f SPEAKERS' 
 \ HANDBOOK 
 
 of 
 
 American Committee fo 
 Relief in the Near 
 East 
 
 Headquarters 
 ONE MADISON AVENUE 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAG* 
 
 Introduction— To You! •• 6 
 
 President Wilson's . Appeal | 
 
 Speakers' Co-operation n 
 
 Facts About the Need. 13 
 
 Facts About the Work • • • 
 
 Testimony of Eye-witnesses ; 24, 25 
 
 g&ftr of the" PeWles" Who" Come Under the Committers Care- 
 
 Armenians 
 
 Syrians . „, 
 
 Greeks K 
 
 Persians . . .... • • • • •.•iv £o 
 
 No Government Aid Available 39 
 
 How Some Give.. -i'V * (Eiiract from 1918 Bulletin of 
 Connection with American Kea Lross i» 39 
 
 End o^LerTof SUtV Councils 'if "Defense'. '. '. i • ■ ■ • • • • | ' " ; ; \ \ ] 44 
 
 Testimony from U. S. Consular Agents 46 
 
 Endorsements of Public Men.. 43 
 
 Motion Pictures to Aid Campaign 
 
 INDEX 
 
 A PAGE 
 
 Artin Pasha, Testimony of 46 
 
 C 
 
 Children eat dead camel 22 
 
 Children starving in streets 
 
 Common Case, A ; 21 
 
 Cotton-spinning and weaving..... lo 
 Councils of Defense, Endorse- 
 
 mcnts of 42 
 
 D 
 
 Daniels, Josephus, Endorsement of 47 
 
 Davi9, Testimony of 44 
 
 Deportation in Asia Minor 34 
 
 Devotion of Missionaries 22 
 
 E 
 
 Ellis, Wm. T., Endorsement of... 43 
 
 Expedition to Persia 38 
 
 Expedition to Turkey 1" 
 
 F 
 
 Food Distribution 26 
 
 H 
 
 Hughes, Charles E., Endorsement 
 
 N PAGi 
 
 Not sharing, but giving their all.. 43 
 O 
 
 Orphanage outside Jaffa 1* 
 
 Orphanages • • • • • • • >, ij> 
 
 Orphans— "Of such is the kingdom 29 
 
 P 
 
 People eat Blood from Slaughter 
 
 houses 
 
 R 
 
 Red Cross and Armenian Relief... 39 
 
 Refugees eagej to work 15 
 
 Refugees in Jerusalem " 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore. Endorsement 
 of 
 
 27 
 
 46 
 
 of 
 
 47 
 
 Scramble for Melon Rind 23 
 
 Starving help each other 27 
 
 Story of Seeraa 20 
 
 Stripped in the Wilderness 29 
 
 Suffering Children at Aleppo 18 
 
 Syria, From a Relief Worker in.. 22 
 
 Immediate Relief — Food Distribu- 
 tion 11 
 
 Industrial Work 14 
 
 L 
 
 Lansing, Robert, Endorsement of. 47 
 
 Last Lap, The 23 
 
 M 
 
 Medical Work 13 
 
 Missionaries, Devotion of 22 
 
 Motion Pictures 48 
 
 Mott, John R., Endorsement of.. 48 
 
 Taft, William Howard, Endorse- 
 ment of 46 
 
 Tarlar, C. Cornell, Testimony of.. 45 
 Toll of Famine, The 27 
 
 U 
 
 Unburied Dead left in Streets... 26 
 W 
 
 "Widows and Fatherless" 28 
 
 Wilson, Woodrow, Endorsement of 46 
 Woman abandons Child 23 
 
TO YOU 
 
 America avowedly entered the war to fight for national 
 and international democracy and the rights of little nations, 
 ine war has been won on the battlefield, but Victory comes 
 ^ to-day not with the irresponsible gaiety of the childhood of 
 the race, but with the grave responsibility of maturity, eyes 
 of purpose and hands of construction to build a better world 
 There is not an individual among us who does not share 
 this responsibility and this purpose. The question with the 
 rank and file of Americans is simply— where to begin ? 
 
 The whole world, beyond our borders, seems broken, 
 bleeding and in need. 
 
 Yet there is nowhere that the trail of war has more shat- 
 tenngly passed, nor over a more innocent non-combatant 
 I Population, than in the Near East. Massacre we have seen 
 before, but it remained for 1915 to show us the more refined 
 horrors of deportation, when the Turks drove out of their 
 territory nearly 3,000,000 peaceable non-Moslem inhabitants 
 Armenians, Greeks, and others, many of whose ancestry had 
 dwelt in the land as far back as history records. The need 
 of these deported innocent people of the Near East, in a time 
 of almost universal need, is overwhelmingly greater than 
 that of any other people in the world. They are more widely 
 scattered and hopelessly destitute. A whole nation is utterly 
 dependent upon the mercy of strangers. Tens of thousands 
 have died. The survivors have reached precarious safety 
 in lands where starvation was already following on the heels 
 of war, and where the hosts could only share famine with 
 their guests. 
 
Gre a« Britain is doing her share to help than hut his to 
 America, least of all sufferers of he wa r tha J 
 , 1 f niri Thev need the actual means ot lite, incy 
 ^tstarXanew, and they need f rehahUhat.on jn 
 "he homes from which they have wrongfully and cruelly 
 been driven. . . 
 
 This booklet is planned to present the mam facts in an 
 easily available form for the use of those speakers, both 
 x erienced and inexperienced, whose sympat hy with * 
 work and purposes of the American Committee fo Rehe 
 in the Near East urges them to place these facts ^b fore he 
 American public in the effort to collect the $30 000,000 
 which is the necessary minimum for the rescue and recon- 
 struction of these little martyr nations. 
 
 Already in the Near East the flag of the Stars and Stripes 
 is the symbol of liberty and friendship. Let us lift it higher 
 yet, let us show the Land of the Almighty Dollar as the 
 land of great givers, the leader in practice as well as in 
 ideals in the new esprit de corps among nations which knows 
 that if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. 
 
 Here is a part of our task of laying the foundations of a 
 new world. Let us lay them generously, not niggardly in 
 effort or design, and may every man, woman and child in 
 America share to the utmost in the work. 
 
 17 cents keeps a destitute Armenian child for a day. 
 $5.00 keeps one for a month. 
 $60.00 keeps one for a year. 
 
 $30,000,000 will restart the little nations of the Near 
 East in a resumption of national life. 
 
 4 
 
PRESIDENT WILSON'S APPEAL 
 
 For more than three years American philanthropy has 
 been a large factor in keeping alive Armenian, Syrian, Greek 
 and other exiles and refugees of Western Asia. 
 
 On two former occasions I have appealed to the Ameri- 
 can people on behalf of these homeless sufferers, whom the 
 vicissitudes of war and massacre had brought to the ex- 
 tremest need. 
 
 The response has been most generous, but now the period 
 of rehabilitation is at hand. Vastly larger sums will be 
 required to restore these once prosperous, but now impov- 
 erished, refugees to their former homes than were required 
 merely to sustain life in their desert exile. 
 
 It is estimated that about 4,000,000 Armenian, Syrian, 
 Greek and other war sufferers in the Near East will require 
 outside help to sustain them through the winter. Many of 
 them are now hundreds of miles from their homeland. The 
 vast majority of them are helpless women and children, 
 including 400,000 orphans. 
 
 The American Committee for Relief in the Near East is 
 appealing for a minimum of $30,000,000 to be subscribed 
 January 12-19, 1919, with which to meet the most urgent 
 needs of these people. 
 
 ^ I, therefore, again call upon the people of the United 
 States to make even more generous contributions than they 
 have made heretofore to sustain through the winter months 
 those who, through no fault of their own, have been left in 
 a starving, shelterless condition, and to help reestablish these 
 ancient and sorely oppressed people in their former homes 
 on a self-supporting basis. 
 
 WOODROW WILSON. 
 
 The White House, 
 29 November, 1918. 
 
 5 
 
SPEAKERS' COOPERATION 
 I Keeping in touch with Speakers' Bureaus. 
 
 a-T*e National Speakers' Bureau has four divisions 
 with offices as follows: 
 
 Eastern: Mr. John H. Cover, 1 Madison avenue, 
 New York. 
 
 Central: Mr. Alonzo E. Wilson, 106 North La 
 
 Salle street, Chicago, Illinois. 
 Mountain: Mr. Wilbur F. Deniows, 1700 Stout 
 
 street, Denver. 
 Western: Speakers' Bureau, 333 Mills Building, 
 San Francisco, Cal. 
 In addition each state, county and city will have its 
 Bureau. 
 
 b— Many organizations such as the Red Cross, State 
 Councils of Defence, Chambers of Commerce, Y. 
 M. C. A., Y. W. C. A„ Knights of Columbus and 
 Jewish organizations, are cooperating with us. The 
 speaker should bear this in mind, availing himself 
 of the opportunity of their assistance. 
 
 C _A detailed record of every meeting scheduled or 
 completed, with the name of the chairman, should 
 be forwarded to the local, state or national office. 
 Cards for this purpose are supplied by the Speakers' 
 Bureaus. 
 
 d — The speaker should be sure to keep himself supplied 
 with pamphlets for distribution and especially with 
 pledge cards and pencils. He can also obtain from 
 the local Speakers' Bureau : 
 
 1. Lantern slides with a prepared lecture to ac- 
 company them. 
 
 2. Posters and printed material. 
 
II. The appeal for funds. 
 
 Great importance attaches to the method used in the 
 
 Denot' |2? her ! 4 f h ° Uld * SU PP lie ^ Pledge cards and 
 penals before the meeting begins, and instructed as 
 to their distribution, to be made at a definite cue 
 from the speaker near the end of the address. The 
 collection of cash contributions and pledges should 
 take place immediately after the appeal is made in 
 its final and most emphatic form by the speaker 
 himself or by some one whom he has previously 
 asked to make it. 
 
 $30,000,000 is the least that can be asked for to 
 meet adequately the most pressing demands of the 
 dependent peoples of the Near East. More could 
 be used, but $30,000,000 we must have 
 
 7 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE NEED 
 Carefully prepared estimates based on reports that have 
 come to the American Committee for Relief m th Near 
 East from every part where work ,s earned .on, » 
 workers on the field, returned Ambassadors, Consuls M s 
 sionaries, business men, teachers statem n recew d 
 through the Swedish Legation, and careful examma .on 
 of the files of the State Department make .t clear hat 
 at least 3,950,000 people in the Near East are dest.tute 
 re f ucrees 
 
 At the present time the Red Cross has taken over re- 
 sponsibility for a large part of Syria and Palestine, thus 
 reducing the number of the extremely destitute depending 
 immediately upon this Committee by 1,050,000. This leaves 
 absolutely dependent upon the work of the relief measures 
 for the American Committee for Relief in the Near East, a 
 total of 2,900,000 souls all accessible, all in desperate need. 
 Of this number, the best estimate obtainable indicates 400,- 
 000 orphans without fathers, but some with living mothers 
 with no means of support. 
 
 The same estimate based upon the most reliable informa- 
 tion obtainable from Consular and relief agents' reports, 
 show that 1,770,000 of these destitute sufferers are away 
 from their homes, having been driven out by the authorities, 
 many of whom are in Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, the 
 Caucasus and Siberia, while there are large numbers who 
 have been sent to remote districts within the Turkish 
 Empire. 
 
 ESTIMATE BASED ON FACTS 
 
 It is difficult to estimate the actual cost of repatriating and 
 reestablishing these people and of supplying their imme- 
 diate needs for food and clothing until they can be reestab- 
 
lished and put upon a self-supporting basis. We submit 
 
 the following, however, as the lowest possible estimate based 
 
 upon the most accurate obtainable figures. 
 
 2,900,000 needy and accessible people, of whom a 
 large proportion will be dependent upon aid 
 from without for six months at least. We es- 
 timate $5.00 per capita for the six months as 
 the lowest figure possible, making a total of. .$14,500,000 
 
 1,770,000 exiles and refugees to be repatriated, 
 some of them to be carried a thousand miles to 
 their homes. Giving an average of 400 miles 
 per person, estimated cost $3.00 per capita.. 5,310,000 
 
 400,000 orphans included among the above refu- 
 gees to be provided with orphan homes at their 
 destinations. Estimated cost $10.00 per capita 
 for the creation of the home 4,000,000 
 
 Seeds for sowing, farm tractors, implements and 
 tools, cattle, sheep, motor trucks, autos, etc., to 
 set up these people after they return upon land 
 with facilities for cultivation 2,500,000 
 
 Providing of houses for 1,770,000 returning 
 refugees which so far as reports show have 
 been largely destroyed or rendered uninhabit- 
 able without extensive repairs, estimated that 
 50,000 houses will be required at a cost of av- 
 erage of $50.00 each 2,500,00^ 
 
 Clothing for at least 2,900,000 needy, including 
 the orphan children, and bedding, of which 
 they are mostly destitute, at an average of 
 $4.00 per person 8,000,000 
 
 Total required to cover period of six months. $36, 810,000 
 
 9 
 
MUST BE OVERSUBSCRIBED 
 
 In making the above statement public, the Committee, 
 through its secretary, C. V. Vickrey, stated: 
 
 "Our Committee on Estimates has been laboring night 
 and day for weeks trying to bring our estimates of needs 
 within the compass of our prospective receipts. The first 
 budget prepared, which the Committee thought to be the 
 minimum of requirements, amounted to $118,500,000, and 
 even this did not include all of the real needs. 
 
 "At the conference in New York, September 19-20, a 
 further drastic reduction of the budget to $56,100,000 was 
 made. Recognizing, however, that the sum of $30,000,000 
 had already been announced as the financial goal of the Com- 
 mittee for the present year, and that a great many war 
 chests and other local committees had made their plans on 
 the basis of $30,000,000 the Committee was requested to 
 make further reductions in the budget, which they have 
 done, with the present total of $36,800,000. 
 
 "We of course, cannot meet the need even as outlined in 
 this reduced budget on a $30,000,000 basis, and are earn- 
 estly hoping for oversubscriptions that will provide for the 
 additional need. If over-subscriptions are not given to us 
 it means that some of the destitute people must continue to 
 suffer while we help as many as possible with the resources 
 placed at our command.' 
 
 10 
 
FACTS ABOUT THE WORK 
 
 The work being done can be grouped under four divi- 
 sions : 
 
 Immediate Relief 
 Medical Work 
 Orphanages 
 Industrial Work 
 
 Of these the most valuable from the point of view of 
 the future is the last, and as soon as immediate relief has 
 been administered it is the desire of the Committee to estab- 
 lish industrial centres at all places where refugees are con- 
 gregated, not only for the new zest in life imparted by work 
 to broken and weary spirits and bodies, but also for the re- 
 vival of natural economic conditions in war-paralyzed dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 IMMEDIATE RELIEF 
 
 Some idea of the meaning of immediate relief may be 
 gained from the following excerpts from recent reports: 
 
 "Cairo, Egypt, May 3, 1918. 
 
 "I wish you could have seen the hundred and fifty odd 
 new refugees who filed wearily into the Armenian camp at 
 Port Said a week ago last Saturday. * * * They were 
 mostly women and children, the weariest, illest, raggedest, 
 dirtiest set of people I had ever seen. They did exactly as 
 they were told, for it seemed they had no spirit left to do 
 otherwise. About fifteen were taken right into the hospital 
 including one fifteen days old baby. As one watched these 
 people one thought of the thousands who have not been able 
 to reach such a refuge, but have fallen by the wayside, too 
 weak to go further. As soon as the doctor had made a rapid 
 examination of them all in quarantine, they were ordered 
 
 ll 
 
out and grouped according to families, while three of us 
 took down their names, ages, and family relationships. 
 
 * * * All of them had been driven out of their homes three 
 years ago, and have been wandering and living with the 
 Arabs south of the Dead Sea ever since. 
 
 "On Tuesday as soon as the clothes had been made ready, 
 they all came in groups of ten, took off their old clothes 
 in Tent 1, got into hospital garments, went into a hot bath, 
 came out to Tent 2, where they got two complete sets of 
 new clothes, and went into Tent 3, to dress. The heads 
 were all examined and those that needed it were shaved. 
 
 * * * All old clothes were afterwards burned up, as they 
 were incredibly ragged and dirty. That night I heard that 
 they had never even seen soap since they had left their 
 homes. When school opens on Thursday there will be 
 special classes for these 60 new children of school age. * * * 
 Fortunately there is a new school building just being fin- 
 ished, so there will be two tents available for these new 
 classes." 
 
 REFUGEES IN JERUSALEM 
 
 "Jerusalem, April 5, 1918. 
 "The past week has been a period of intense interest 
 and unusual pressure in our relief work, for more than 5,000 
 refugees have arrived from the towns and villages east of 
 the Jordan. Early Easter morning we received notification 
 that 1,500 Armenians were on their way; so I started off for 
 Jericho with a government officer and a truck load of ra- 
 tions. * * * By evening 210 Armenian exiles had arrived, 
 on foot, weary and hungry, but glad to be in the Promised 
 Land of British rule. Their 'Passover' was celebrated that 
 Easter night in a large ruined inn in Jericho, and their Pass- 
 over bread was army biscuits. Early the next morning 
 many others began to arrive. After the morning distribu- 
 
 13 
 
tion of rations, we arranged for all of the refugees to ride 
 from Jericho to Jerusalem in army motor trucks. I wish 
 you could have seen their faces when I explained to them 
 that they were to be given a ride all the way up the hills to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 "On Monday morning 1,300 more arrived in Jericho. 
 The rations at Jericho and the ride in the motor trucks to 
 Jerusalem were the first acts of kindness which they had 
 met with in three years. 
 
 "Great numbers of Syrian refugees, both Christians and 
 Moslems, are now arriving in Jerusalem. We are working 
 night and day to provide shelter and food for them* * * 
 We need additional appropriation of at least $25,000 per 
 month to care for these streams of homeless people suddenly 
 brought in upon us." 
 
 MEDICAL WORK 
 
 Outbreaks of dysentery, typhoid, typhus, and cholera 
 follow closely on the heels of starvation and the eating of 
 putrid flesh, raw grain and offal. Without medical treat- 
 ment and large supplies of medical necessaries, terrible epi- 
 demics will inevitably break out in all the districts where 
 refugees are congregated. As it is, disease is rife, and 
 twenty of our own workers and missionaries have succumbed 
 to infection, overwork and under-nourishment. Hospitals 
 and dispensaries are being established as quickly as possible, 
 and a large amount of out-patient work is being done. 
 Medical supplies have been sent in large quantities to in- 
 fected areas, and more will be sent. Large and increasing 
 funds are needed. 
 
 ORPHANAGES 
 
 Not only have the 400,000 orphan children among the 
 refugees to be cared for, but orphanages in the Caucasus 
 
 13 
 
and in Palestine have had to be saved from collapse under 
 the overwhelming pressure of high prices and food scarcity, 
 or their present inmates would perforce be turned out to 
 swell the already vast numbers of starving little ones. 
 
 In Aleppo, over 1,200 orphans are under care. In the 
 Russian Caucasus, some 10,000 children already in Russian 
 orphanages, and at least 3,000 more refugees are being cared 
 for by the American Committee. 
 
 10,000 children are now being supported at relief centers 
 — being fed, educated, and taught trades. 
 
 This work is most urgent. In these children lies the 
 hope of Armenia and Syria, Persia and Asia Minor. They 
 are the raw material of the future. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL WORK 
 
 This is in many ways the most important branch of our 
 work for the refugees, weakened and tormented as they are 
 in soul as in body. 
 
 First, it is the only hope of continuing to supply to 
 these people the means of subsistence. The importation of 
 food and clothing to an idle people cannot, of course, be a 
 permanent arrangement. 
 
 Second, it is all that makes life worth living to those 
 whose home, friends, and occupation have been swept away. 
 
 The eagerness of the response among the Armenians to 
 this kind of work is attested by Dr. F. W. MacCallum who 
 has been carrying on rehabilitation work at Van. He says : 
 
 "The thing that impressed us most was the industry and 
 enterprise of the people themselves. It will not be neces- 
 sary to do everything for them. All they need is a little 
 help in getting started." 
 
 U 
 
Refugees Eager to Work 
 
 Extract from a letter of T. D. Heald : "A canal for carry- 
 ing water for the sixteen miles from the Zanga river at 
 Erivan to the town of Etchmiadzin was made many years 
 ago, but owing to faulty work the canal had never served. 
 Large portions of the canal were leaky, and in course of 
 time the banks in many places had broken away. 
 
 "The town authorities at Etchmiadzin when they heard 
 that our refugee committee was considering undertaking the 
 reconstruction work, immediately sent for the engineer who 
 originally planned the work, and with our representatives 
 surveyed the whole length to see what could be done. Great 
 interest was taken locally in the proposed work, for the 
 town of Etchmiadzin had always suffered for want of water, 
 and the project of bringing this would not only serve the 
 town for ordinary house uses, but also lay open the possibility 
 of new expensive watering of barren desert land all around 
 the town, and mean a considerable increase of the productive 
 area. 
 
 "We started work with a gang of one hundred refugee 
 men under the advice of the engineer at the beginning of 
 March, but the work had to be abandoned, owing to the dis- 
 organization brought about by the approach of the Turkish 
 army, and the impossibility of our receiving more money 
 for our refugee work. There is no doubt that with the re- 
 sumption of relief work as soon as the district can again 
 be reached, this project will be continued. Nothing could be 
 more useful to the local population. 
 
 "A result of this undertaking was an approach from the 
 Caucasian railway authorities with a request that we would 
 organize gangs of labor amongst the refugees and take con- 
 trol of the extension of the railway into the town of Erivan 
 from its present terminus about two miles outside. The rail- 
 
 15 
 
road company would pay the wages, if we would do the 
 organizing and take responsibility for the work. The 
 Khurds and Tartars, however, destroyed the station next 
 beyond Erivan, and cut the railway, so that nothing could 
 be done." 
 
 Cotton Spinning and Weaving 
 
 Extract from letter of Theodore A. Elmer: "Having 
 arrived in Erivan I was told to go on to Etchmiadzin, 
 and open new work in Ashdarag, a town lying 17 versts to 
 the north. I had great difficulty in renting a house as the 
 town was crowded, not only by refugees, but by soldiers and 
 officers of the Armenian Army which was preparing to go 
 to Erzroom. Cotton spinning and weaving had been begun 
 in Etchmiadzin by Mr. Gracey for the refugees before he 
 left to become a Captain in the British Army. This work I 
 took over and extended it. When I left we had 40 looms 
 weaving cotton cloth which was used for making under- 
 clothing for the orphans. Seven hundred women were em- 
 ployed in spinning the cotton yarn for these looms besides 
 a great many others who wound bobbins and prepared the 
 yarn for the looms. Forty then worked the looms. Prac- 
 tically every person employed supported an entire family of 
 refugees. 
 
 "* * * The Monastery authorities, seeing the success of 
 our cotton shop, asked me to take over their wool shop, 
 which they were utterly unable to make go. I paid their 
 debts to 1,000 refugee women who had spun wool for them 
 for two months without pay, and took over the whole busi- 
 ness. The Catholikos gave me two large rooms in the old 
 refectory of the monastery close beside the Cathedral in 
 which to carry on this work. My greatest difficulty was to 
 find trustworthy men to oversee this work. Here we em 
 ployed 1,500 women preparing and spinning woolen yarn 
 
 16 
 
which was woven into cloth for the purpose of clothing the 
 orphan children. No cloth could be bought in Etchmiadzin 
 for any price. After getting these two industries under way, 
 I started a similar industry in the town of Ashdarag. Here 
 we also employed the labor of refugee men in building roads 
 and improving the grounds of an ancient church." 
 
 EXPEDITION TO TURKEY 
 
 A large expedition is about to set out for Turkey, under 
 the auspices of the American Committee for Relief in the 
 Near East, for investigation, relief, and reconstruction work. 
 A small commission of prominent Americans will accompany 
 the expedition, under the leadership of Dr. Barton. 
 
 Members of the expedition will include doctors, nurses, 
 sanitary engineers, teachers, agriculturists, expert mechanics, 
 chauffeurs and orphanage superintendents. The cargo will 
 consist of canned food and condensed milk, medicine and 
 serum, hospital equipment, farm tractors, motor lorries, 
 clothing, tools and other necessaries. 
 
 A transport has been furnished by the government to 
 convey this expedition to Turkey. 
 
 Lectures on the character and habits of the various people 
 to be dealt with, lessons on the language, and other courses 
 will be given on board. The ship will be a floating college, 
 training school and conference on its three weeks' voyage. 
 
 17 
 
TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES 
 
 SUFFERING CHILDREN AT ALEPPO 
 
 A German eye-witness, Dr. Martin Niepage, gave the 
 following account to the German Reichstag: 
 
 "Opposite the German Technical School at Aleppo, in 
 which we are engaged in teaching, a mass of about four 
 hundred emaciated forms, the remnant of such convoys, is 
 lying in one of the hans. There are about a hundred chil- 
 dren (boys and girls) among them, from five to seven years 
 old. Most of them are suffering from typhoid and dysen- 
 tery. When one enters the yard, one has the impression of 
 entering a mad-house. If one brings them food, one notices 
 that they have forgotten how to eat. Their stomachs, weak- 
 ened by months of starvation, can no longer assimilate 
 nourishment. If one gives them bread, they put it aside 
 indifferently. They just lie there quietly, waiting for death. 
 Amid such surroundings, how are we teachers to read Ger- 
 man Fairy Stories with our children, or, indeed, the story 
 of the Good Samaritan in the Bible? How are we to make 
 them decline and conjugate irrelevant words, while around 
 them in the yards adjoining the German Technical School 
 their starving fellow-countrymen are slowly succumbing? 
 Under such circumstances our educational work flies in the 
 face of all true morality and becomes a mockery of human 
 sympathy." 
 
 What are the facts that produced these results? Im- 
 mediately after the declaration of war, the Turkish govern- 
 ment drafted all the able-bodied men into the army. This 
 depleted the ranks of the farmers, manufacturers and other 
 wage earners and put an end to the wealth producing class 
 of the country. The second step was to commandeer all 
 crops and means of transportation for the use of the army. 
 Under the requisitioning laws all drugs and medical supplies 
 
 18 
 
were exhausted, and as a result, disease, including typhus, 
 typhoid and cholera became rampant and worked havoc 
 among a poorly clad, half-famished population. The third 
 step was to single out some of the leading families and most 
 progressive individuals and hang them or deport them be- 
 cause of their pro- Arab or pro-French sympathies. 
 
 Thus Syria, which gave the world its Christ, its Bible 
 and its religious literature, is bleeding to death; and the 
 Syrians, the descendants of the Phoenicians, who dissemi- 
 nated the alphabet, and of the Arabs who in the Middle Ages 
 were the only bearers of the torch of civilization, are threat- 
 ened with extinction. 
 
 Quoted from World Court Magazine, Oct., 1918. 
 
 IN AN ORPHANAGE OUTSIDE JAFFA 
 
 Just outside the town is a large square building, before 
 the war used as a Greek Orthodox School, but now the home 
 of 240 small Syrian girls and boys, of ages varying from 
 3 to 10. At first sight, the building looks somewhat dilapi- 
 dated, but that is owing to war conditions and the natural 
 scarcity of paint, glass, and such things generally. The 
 sombre appearance of the place, however, is soon forgotten 
 in the presence of the bright, capable, English lady in charge 
 of these stray mites. Very bright some of them are now, 
 yet many still bear traces of the awful suffering they have 
 undergone. This was notably the case with one small child 
 who lay in a dazed condition in a temporized cot, clutching 
 in his hand a piece of bread. The father is "with the Turks," 
 the mother died of starvation, the child was brought in in a 
 dying condition, and is now slowly recovering, and the only 
 words he has yet said are "bread" and "milk," and he just 
 lies with a crust as tightly clasped as his weak little hands 
 will allow. In the same room, almost bare except for these 
 
 19 
 
cots, were several other small children in various stages of 
 recovery from ailments, chiefly caused through lack of food, 
 and general privation. 
 
 The school apparatus is practically nil, even slates are 
 unobtainable; so lessons have to be of a primitive kind, and 
 are given by some devoted Syrian helpers. A very varied 
 diet is not possible, but in comparison with the starvation of 
 the last three years it is most ample. Rice, served with 
 vegetables, and periodically with meat, is, of course, the 
 principal dish for those well enough for ordinary food. The 
 sick ones depend on condensed milk and other light food 
 supplied by the relief fund. Industrial work, immediate re- 
 lief and medical work, including hospital, are also being 
 conducted at Jaffa. 
 
 THE STORY OF SEEMA 
 
 Seema had been a pretty little girl, all round curves and 
 dimples, with rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes. She had been 
 dressed richly in broadcloths and silks with strings of gold 
 coins around her neck and bracelets on her arms, the petted 
 daughter of a wealthy Armenian merchant. But she was a 
 pitiful little creature now, ragged, thin and pale, cringing 
 and afraid. For three years she had known only fear and 
 hunger, beating and abuse and bitter weariness. Father and 
 brother had been killed, she and her mother and sisters had 
 been driven out of their house and herded with other Ar- 
 menians on the endless march of deportation. Her sisters 
 and mother had died on the road. Little Seema Shushan 
 had struggled on alone for the last few months, with other 
 children and surviving refugees, until Bethlehem and help 
 was reached. Seema had been six when she was driven from 
 her home. She was nine now. For three weary years she 
 had been wandering. Her condition when she reached the 
 
 20 
 
American Relief Workers can best be described by the mere 
 statement that in all that time she had never seen soap. 
 
 Think what this means, mothers and fathers of tenderly 
 nurtured children. Now Seema is in the orphanage, but the 
 best that we can give her is far less than what she has lost. 
 And at present the bare necessaries of life are all that can be 
 afforded to any, and then many— even children— must be 
 turned away because there is not enough to go around. 
 
 A COMMON CASE 
 
 An Armenian mother and three children, turning up on 
 the doorstep of an American Relief Station in the Southern 
 Caucasus. The woman a mere collection of rags and bones, 
 with two great black eyes gazing out over the red fez which 
 covered her face ; three little children clinging to her skirts, 
 and a sick skeleton of a baby in her arms. 
 
 Two years before the woman and her husband had pos- 
 sessed a small holding in a village beyond Erzingan, where 
 they had lived and worked in peaceful content. When the 
 war began, the little home was disrupted, the father was 
 conscripted to work on the roads, and before long the wife 
 and children were forced to join the deportation march with 
 thousands of others. After the unspeakable sufferings of 
 the journey this woman had succeeded in reaching Alexan- 
 dropol, having lost only one child on the way. 
 1 There she is now on the list of employees in the wool 
 or cotton spinning departments of our large refugee clothes 
 making industry. This will enable her to make a home for 
 her children and a comfortable living and maintain her self- 
 respect, while the sick baby has gone on our infant-feeding 
 list, and will receive a bottle a day of pasteurized milk. 
 Is not this work worth doing? 
 
 21 
 
FROM A RELIEF WORKER IN SYRIA 
 
 Jamal Pasha was not in favor of the massacres which 
 took place. There were no real massacres in his district. 
 I think probably he did countenance the restricting of the 
 food supplies for Syria. He thus had to sign the death 
 warrants for all the Arabs, Moslems and Christians in 
 Beirut. 
 
 We gave relief to about 15,000 in the mountains and 
 Beirut District. The people bake their bread in loaves which 
 weigh about one and a half pounds. Every individual gets a 
 quarter of a loaf a day. Fifteen thousand people were 
 receiving this ration. They had to make breakfast, dinner 
 and supper of it. It was not much, but it kept them from 
 starvation. 
 
 DEVOTION OF MISSIONARIES 
 
 (Extract from Ambassador Morgenthau) 
 
 "I wish to express my great admiration for the splendid 
 work which our missionaries accomplished as ministering 
 angels among their Armenian friends in their days of sore 
 distress and trial. They carried their abnegation even so far 
 as to desire to share their fate. One of the teachers accom- 
 panied her sixty girl pupils that were deported by the Turks. 
 An Armenian who had heard of the incident said with tears 
 of appreciation in his eyes : "That is what I call a saint in 
 our days ; she ought to be canonized by our church !" 
 
 CHILDREN EAT DEAD CAMEL 
 
 A crowd collected in the streets. One of our workers 
 went up to investigate and found that a camel had died, and 
 a swarm of children were pulling the raw flesh from the 
 bones and devouring it. 
 
 23 
 
SCRAMBLE FOR MELON RIND 
 
 A little incident illustrating the terrible hunger experi- 
 enced by thousands is told by one of our returning consuls : 
 " "I was eating a piece of melon," he said, "and paying 
 little attention to the people around me. I tossed aside the 
 rind, when instantly a man pounced upon it like a hungry 
 wolf He chewed on it for a few moments and then he in 
 turn tossed it aside. Another man who had been watching 
 him with the eyes of a hawk picked it up and devoured the 
 rest." 
 
 THE LAST LAP 
 
 One day a small boy, painfully emaciated, his garments 
 in tatters, arrived at a relief station dragging a little girl 
 almost as large as himself. "Mother said take care of her 
 was all he could say. An hour later his brave spirit found 
 rest He had been deported from an Armenian village with 
 his mother, a baby brother and a little sister. Before many 
 days the baby died. Finally the weakened mother could go 
 no further. The little boy had traveled thirty miles carry- 
 ing and dragging his little sister, and having given her the 
 last of their food, was just able to leave her in safety before 
 he died. 
 
 WOMAN ABANDONS CHILD 
 
 One of our church members in Teheran came running 
 in a few days ago crying, "Oh! give me a little money. A 
 woman has abandoned her child in the street, say.ng she 
 cannot feed it, and another is holding on to her vol crying 
 bitterly and saying, 'Oh! don't leave httle s.ster; d n 
 leave little sister/ " People are eating the heads and bodte 
 of dead animals who have died of starvat.on Now that 
 the grain is springing up people are cutting and eatmg the 
 green blades of the wheat and barley. Dysentery and all 
 kinds of stomach troubles are the results. 
 
Map showing 
 Distressed Districts 
 and Relief Stations 
 supported 
 by the American 
 Committee for 
 Relief in the Near 
 East. The Places 
 marked are 
 Centers of Relief 
 for the Surrounding 
 Country Regions. 
 
CHILDREN STARVING IN STREETS 
 
 "Whenever I go out I see men or women fallen on the 
 street, dead or dying; little emaciated children stretching 
 out their wasted hands, 'for just one shahie for bread,' tears 
 running down their cheeks, or sitting propped against a 
 wall, listless and torpid." 
 
 FOOD DISTRIBUTION 
 
 "We are printing tickets for 'dampokt,' rice cooked with 
 grease and meat, making a sort of thick stew which is sold 
 for eight shahies a charak— a little more than one pound. 
 The stew is sold in the city from ten or more centers and has 
 been peddled about the streets by the people who buy it from 
 the big centers. We bought about 4,000 tickets, and dis- 
 tribute them to those who must have food at once. Then the 
 houses are visited and examined, the number of people in a 
 family written down, tickets issued, and rice and money dis- 
 tributed. We are feeding more than 1,700 families; now 
 since the receipt of your recent remittance we can reach four 
 or five times that many and open new quarters." 
 
 UNBURIED DEAD LEFT IN STREETS 
 
 "People are dying in the streets. Mr. Scott said a man 
 lay on the street near the English Legation just like a dead 
 dog — no one seemed to care to see that he was buried, and 
 this in a city of 350,000 people as some count the population 
 of Teheran ! One of our men went into a miserable room, 
 dirt floor, no covering on it. A woman lay in one corner — no 
 food, no fire, no covering but rags — on a tattered piece of 
 matting about one and a half yards square. Beside her on 
 this scrap of matting lay a tiny baby born the night before. 
 Women are confined in the streets and in the public square. 
 
 20 
 
Oh ! there is no end to the terrible things that people have 
 seen." 
 
 THE STARVING HELP EACH OTHER 
 
 "I was walking along the street a few days ago and saw 
 a man lying supported on another man's knee. This man 
 had stuffed some bits of bread into the fallen man's mouth, 
 but the poor jaws did not move. The mouth remained half 
 opened, the eyes glazed. The second man begged me for a 
 little money with which to get a glass of hot tea, which per- 
 haps the other man might drink. There is something so 
 terribly, unspeakably intimate in it all. There is so much 
 that is beautiful in the pathetic way that one poor starving 
 creature will help another. 
 
 PEOPLE EATING BLOOD FROM SLAUGHTER HOUSES 
 
 "The other day in Hamadan when Mr. Edwards came 
 home he found a man lying in the street in front of his gate 
 exhausted from hunger and weakness. He had him brought 
 into the kitchen, where they warmed him up and revived 
 him with some soup and food. While they were busy with 
 him his wife came along, her hands covered with blood. 
 When asked for an explanation she said that she had gone 
 to get a little bread but had not been able, so she had been 
 over to the slaughter-house to get some blood to eat. The 
 poor people even fight for the blood from the slaughter- 
 houses." 
 
 I THE TOLL OF FAMINE 
 
 The following extracts are from a letter written to the 
 Committee by W. A. Shedd, from Urumia, Persia : 
 
 "* * * But famine has taken the heaviest toll. In the 
 course of three weeks we buried over a thousand bodies that 
 had been left unburied in the city. Previously hundreds 
 
 27 
 
had been buried, and some have been buried since. Of the 
 thousand only about twenty had been killed by violence. 
 
 WIDOWS AND FATHERLESS 
 
 There are at least 400,000 orphan children among the 
 refugees. The large majority of the adults are women, many 
 of them widows who do not even know, in some cases, what 
 has become of their husbands. They only know that they 
 are almost certainly dead. 
 
 Last week we came into a house of which the occupants 
 had not eaten anything for 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 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 him and said: "If I 
 eat it now I will be hungry again tomorrow," 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. 
 
 The people live on what we are able to give them. The 
 
 28 
 
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. 
 Children eagerly picking grains from the dung of animals 
 in the street have become a common sight. 
 
 Seventeen cents will keep a child alive for a day. Five 
 dollars keeps one person alive for a month. Sixty dollars 
 keeps one person alive for a year. 
 
 STRIPPED IN THE WILDERNESS 
 
 Many of the refugees have been literally stripped in the 
 wilderness. Children have outgrown their clothes in the 
 three years of wandering. A boy of twelve came in to one 
 of the American Committee's centres with only a little shirt 
 on, not nearly big enough to cover him. Money to buy 
 material for clothes, material, and needles and cotton and 
 sewing machines, are constantly needed, that these brothers 
 and sisters of ours may be clothed. 
 
 A scanty pittance of food, just enough to support life, 
 is all that can be given to each one of those relieved, and 
 even then there is not enough to go round. With $30,000,000 
 we can, humanly speaking, save every life. 
 
 OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM 
 
 Quaint little creatures some of the orphans are. There 
 are two small boys named respectively Pat and David, aged 
 apparently about four years, who were picked up by a regi- 
 ment of British soldiers in Palestine and carried along with 
 them until a place of asylum was found. They salute in the 
 most approved fashion, and are only just getting over their 
 sorrow at parting from the men, to whom they owe their 
 
 29 
 
lives. No one knows who they are. For months they were 
 cared for by "Tommies" and were found wandering about, 
 too small and too wretched to be able to tell any story even 
 had their Arabic been understood by Tommy Atkins. 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLES WHO COME 
 UNDER THE COMMITTEE'S CARE 
 
 Of the 3,950,000 destitute refugees in the Near East, 
 the principal groups are the Armenians, Syrians, Greeks and 
 Persians. They embrace all classes of society, from the 
 humblest and most ignorant peasants, to skilled artisans, 
 wealthy merchants and bankers, and well educated profes- 
 sional people who have been accustomed to all the refine- 
 ments of life. 
 
 THE ARMENIANS 
 
 Armenia, roughly speaking, consists of the table land 
 extending from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea. Ar- 
 menia is not a State, nor even a geographic unity, but is a 
 general term for the regions where the Armenians live. It 
 consists of Turkish, Russian and Persian Armenias with a 
 total area of 133,289 square miles and an Armenian popula- 
 tion of over 4,250,000 souls. 
 Viscount James Bryce thus speaks of the land : 
 "Here is a country blest with every gift of Nature; a 
 fertile soil, possessing every variety of exposure and situa- 
 tion ; a mild and equable climate; mines of iron, copper, sil- 
 ver, and coal in the mountains ; a land of exquisite beauty, 
 which was once studded with flourishing cities and filled by 
 an industrious population. 
 
 "But now from the Euphrates to the Bosphorus all is 
 silence, poverty, despair. There is hardly a sail on the sea, 
 hardly a village on the shores, hardly a road by which com- 
 
 30 
 
merce can pass into the interior. You ask the cause and re- 
 ceive from every one the same answer — misgovernment, or 
 rather no government ; the existence of a power which does 
 nothing for its subjects, but stands in the way when there 
 is a chance of their doing something for themselves. The 
 mines, for instance, cannot be worked without a concession 
 from Constantinople." 
 
 The Armenian inhabitants of Turkey are people of great 
 industry, intelligence and aptitude for business, and their 
 success in trade and in the liberal arts has been a valuable 
 asset to the Turkish nation. The Turkish grammar, print- 
 ing press and theatre owe their origin to Armenian initi- 
 ative, and their financial ability made them the leading mer- 
 chants of their country. The Turks have taken advantage 
 of the massacres and deportations to repudiate their debts 
 to Armenians, and to loot their houses and stores. 
 
 The special characteristics of Armenian women are sensi- 
 tiveness, gentleness and refinement. They are artistic and 
 have contributed much to literature and art. More devoted 
 family relationships than exist among the Armenians are 
 nowhere to be found, and this makes their present position 
 agonizing in the extreme. Many thousands in Europe and 
 America have received no tidings of their relatives in 
 Turkey for over four years. They do not know whether 
 their loved ones are killed, deported or dragging out a weary 
 existence somewhere as refugees. 
 
 The Armenians have been Christians since the Fourth 
 Century, and their national religion is said to be the oldest 
 of the Christian State Churches. It is called "The Gre- 
 gorian," after Gregory the Illuminator, its founder. The 
 Armenian church differs little from the Greek church in 
 creed, but, unlike the Greeks, the Armenians lay little stress 
 on theological doctrines. They have always been, however, 
 
 31 
 
devotedly trinitarian. The Armenians' loyalty to their church 
 is not solely religious, but an expression of their strong 
 national sentiment. Subjected to many forms of political 
 misrule, and knowing no political independence or unity, 
 they have sought unity in their church. 
 
 The part which the Armenians played in the world war 
 has been fully dealt with by Ambassador Morgenthau. 
 Many of the Russian Armenians, early in 1915, fought 
 bravely with the Russian Armies against the Turks, and the 
 Turkish Armenians, after discovering that they had nothing 
 to hope for by aiding the so-called New Turk government, 
 also became Pro-Ally in their sympathies. When the Turk- 
 ish Armenians of Van, however, were conscripted into the 
 Turkish army, they went for the most part without violent 
 protest, until they found that this conscription was really 
 a method of gaining control of the male population, disarm- 
 ing them, making them practically beasts of burden and pack 
 animals for the Turkish army, and thus rendering the Ar- 
 menians less able to combat against the wholesale massacres 
 and deportations which were to follow. When the cold- 
 blooded measures were eventually carried into effect to 
 exterminate all the Christians in Turkey, one million men, 
 women and children were shot, hung, starved and tortured. 
 
 THE SYRIANS 
 
 The Syrians, inhabitants of Palestine, are a mixed Semitic 
 race, descended from the Phoenicians and Aramaeans of 
 Bible times, and including also Arab ancestry. Massacre 
 and deportation have not flung their gaunt shadows across 
 Palestine, but the spectre of Famine has stalked broadcast 
 through the land, claiming its victims by the hundred De- 
 struction of crops, failure of transportation of supplies 
 uncertainty of government in the face of the advancing 
 
 33 
 
British army have united to invite the presence of this most 
 subtle of War's handmaidens. 
 
 The Jews have shared this suffering, added to as it has 
 been incalculably by influx of thousands of refugees from 
 the interior of the Ottoman Empire, seeking safety behind 
 the British lines. The Jews in America are sharing the re- 
 sponsibility of the American Committee for Relief in the 
 Near East for the brethren in the Promised Land. 
 
 New fields for aid were opened up here by the advance 
 of General Allenby's army and the subsequent surrender of 
 Turkey, and the Red Cross Armenian-Syrian Relief Commis- 
 sion augmented by the American colony in Jerusalem and 
 the English-Syrian Palestine Relief Committee are now pro- 
 viding emergency relief to the most destitute, and are be- 
 ginning to provide work for the women and orphanages for 
 the children. America must give further aid, if this work 
 is to be continued adequately. 
 
 GREEKS 
 
 The story of Armenian suffering in Turkey is paralleled, 
 with certain modifications by the experiences of the Greeks, 
 of whom there were 5,000,000 under Turkish domination at 
 the beginning of the war. 
 
 The Greeks had built up a sound prosperity and had 
 established many kinds of successful business enterprises 
 and educational institutions. The war brought to them the 
 seizure of their .property, the drafting of their men for the 
 hardest kind of military tasks, and subsequent persecution 
 and deportation. 
 
 The Turks adopted almost identically the same procedure 
 against the Greeks, says Ambassador Morgenthau, as that 
 which they had adopted against the Armenians. They 
 began by incorporating the Greeks into the Ottoman army, 
 
 33 
 
and then transforming them into labor battalions. These 
 Greek soldiers, just like the Armenians, died by thousands 
 from cold, hunger and other privations. The same house- 
 to-house searches for hidden weapons took place in the 
 Greek villages, and the Greek men and women were beaten 
 and tortured just as were their fellow Armenians. Greek 
 girls were stolen and taken to Turkish harems and Greek 
 boys were kidnapped and placed in Moslem households. 
 The Turks used the desire of the Greeks for independence 
 as an excuse for a violent onslaught on the whole race. 
 Everywhere the Greeks were gathered together in groups, 
 and under the so-called protection of Turkish gendarmes, 
 they were transported, the larger part on foot, into the 
 interior. Just how many were scattered in this fashion is 
 not known, the estimates of the number who have become 
 destitute refugees varying anywhere from 200,000 up to 
 1,000,000. 
 
 A letter from Mr. Macrides, a Greek refugee escaped to 
 New York, describes their plight as follows : 
 
 "Deportation in Asia Minor is a euphemism for the most 
 heartless and relentless cruelty. It means the loss of home, 
 business property and every personal possession. It means 
 being driven into the desert places, forced to march at the 
 point of the bayonet until strength is exhausted ; being re- 
 fused shelter, food and drink; subject to outrage and cal- 
 culated cruelty; facing always, death by violence or from 
 the cumulative effect of exposure, sickness and starvation, 
 The people are herded and goaded like animals. The des- 
 perate refugees subsist chiefly on offal ; graze like cattle on 
 the roots of scanty grass tufts that push their dry and dusty 
 stems above the sandy soil. It is impossible for words to 
 give an adequate idea of the tragedy of bare existence under 
 such awful conditions. Many dropped by the roadside, to 
 
 34 
 
die where they fell. Others that I know of went insane. 
 And that was only at the beginning. They are still marching 
 on." 
 
 THE PERSIANS 
 
 The Turkish and Russian armies both fought in Persian 
 territory, the latter having surged back and forth across it 
 six times before the war ended. Under these conditions it 
 has been almost impossible to cultivate the crops. The mas- 
 sacre of Christians and the flight of the survivors into Rus- 
 sia deprived Persia of thousands of the agricultural popu- 
 lation. 
 
 These facts have reduced the country to a state of famine, 
 the accounts of which surpass in horror anything in history 
 since the Roman siege of Jerusalem. 
 
 To-day, representatives of the American Committee for 
 Relief in the Near East are to be found in all the principal 
 cities of Persia, helping the inhabitants to earn their 
 daily bread. 
 
 The following extracts from letters and cablegrams de- 
 scribe the conditions with which the relief work has to cope : 
 
 "August 1, 1918. 
 
 "Forty thousand Christian refugees from Urumia have 
 passed Byar en route Hamadan and are followed by 40,000 
 more is the report. Epidemics and hunger cause many 
 deaths. Turks give up pursuit but rear parties have been 
 robbed of everything." . . . "15,000 are said to have been 
 massacred or died en route. British organizing refugee 
 camps, hospitals, but our assistance required immediately." 
 
 From Mr. Cauldwell, American Minister, Teheran, Octo- 
 ber : "Influenza is spreading rapidly and the retail price of 
 a pound of quinine is $125.00. The American Relief Com- 
 mission has an enormous supply of medicine which is very 
 much needed, together with a stock of cotton, cotton cloth- 
 
 35 
 
ing for the poor, two motors, Ford trucks, etc. The British 
 military forces have requested that headquarters be estab- 
 lished in Mesopotamia at Bakubah district persons not of 
 military age and women are being maintained, reported 
 from 30,000 to 70,000; those of military age being pressed 
 into service. 
 
 "In order to care for the poor and the refugees in Teheran 
 and in other parts of Persia, it can be seen from the 
 foregoing that additional funds and help will still be neces- 
 sary. It has been reported that about 15,000 Armenian 
 refugees have come from Baku to Resht. There are pros- 
 pects of them returning. 
 
 "Without further assistance the American missionaries 
 and Legation staff will be unable to carry on the work during 
 the winter, as three of the American missionaries died as 
 result of hard work." 
 
 "June: "We have been oh! so busy with relief work all 
 these months. . . . Thousands of dollars are being dis- 
 tributed every week. For the past two weeks conditions 
 have been terrible. People crazed with hunger, refusing 
 food to their own children — driving the children out to the 
 street to beg for food or money. The poor little skeletons 
 wander about, many of them too little to beg. ... A woman 
 killed and ate her own child. When outraged people called 
 her to account she replied: Tt was my own child, not an- 
 other's.' People in eating human flesh appear to have for- 
 gotten everything — have lost human consciousness — have 
 even forgotten their names." 
 
 "We cannot buy sugar, it is more than a dollar and a 
 quarter a pound." 
 
 "People are in such terrible need that they take the 
 beams and joists out of their houses and sell them — literally 
 destroying their houses. Then they ?o live under the trees 
 
 3(5 
 
or in corners of the streets. Clothes, furniture, pots, car- 
 pets, anything that will bring a little money the people sell 
 or pawn. Mothers sell their daughters." 
 
 "The food situation is desperate here now, and with it 
 has come the inevitable sickness and death. ... I sincerely 
 hope our cablegrams will wake things up back there in the 
 States." 
 
 "There are thousands of Kurdish and Urumia Syrian 
 and Armenian refugees here, and the Relief Committee with 
 funds from America are trying to keep them from starving 
 and freezing to death. I have been busy since fall superin- 
 tending quilt making, sewing clothing, and am now looking 
 after sewing of cloth for orphans. Mr. Richards is having 
 the clothes made on hand looms for refugees, from wool 
 which has to be prepared first for thread. We get it just 
 as it comes from the sheep's back." 
 
 The latest reports from Persia throw much light on na- 
 tional conditions and the kind of reconstruction that is 
 needed there. 
 
 The poverty of the native population, as well as of the 
 refugees among their borders, is great, and is at least partly 
 due to the exceedingly high price of food For this there are 
 two reasons-^the hoarding of wheat on the part of wealthy 
 land-owners to force up the price, and the extreme difficulty 
 of transportation. 
 
 There are no railways, and pack-animals have died in large 
 numbers of insufficient food. 
 
 The British army in Persia has been of invaluable help 
 in relief work, aiding in transport, donation of clothing and 
 food, and in the maintenance of order. The Armenian refu- 
 gees, when provided with ploughs and seed, will be of 
 service to their Persian hosts by showing them better and 
 more efficient methods of farming. 
 
 37 
 
The future needs of Persia are, above all: 
 
 1. A good transportation system. 
 
 2. An improved land-system. 
 
 American prestige in Persia is at present very great, and 
 likely to increase under the influence of the Commission to 
 Persia recently sent out by the American Committee for 
 Relief in the Near East. 
 
 Dr. Harry Pratt Judson, president of the University of 
 Chicago, is at the head of this Commission, and Dr. Wilbur 
 M. Post, who was War Field Secretary for the American 
 Red Cross for Western Asia Union during the Balkan 
 War 1912-13, is also a member of it. This commission is 
 taking Ford cars and transport trucks, seeds for planting, 
 sewing machines and medical supplies, and is setting to 
 work in a thoroughly efficient manner to deal with the 
 present situation and begin reconstruction for the future. 
 
 Large and increasing funds are needed. 
 
 NO GOVERNMENT AID AVAILABLE 
 
 We are able to show the new spirit of internationalism as 
 a nation by making government loans of millions of dollars 
 to Belgium, France, Serbia and other allied nations to help 
 support their war orphans and war-stricken civilian popula- 
 tion. But there is at present no government to which loans 
 can be made for use on behalf of the millions of homeless 
 destitutes in the Near East. 
 
 Our task here, therefore, is not merely supplementing 
 government grants, but bearing for a time the whole re- 
 sponsibility. It affords a unique opportunity for every man, 
 woman and child to express individually the spirit of inter- 
 nationalism and democracy that has inspired the war-aims 
 of America and the speeches of President Wilson. It gives 
 
 38 
 
us all a chance to help in the making of nations, and the 
 literal and direct saving of life. 
 
 As soon as order is restored in the Near East, an effort 
 will be made to provide proper government assistance to 
 these unfortunate peoples who have suffered so bitterly in 
 the war because of their pro-ally sympathies. But in the 
 meantime the situation must be met by the whole-hearted 
 individual support of the democracy of America. 
 
 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 $60 per month as pastor of churches, we have de- 
 cided 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 ye clothed me ; I was sick and ye visited me ; I was in 
 prison and ye came unto me.' " 
 
 (Reprinted from "The Work of the American Red Cross") 
 
 FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF RED CROSS WAR 
 FUND, MARCH 1, 1918 
 
 I. Efficient Administration 
 "The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian 
 Relief* was organized in October, 1915, for the purpose of 
 securing immediate relief for Armenians and Syrians, cabled 
 reports of whose persecutions were at that time just begin- 
 
 *Now the American Committee for Relief in the Near East. 
 
 39 
 
ning to reach this country. Since October 1, 1915, it has 
 received from all sources and distributed for relief approx- 
 imately $9,000,000. 
 
 "The entire admininstrative expenses of this Committee 
 are met privately, enabling it to devote to distinctly relief 
 work 100 cents of every dollar received for this purpose. 
 The work of distribution in Asia is handled by 100 or more 
 responsible American citizens, consuls, physicians, educa- 
 tors and others who give their services to relief administra- 
 tion without salary or expense to the relief funds. The Com- 
 mittee's audited reports show that some $25,000 more has 
 been spent for relief than has been received in contributions, 
 the difference being accounted for by the interest on daily 
 balances. ***** 
 
 "As an instance of the business-like methods employed, it 
 was reported late in the fall of 1917 that food prices were 
 rapidly advancing in Turkey, Armenia, Syria and the Cau- 
 casus, and that by the time winter came food would, in all 
 probability, be cornered to such an extent that prices would 
 be much higher than at the time of writing. Accordingly, 
 the Red Cross, at the request of the American Committee, 
 appropriated in October, $600,000 for the months of No- 
 vember and December, 1917, to make possible the purchase 
 of food at the lower rate. The actual record of prices as 
 later reported during the winter months shows that at least 
 $500,000 was saved by this advance purchase. 
 
 II. The Need for Relief 
 
 "The field of operations includes not only Asia Minor 
 with those portions of Armenia and Syria that are in the 
 Ottoman Empire, but also the large section of Armenia until 
 recently dominated by the Russian Army, as well as the 
 Russian Caucasus, Persia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and por- 
 
 40 
 
tions of Egypt and Macedonia, into which regions Armeni- 
 ans Syrians and Greeks have fled in large numbers. Of the 
 Armenians, about 1,000,000 were massacred or driven to 
 U their death during the summer of 1915, and the remainder 
 • within Turkish dominions were deported from their homes 
 into the deserts or other regions where self-support was prac- 
 tically impossible. 
 
 "For months innumerable cables relating details of the 
 most terrible suffering and deplorable conditions of the in- 
 habitants of Asia Minor have been received by the Com- 
 mittee On January 15, 1918, American Consul Smith, at 
 Tiflis in the Russian Caucasus, cabled that the condition of 
 the refugees there was critical ; that the responsibilities were 
 almost entirely on the American Committee ; that it was 
 besieged by appeals from all districts, delegations of hungry 
 people often numbering 100, coming long distances, begging 
 for bread, and refusing to leave without food or promises. 
 
 ATTITUDE OF NATIONAL AND STATE COUNCILS 
 OF DEFENSE 
 National Council of Defense 
 Mr Elliott D. Smith, of the Field Division of the Counci 
 of Defense, has in his possession the necessary material 
 upon which State Councils of Defense may base their en- 
 dorsements. He will be glad to have referred to him any 
 difficulties our Committees might experience in obtaining 
 the endorsement of a State Council of Defense. 
 
 The National Council of Defense through this Executive 
 Committee has refused to endorse any relief orgamzatun 
 which is not directly connected with one or more : bureau 
 of the Government. Officials of the National Counci of 
 Defense, however, have personally expressed their sympathy 
 and their desire to cooperate with our Campaign. 
 
 41 
 
State Councils of Defense 
 
 Endorsements are being daily received from State Coun- 
 cils of Defense. Thirty-two of the forty-eight State Coun- 
 cils of Defense have at this writing endorsed the work of 
 the American Committee for Relief in the Near East. The 
 action of a few is given below : 
 
 Connecticut — "We already have the name of your or- 
 ganization, of course, among those which has been approved 
 in this State, and we congratulate you upon the very remark- 
 able work that you are doing, and the business-like way in 
 which it is handled." 
 
 Minnesota — "When you are ready to make your cam- 
 paign in Minnesota I assure you this department will be 
 very glad to assist you in any way." 
 
 Nebraska — "In view of the information pertaining to 
 the conduct of your campaign for Armenian and Syrian Re- 
 lief, the Nebraska State Council of Defense extends you 
 its endorsement." 
 
 New Jersey — "This will inform you that at a meeting of 
 our Executive Committee on the 23rd instant the endorse- 
 ment which you desire for the American Committee for 
 Armenian and Syrian Relief in the matter of soliciting funds 
 in the State of New Jersey was gladly extended. 
 
 Oregon — Governor Withycombe is Honorary Chairman 
 of our Committee. Some County Councils conduct our 
 campaign. 
 
 Washington — State Council has endorsed movement, ac- 
 cepted State quota and assigned definite quota to every 
 county. 
 
 Wyoming — "I most heartily approve of the purposes of 
 your Society, and trust that, when the people of Wyoming, 
 as well as other States, are given an opportunity to con- 
 tribute, they will do so generously and without stint. 
 
 42 
 
NOT SHARING, BUT GIVING THEIR ALL 
 
 At the foot of Mt. Ararat cluster the Armenians, truly 
 "the people of the Ararat." Nestling under its shoulder is 
 Etchmiadzin, where Gregory the Illuminator received the 
 vision that resulted in the conversion of the Armenian na- 
 tion, far back in the year 303. On that spot is built the 
 venerable church about which all the history of this ever- 
 persecuted nation centers. There to this day is the seat of 
 the Catholikos, or head of the Armenian Church, whom I 
 had visited the day before I went to Kanakar. 
 
 Kanakar was a "sample" village, where about fifty 
 orphans were receiving relief from the American Commit- 
 tee. The place itself contains about three hundred mud 
 houses, of the conventional one-story type. It is entirely 
 agricultural, having no manufactures. Into two hundred 
 and ten of these houses refugees who have made the long 
 journey from devastated Armenia have been taken, to the 
 total number of about one thousand persons, mostly women 
 and children, of course. 
 
 If it had not been for the charity of the poor villagers 
 to whom the smitten refugees have turned, the tale of 
 Armenian dead would be nearly double its present total of 
 a million. These people who in their poverty have shared 
 their all are the really great givers toward this cause. No 
 momentary impulse of generosity has led them to contribute 
 what money they could spare; they have given of their 
 homes, their fires, their food, their clothes, and have done 
 so continuously. No honor roll of these givers is kept this 
 
 side of the pearly gates. _ . . . - fVl . 
 
 The plan of orphan relief is simple. It u the rule of the 
 Armenian Committee in Erivan to give no money to men 
 or women, except the latter be senously , 11 ; work ,t does 
 provide for a few adults by its wonderful mdustnal estab- 
 
 43 
 
lishment. For one child out of a family of orphans, it pro- 
 vides a stipend of six roubles monthly, increased at the time 
 of our visit to ten roubles, owing to the depreciation of the 
 rouble, which is now worth less than ten cents. 
 
 Each case is investigated by men trained in the mission 
 schools of the American Board, some having been ministers 
 or professors back in Armenia. This relief work, I found 
 will stand the acid test of the Associated Charities or of the 
 Rockefeller Foundation; for there is system in it all, down 
 to the minutest detail. Nobody need fear that Armenian 
 relief funds are either wasted or given to the undeserving. 
 
 Wm. T. Ellis, Swarthmore, Pa. 
 
 TESTIMONY FROM UNITED STATES CONSULAR 
 AGENTS 
 
 I believe there is no place in the world where there is greater and 
 mo re urgent d of ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 8 ter and 
 
 surviving Christian population in the Turkish Empire 
 
 th e nT,T^ fr ° m 3 P rT" al knoWled ^ of the situation, as during 
 the past three years I have been located at Harpoot, and there wa 
 brought into close contact with the distress and mise y of thousand 
 of homeless and destitute women and children who are absolute^ 
 dependent upon charity for their subsistence Cutely 
 For the past two years systematic relief has been regularlv eiven 
 
 turned away owtg t SLSZ KSuK 
 St 3117 mStance was the ^lief given adequate for their needs 
 
 obtined " 5 eX ' Stm!S C ° ndi,i0ns th " e » "0 work to be 
 
 wretched and helpless cond.tion that they cannot long 
 44 
 
survive if help is not received. In fact, many did die last winter 
 for lack of food. Present conditions are more critical than ever. 
 
 Arrangements have been made by which funds can continue to 
 be sent there without any risk of loss, and if it can be done in this 
 difficult interior district, there can be little doubt about reaching 
 all other parts of Turkey where relief is being distributed. 
 
 Signed, 
 
 LESLIE A. DAVIS. 
 
 As first Secretary of -the American Embassy at Constantinople 
 from before the beginning of the present war until nearly a month 
 after Turkey broke diplomatic relations with the United States, I 
 have had constant and close relations with the distributors of relief 
 among the Armenian, Syrian and Greek refugees in that country. 
 As Ambassador Elkus was the chairman of the Distributing Com- 
 mittee I was brought officially into close contact with all that work. 
 
 There is no question as to the extreme need. The distress among 
 the stricken people is beyond any power of words to describe. Phe 
 present monthly appropriations of the Committee meet this need to 
 a limited degree. Up to the time the Embassy left Constantinople 
 the Turkish officials were generally friendly to the American mem- 
 bers of the Relief Committee. Certain reports from the interior 
 show that they were not only friendly, but helpful m aiding the 
 relief agents in securing supplies and in coming into contact with 
 
 ^TheTmerican missionaries who have had main charge of relief 
 measures, work without pay, and owing to the w wdee*P eru ««, 
 knowledge of the people of the country and the* langua g, u ejhe 
 limited funds at their disposal in the most economical manner^ 
 
 tens of thousands. No appeal comes w-th greater fore where 
 the necessity is more urgent than for the refugees >n Turkey. 
 
 Signed, 
 
 C. CORNELL TARLAR. 
 
 45 
 
Translation from the French of a telegram received by 
 the Armenian Benevolent Union. Referred by Mr. Kurkjian 
 and Mr. Karagheusian to our Committee. 
 
 Cairo, Egypt, October 30, 1918. 
 Thousands of sufferers delivered in Syria are reduced to horrible 
 misery. Our resources are insufficient. Try to obtain contributions 
 from the (Armenian) National Union for our relief. Cooperation 
 with the Armenian and Syrian Relief Society is indispensable in 
 order to organize together the work of assistance. We have great 
 need of competent sisters and women devoted to direct our schools 
 and orphanage work. Launch an appeal. 
 
 Signed, ARTIN PASHA. 
 
 ENDORSEMENTS FROM PUBLIC MEN 
 President Woodrow Wilson— "American diplomatic and consular 
 representatives and other American residents recently returned from 
 Western Asia, assure me that many thousands of lives were saved 
 from starvation by the gifts of the American people last winter 
 They also bring full assurance of the continued effective distribu 
 tion of relief, and report that the suffering and death from exposure 
 and starvation will inevitably be much greater this winter than last 
 unless the survivors can be helped by further contributions from 
 Amenca In view of the urgent need, I call again upon the people 
 of the United States to make such further contributions as they feel 
 disposed, in their sympathy and generosity, for the aid of the 
 suffering peoples." 
 
 Ex-President William H. Taft "The Armenian Relief has been 
 
 wen 3 7V°: S ° me y f rS; k ne6dS m ° re mo ™y> jt is ending 
 well and effectively; lt is helping the poor people of the Near East 
 
 iW veTw nT Y ° U ^ be SUre that whate -r money 
 
 sorely » Pr ° Perly administered f or a people that need it 
 
 the T w^ RE of R ° 0S , E T^T ith aU my heart 1 wish y™ G °d*Peed in 
 Westlrn A I /° U W Undertake * *>r the Christians in 
 effort o £ ParticuIar1 ^ do I wish you success in your 
 
 and ^^^00 for the maintenance of the tens of thou- 
 
 ound in th?? ° ther refugees and suffere ". wherever 
 
 Turkey" ™' * Pc " ia ' in P4Uestine ' <* '** the interior of 
 
 46 
 
r 
 
 Charles E. Hughes — "Out of the horror and nightmare through 
 which these people have passed comes the gratifying word that we 
 can be of assistance, that our efforts will prove availing, and that 
 we can share with them the bounty which we, as Americans, have 
 
 "^enjoyed for years. The work done by this committee has been 
 most unselfish and effective under conditions of great personal 
 
 I sacrifice. May America respond to their appeals." 
 
 THE SECRETARY OF STATE, WASHINGTON 
 
 November 27, 1918. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Buck: 
 
 I understand that the Jefferson County War Chest has under 
 consideration an appropriation to the American Committee for 
 Armenian and Syrian Relief. I am very glad to give my hearty 
 endorsement to the work which the American Committee for 
 Armenian and Syrian Relief has been, and is doing in Western 
 Asia. It has probably been the largest single factor in keeping 
 alive many thousands of deported women and children of the sub- 
 ject races of Turkey, and its present program of relief and rehabili- 
 tation is worthy of the fullest possible support. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 ROBERT LANSING. 
 
 THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, WASHINGTON 
 
 December 23, 1918. 
 
 My dear Mr. Hinshaw: ... a 
 
 I need not tell you how deeply I am interested in the good 
 work which the American Committee for Relief in the Near East is 
 undertaking. In all the horrors of war the hearts of our people 
 have gone out particularly to the peoples for whom the cam- 
 paign is being waged to raise thirty million dollars for their 
 and help in these days of need. The American Commute 
 for Armenian and Syrian Relief has done a great work for 
 humanity in days of peril and I feel sure all Americans w. 1 feel 
 it a privilege to make contribution to the larger measures of help 
 to these persecuted peoples. 
 
 Sincerely youfs, 
 
 JOSEPHUS DANIELS. 
 
 47 
 
December 2, 1918. / 
 
 My Dear Mr. Millar: 
 
 The relief work carried on by the American Committee in the 
 Near East on behalf of Armenians, Syrians, Jews, Greeks and Per- 
 sians in Western Asia, affords a pressing and an appealing oppor- 
 tunity for the American people to support a humanitarian cause. I 
 most heartily endorse your Thirty Million Dollar Campaign, cul- 
 minating in a drive January 12th to 19th, and I bespeak for you 
 the hearty cooperation and support of all the workers who took 
 part in the United War Work Campaign, and those associated with 
 the Young Men's Christian Association throughout the country. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 J. R. MOTT. 
 
 MOTION PICTURES TO AID CAMPAIGN 
 
 An elaborate motion picture has been prepared by the 
 Committee to present in dramatic form the tragedy of Ar- 
 menia to the American public. Pains have been taken to 
 ensure that this picture shall be an authentic document, and 
 its details are based on the Bryce Report, the speeches of 
 Lord Robert Cecil in England, and many direct and reputable 
 eye-witnesses of the events portrayed. This picture will be 
 shown in your locality early in the year, under the auspices 
 of the Committee, and by urging people to see it you will 
 be directly aiding the campaign. 
 
 48 
 
American Committee for Relief in the Near East 
 
 One Madison Ave., New York 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND OFFICERS 
 
 James L. Barton Chairman 
 
 Samuel T. Dutton William B. Millar 
 
 Vice-Chairman Director-General of Campaign 
 Charles V. Vickrey. . . .Secretary Cleveland H. Dodge. .Treasurer 
 
 George T. Scott 
 Henry Morgenthau 
 
 NATIONAL 
 Hon. William Howard Taft 
 Hon. Charles Evans Hughes 
 Frederick H. Allen 
 James L. Barton 
 Charles E. Beury 
 Arthur J. Brown 
 Edwin M. Bulkley 
 John B. Calvert 
 Wm. I. Chamberlain 
 Charles R. Crane 
 I Cleveland H. Dodge 
 Charles W. Eliot 
 William T. Ellis 
 James Cardinal Gibbons 
 Jerome D. Greene 
 Rt. Rev. David H. Greer 
 Fred P. Haggard 
 Harold A. Hatch 
 William I. Haven 
 Alexander J. Hemphill 
 Myron T. Herrick 
 Hamilton Holt 
 Frank W. Jackson 
 Arthur Curtiss James 
 Woodbury G. Langdon 
 Frederick Lynch 
 Vance C. McCormick 
 
 Edwin M. Bulkley 
 Alexander J. Hemphill 
 
 COMMITTEE 
 Charles S. MacFarland 
 William B. Millar 
 Henry Morgenthau 
 John R. Mott 
 Frank Mason North 
 George A. Plimpton 
 Rt. Rev. P. Rhinelander 
 Karl Davis Robinson 
 William W. Rockwell 
 Wm. Jay Schieffelin 
 George T. Scott 
 Albert Shaw 
 
 William Sloane 
 
 Edward Lincoln Smith 
 
 James M. Speers 
 
 Oscar S. Straus 
 
 Harry A. Wheeler 
 
 Stanley White 
 
 Ray Lyman Wilbur 
 
 Talcott Williams 
 
 Stephen S. Wise 
 
 Chairmen of 
 Local Committees 
 Are Ex-Officio Members 
 of the 
 National Committee 
 
\