-r 1 D ^^^"^ 
 
 THE CRY OF 
 MILLIONS 
 
 EXILED 
 DESTITUTE 
 DYING 
 
 + 
 
 Revised Edition 
 December, 1916 
 
A CRUSHING blow has fallen upon the Armenians and Syrians in Turkey, 
 Persia, Syria and Palestine. Amid all the terrible accompaniments of 
 the European War there is none more heartrending than this. According to the 
 most reliable reports about 850,000 have perished by massacre, disease, and hard- 
 ship. Two million survivors, each with a story tragic enough to break the hardest 
 heart, are in dire distress. Many are remote from their homes, without shelter, 
 clothing or food, their hearts filled with despair. America is the only nation that 
 can meet their need. Extraordinary financial prosperity, impossible but for the 
 war, abounds here. Shall this nation fatten because of Europe's demand for our 
 goods and forget the sorrows in the war zones? The suffering cry out in their anguish. 
 Will we hear and heed their appeal? 
 
 A TRAGIC HISTORY 
 
 FOR TWENTY-FIVE centuries, between the Black and Caspian Seas, in 
 Western Asia, the Armenians have had a home. Suffering has been their lot, 
 perhaps beyond any other race that has ever lived. One after another — Assyrian, 
 Persian, Parthian, Roman, Turk — has come to oppress or exploit or persecute. 
 Today their land is divided between Turkey, Persia and Russia. Only yesterday 
 they were the best educated, most skillful, most industrious, and most valuable people 
 in the Turkish Empire. 
 
THE BLOW THAT FELL 
 
 <</^NLY YESTERDAY!" Those are 
 fateful words! Modern history be- 
 gan August 1, 1914, when Europe and Asia 
 caught fire. The flower of Armenian man- 
 hood was called to the colors, leaving only 
 a few men with the aged and infirm or tender 
 youth with women and children to carry on the 
 daily business as best they could. 
 
 In April, 1915, continuing through No- 
 vember, the indescribably terrible blow fell — 
 the most tragic hour in all their tragic history 
 came. Then began the systematic and relentless- * . . 
 
 , , r 1 • 1 A • Armenian Shepherd Boy. One of the 
 
 ly cruel process of crushmg the Armenian race by thousands driven from home, 
 
 massacre and deportation. Men were led away in groups outside their villages and 
 killed with clubs and axes. 
 
 The consul of one of the European nations in Turkey reported that on one 
 occasion 10,000 Armenians were taken out in boats, batteries of artillery trained 
 on the boats as targets, and the entire company killed. 
 
 Schools and churches — the fruition of many years of toil and tears — were broken 
 up, the students killed or scattered. 
 
 Girls and women were reserved for an indescribable fate in terrible marches, in 
 harems, or in the houses of officials, or in the huts or tents of the wild tribes. 
 
 Typical School scene before exile 
 
Villages and towns by the hundred were wrecked. The whole Armenian popu- 
 lation of large sections was deported. Of one caravan of 600 people the Arabs killed 
 500. Many thousands died of disease, torture, terror, exhaustion, hunger. 
 
 Of 450 from one village only one woman lives. She saw her husband and three 
 sons tied together and shot with one bullet, to save ammunition. She saw her daughters 
 outraged and then killed. She was carried away by a Kurd but escaped at night, 
 naked, and after terrible suffering fell in with some refugees. 
 
 The blow fell heaviest upon those least able to bear it — the aged, the women, 
 especially mothers or those about to become mothers, little children. Hundreds, 
 thousands, perished in the first few days. The figures mount to sickening proportions, 
 until they reach a total of more than half a million that have perished. 
 
 PRESENT CONDITIONS 
 
 IN THE early months of 1916, America was shocked by the widely published 
 statement that the Armenians were living upon grass. Later reports say that the 
 grass is now dried up. "The people kill and eat the street dogs. They fight for the 
 clotted blood of killed animals; they gnaw the bones which they find on the dung 
 hills; they look for grains of oats in horse-dung, to eat them. They eat the flesh of 
 fallen animals and men." 
 
 The suffering of the Syrians in the Lebanon region and in portions of Palestine, 
 where many have taken 
 refuge, has been, and 
 still is, unimaginably 
 great. It is the story 
 of Armenia over again, 
 but the population 
 affected is larger. 
 
 The Syrians in 
 America are responding 
 nobly to the cry of their 
 brothers. These Ameri- 
 caui Syrians have sent 
 nearly one million dollars 
 for relief out of their 
 comparative poverty. 
 They are entering into 
 the suffering of their 
 Asiatic relatives by ob- 
 serving fast days, and 
 are sending to Syria the 
 resulting savings. 
 
 a 
 
THE AWFUL FACTS 
 
 [Based upon best available information] 
 
 Armenian population of Turkey, Persia and Syria 
 
 before the European war 2.000,000 
 
 Massacred or died of wounds, disease, or exhaustion, 
 
 about 850,000 
 
 Total Syrian population in Syria, Palestine, Persia and 
 in "The Levant" generally, many of them in a destitute 
 and starving condition, over 3,000,000 
 
 Syrians who have perished, over 100,000 
 
 Amount of money needed to rehabilitate the destitute 
 
 and starving $5,000,000 
 
 One Syrian, a writer and a man of rare culture, recently fasted two days, and 
 during the fast period collected $300 relief money from his own people. 
 
 Former Ambassador 
 Henry Morgenthau and 
 others competent to 
 judge say that$5,000.000 
 is needed at once to fur- 
 nish food, clothing and 
 shelter. j 
 One dollar will keep 
 one person alive one 
 month or longer. """I 
 Twenty-five dollars 
 will enable an Armenian 
 family to be established 
 in comparative comfort. 
 
 Until the war 
 ends thousands must be 
 fed.^ After the war 
 multitudes must be 
 given assistance in rer 
 establishing their homes, 
 eft by the roadside Stocking their farms and 
 
securing implements and seed for their 
 fields. 
 
 DO WE HEAR THE CRY? 
 
 These are times that try men's souls. 
 A pall of horror hangs over the world. 
 The sympathies and emotions of men are 
 in danger of exhaustion through over-strain. 
 The safety for heart and conscience and 
 will is to yield to the benevolent impulses 
 and pour out relief for the suffering and 
 needy. America is comfortable and rich. 
 In contrast with the peace and quiet which 
 are ours let us think of the terror and the 
 strife in Armenia. We have safe homes 
 and the sweet comforts of the undisturbed 
 comradeship of those we love. Their homes 
 are in ruins; they are in lonely exile, and in 
 place of family comfort there are only ruined 
 or confiscated houses, starving bodies, 
 stunned minds, shattered nerves, bruised 
 Group of Armenian Refugees hearts. With loneliness and pain and ter- 
 
 ror and uncertainty and hunger and cruelty 
 and hate they keep constant vigil. The moan of a race moves out across the heart 
 of a stricken world. 
 
 WHAT SHALL BE OUR RESPONSE? 
 
 THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE for Armenian and Syrian Relief was organized 
 to meet this appalling need. Members of the Committee pay the expense of 
 the Committee's work, thus making it possible to cable every dollar given for relief. 
 
 A recent cablegram from Constantinople to the State Department at Washington 
 gives assurance of the consent of the Turkish government for the distribution of money, 
 food and other supplies in Syria. 
 
 Strong commissions, headed by American consuls and missionaries, are ad- 
 ministering the funds from forty-four centers. 
 
 Some are giving generously out of their abundance. Others are giving 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." 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 $80 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; 1 was sick and ye visited me; 
 I was in prison and ye came unto me.' " 
 
 We hold in our hands that which can give safety, satisfy hunger, drive away 
 despair, provide shelter and cause the forsaken and battle-trampled fields to blossom 
 into harvests. 
 
 Can we, dare we, withhold the help we can give? 
 
 All contributions should be forwarded to Charles R. Crane, Treasurer, 70 Fifth 
 Avenue, New York. 
 
 CABLEGRAMS JUST RECEIVED 
 
 From Tabriz, November 20, 1916, the day previous to our remittance: 
 "RELIEF FUNDS FINISHED MONTHS AGO. DISTRESS GREAT." 
 
 — VANNEMAN. 
 
 November 21, 1916, from another distribution center, as follows: "EXISTING 
 RELIEF WORK IN CHARGE AMERICANS NOW REACHES OVER 
 FIFTY LOCALITIES. ALLOTMENTS MUST BE INCREASED AT 
 THIS SEASON. REQUESTS FROM AMERICANS TOTAL $100,000 PER 
 MONTH. MORE FUNDS NEEDED NOW." 
 
 A third, reaching New York November 21st, through the State Department, 
 dated November 1 7th, from the American Consulate in Tiflis, contains the following 
 message from the Committee for Relief at Erivan. 
 
 "After year of hiding in caves, hunted like wild animals, thousands of new refugees 
 coming from Turkey. They are fed by Russian Government, but destitute of bedding 
 and clothing. Great suffering from severe climate. After personal investigation 
 by our committee urge appropriation hundred thousand dollars for bedding for fifteen 
 thousand new refugees. Thousands of women with children to support in distress and 
 hopeless. Our committee now employing one thousand women in Erivan in industrial 
 work. As many more turned away in despair. Opening new center in Alexandropol. 
 Strongly urge appropriation two hundred thousand dollars to employ seven thousand 
 women six months at one dollar per week. Moral as well as physical results already 
 very apparent."— RAYNOLDS, YARROW, MAYNARD. 
 
 From Beirut, the Syrian port to which we are sending the U. S. S. Navy collier, 
 as American Christmas ship, the following recent cable expresses the gratitude of the 
 beneficiaries on the field: 
 
 "Remittance is most opportune. Please advise all those who are responsible 
 of the great value of their contributions which will preserve for future usefulness many 
 who otherwise could not have been kept." 
 
Orphaned Children at BreeJcfast 
 
 American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief 
 
 70 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
 Including Work of the Armenian Relief, the Persian 
 War ReHef, and the Syrian-Palestine Relief Committees 
 
 James L. Barton, 
 Chairman 
 
 Samuel T. Button, 
 Secretary 
 
 Charles V. Vickrey, Executive Secretary 
 
 Charles R. Crane, 
 Treasurer 
 
 Frederick H. Allen 
 Arthur J. Brown 
 Edwin M. Bulkley 
 
 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 
 
 The Committee urges 
 that contributions be sent 
 
 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 
 
 immediate attention to this pressing need, and asks 
 to 
 
 CHAS. R. CRANE, Treasurer, 
 
 70 Fifth Ave., New York. 
 
 Rt. Rev. P. Rhinelander 
 Karl Davis Robinson 
 William W. Rockwell 
 Wm. Jay schietielin 
 George T. Scott 
 Isaac N. Seligman 
 William Sloane 
 Edward Lincoln Smith 
 James M. Speers 
 Oscar S. Straus 
 Stanley White 
 Talcott Williams 
 Stephen S. Wise