, this committee to elect a treasurer, to employ an executive secretary to give his or her full time to the work until October 22nd, it being understood that the salary of this local executive secretary and other necessary expenses for printing, postage, stenography, 28 circular appeals, etc., may be deducted from local receipts before remittance is made to the New York treasury. The committees should include, if possible, the mayor of the city, superintendent of education, chairman or representative of the Chamber of Commerce, and prominent religious workers, in- cluding Protestants, Reman Catholics and Jews. BUT, if on short notice it is impracticable to secure the leadership of these officials, have A COMMITTEE, even though it be small and self-constituted, that can work quickly and effectively through an executive secretary. Among the lines- of activity suggested for this local committee and the executive secretary, are the following: 1. Publicity: The fullest possible publicity to be secured in the daily and weekly press, through church announcements, bulletins, posters, and other agencies. (a) Interview editors, asking them to give prominence to the Presi- dent's proclamation and to the urgent needs of Armenia and Syria. (b) Write letters on the subject to the editor and have friends write, giving facts that he can publish. (c) Make' sure that the editor is publishing material sent to him from the New York office, duplicates of which will be sent to the local committee, if requested. (d) Get business firms to devote a portion of their advertising space for one or more days. (e) Use posters widely in churches, hotels, banks, restaurants and public places. (f) Ask local papers to open a relief fund of their own to which citizens will be invited to send contributions, the local papers making daily reports of receipts and turning them over to the local treasurer at the close of the campaign. (g) Request booksellers to display in their windows books on Ar- menia and Syria and have the public library feature books on this subject. The two-color poster (11x14) furnished by the Committee can be displayed in connection with such exhibits. : 29 2. Other plans : (a) A special committee of influential citizens should be organized to solicit from wealthy persons large gifts, commensurate with Armenia's needs and America's resources. (b) Letters of appeal signed by prominent citizens or members of the committee should be addressed to lists of prospective con- tributors whom it is impossible to interview personally. Leaflet, "Cry of a Million," is available for enclosure in these letters. (c) The committee should select its own treasurer, well known locally, to whom contributions may be forwarded. A bank or trust company may serve. (d) As far in advance of October 21st and 22nd as practicable a supply of large collection boxes and posters should be secured from the Armenian-Syrian Committee and placed in all restau- rants, banks, hotels, offices and other places for the reception of offerings. (e) Wherever practicable secure the leadership and cooperation of the mayor of the city/ Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade and other similar bodies. (f) Secure the energetic cooperation of the women's clubs or other organizations of women. The indescribable suffering and destitution of hundreds of thousands of women and children should appeal to the deepest sympathy of the womanhood and childhood as well as the manhood of America. (g) Where war relief committees are already organized, enlist their cooperation and utilize their facilities for this special occasion. (h) Where practicable arrange a union meeting on Saturday night, October 21st, or Sunday afternoon, October 22nd, as a civic response to the appeal for these non-combatant, but none the less war-trodden races. 3. Printed matter: The following printed matter is available : (a) The appeal of the Federal Council of Churches, quoting the President's proclamation and urging generous response from the churches. (b) Speakers' Handbook, a manual of 32 pages of information con- cerning conditions and needs in Armenia and Syria. (c) "The Cry of a Million," an eight-page, two-color, illustrated leaflet, giving a popular statement of the need, suitable for en- closure by local committees in letters of appeal. 3© (d) A two-color poster, size approximately 11x14, suitable for use on church bulletin boards, in hotels, Y. M. C. A.'s, restaurants, banks, offices, Sunday School rooms, etc. (e) Large cardboard collection box (6x4x4). Price 5c. each, suit- able for use in connection with above poster in banks, hotels, restaurants, and public places, also as a general collection box in Sunday Schools and church organizations. Local committees are authorized to deduct the cost of these boxes from receipts be- fore remitting to New York. (f) A small cardboard collection box (4x2j4 x2}4) suitable for in- dividual use, in homes, Sunday School classes and smaller groups ; price 2c. each. (g) A neat celluloid dime coin box, pocket size, capacity of $5.00 in dimes, numbered serially. Can be emptied with key, and re- filled. Price 10c. each. Cost may be repaid if desired, from receipts as indicated above. IV. Large gifts: Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the importance of securing large gifts in some measure commensuraL^ with the need. Ambassador Morgenthau estimates that five million dol- lars will be required to meet the needs of Armenia alone. The situation in Syria and Palestine threatens to prove even more serious than that in Armenia during the coming winter. Collections and small contributions are important, both financially and spiritually, but in every city there are prosperous, well-to- do individuals who should be approached personally by the com- mittee in organized solicitation and asked to give one thousand, five thousand or ten thousand dollars out of their abundance to relieve Armenian and Syrian distress. One individual has contributed $60,000, another $50,000, another $25,000. Such contributions purchase more bread and flour and blankets and medicines and save more lives than many small collections, im- portant as small collections are. (a) List the more prosperous citizens of the community and solicit them personally for gifts commensurate with their wealth and resources. (b) Prepare a larger list of smaller contributors to whom a letter will go over the names of the local committee, asking them to send contributions to the local treasurer. Small leaflets for judicious enclosure in such solicitation will be sent upon request. 3 1 WHAT OTHERS HAVE DONE. Some church contributions have been over $15,000. Some pledge weekly gifts as long as the war lasts. Some small and some rural churches have shown disproportionate unselfishness. Some have organized their whole community. Some pastors and churches have secured very large personal sub- scriptions from the well-to-do. Some have done nothing at all. WHAT SHALL BE OUR RESPONSE? Was there ever an hour calling for such sympathy for a stricken world? How shall America save her own soul unless this cry breaks through her soddenness and selfishness as she listens to the agonized cry of humanity. Can we leave the shattered remnants of nations to die? Shall we remain rich and content while their hearts break ? Shall we lie down to sleep in peace forgetting that multitudes have no shelter from the night? Our fathers and brothers have not been killed, our wives and sisters and sweethearts have not been subjected to nameless and fearful abuse, our little children have not been driven to despair by the terror that haunts the night and the dread that fills the day and the privation and suffering that fill them both. Our homes and other property have not been ruthlessly destroyed. Our incomes are not being confiscated to pay the expenses of the awful war, as in nearly every country in Europe. Suppose we were the sufferers, what would we want others to do for us? The voice of need, the cry of suffering, the call of God confront us — what use can God ever have for men like us again if we do not rise up and do our part! America can. Will she? A part of the answer rests with every person who reads these lines. 32 American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief 70 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK Including Work of the Armenian Relief, the Persian War Relief, and the Syrian-Palestine Relief Committees James L. Barton, Chairman Samuel T. Dutton, Secretary Charles V. Vickrey, Executive Secretary Charles R. Crane, Treasurer Frederick H. Allen Arthur J. Brown Edwin M. Bulkley John B. Calvert John D. Crimmins Cleveland H. Dodge Charles W. Eliot William T. Ellis Fred B. Fisher James Cardinal Gibbons Rt. Rev. David H. Greer Norman Hapgood Maurice H. Harris William I. Haven Hamilton Holt Arthur Curtiss James Woodbury G. Langdon Frederick Lynch Chas. S. Macfarland H. Pereira Mendes William B. Millar John Moffat Henry Morgenthau John R. Mott Frank Mason North Harry V. Osborne George A. Plimpton Rt. Rev. P. Rhinelander Karl Davis Robinson William W. Rockwell Wm. Jay Schieffelin George T. Scott Isaac N. Seligman William Sloane Edward Lincoln Smith James M. Speers Oscar S. Straus Stanley White Talcott Williams Stephen S. Wise. Expense of collecting and transmitting funds is met by individual mem- bers of the committee. One hundred cents of every dollar received from churches and other sources goes to the immediate work of relief. The Committee urges immediate attention to this pressing need, and asks that contributions be sent to CHAS. R. CRANE, Treasurer, 70 Fifth Ave., New York.