The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-07 00:00:00

S°.'s.
:. • I

THE SUN, LONDON, FEIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1860.

CONTRACT FOR COALS FOR HAULBOWLINE.

Department ofh
the Storekeeper-General
of te Navy,
Somerset-Place, 6th Sept., 1860.
THE COMMISSIONERS for EXECUTING the
OFFICE of LORD HIGH ADMIRAL of the UNITED
KINGDOM of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, DO
HEREBY GIVE NOTICE, That on TUESDAY, the
18th instant, at Two o'clock, they will be ready to treat with
such Persons as may be willing to CONTRACT for supply-
ing and delivering into Store at her Majesty's Naval Yard at
Haulbowline,

1,500 Tons of SOUTH WALES COALS,
fit for the service of her Majesty's Steam Vessels.
A form cf the Tender may be seen at the said office. No
tender will be received after Two o'clock on the day of
treaty, nor will any be noticed unless the party attends, or an
agent for him duly authorised in writing.
Every tender must be addressed to the Secretary of the
Admiralty, and bear in the left-hand corner the words " Ten-
der for Coals for Haulbowline," and must also be delivered
at Somerset-place, accompanied by a letter signed by a re-
sponsible person, engaging to become bound with the person
tendering, in the sum of £3OO, for the due performance of
the Contract.

THE MASSACRES IN SYRIA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—Will you oblige the committee by publish-
ing the following letter, received yesterday, from
Mr. Moore, her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General
for Syria, together with the reply of the hon. sec-
retary despatched this day ?—I am, sir, your obe-
dient servant,

C. R. EDMONDS, Secy.
British Syrian Relief Fund, 12, York-buildings,
Adelphi, W.C., Sept 6.

British Consulate-General in Syria, Beyrout, Aug. 14.
Sir,—l have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 27th ult., acquainting me with the forma-
tion of the British Syrian Relief Committee, and authoris-
ing me to draw for £l,OOO for the object in view.
In reply, I beg to state that I feel highly gratified in
having been designated as the local channel for carrying
out the benevolent intention of the committee, at whose dis-
po

_ ,sal I place my best services. The extent of the misery
and distress calling for immediate relief may be judged of
when I state that in Beyrout alone there are at present
upwards of 10,000 destitute refugees, the vast majority of
whom are entirely dependent upon charity for food, shelter,
and clothing. Of these 5,000 have been hitherto assisted by
the Beyrout Committee ; 2,000 more from Damascus are to
be added to the number now that funds have been received ;
while an additional caravan of between 3,000 and 4,000 will
arrive to-morrow from that city.
The incalculable good that the liberal donations from
England will accomplish may be readily conceived.
With regard to the wish expressed, that I should organise
a committee at Beyrout of which I should be chairman, you
will have perceived, before this, from the second edition of
the appeal from Beyrout, that I have accepted the presi-
dency of the Anglo-American Committee. No separate
committee could be formed, as the existing association in-
cludes the names of all the respectable members of the Eng-
lish residents at Beyrout.
Your wishes as to the principles upon which the relief
should be administered will be strictly adhered to ; indeed,
in their operation hitherto those principles have been acted
upon by the Beyrout Committee. The reports of our pro-
ceedings and operations will be duly forwarded to you for
the information of those interested.
I intend to draw to-morrow for £5OO on account. Agree-
ably with an intimation from his Excellency Sir Henry
Bulwer I will forward a proportion of the £l,OOO to Mr.
Consul Brant at Damascus, with whom I am in communi-
cation on the subject.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient humble
servant,

N. Moons, Consul-General.

Sir Culling Eardley, Bart.

P.S., Aug. 16.—Last night about 3,500 unfortunates,
chiefly women and children, arrived from Damascus in the
most forlorn and pitiable condition. The Government are
affording them relief. I believe it is intended to send them
to Cyprus and RhAes, as an epidemic is feared on account
of the over-crowded state of Beyrout. N. M.

British Syrian Relief Fund, 12, York-buildings,
Adelphi, W. C., Sept. 6.
Sir,—On behalf of the Syrian Relief Committee we
beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 14th
and 16th of August. We are happy to learn that our pro-
ceedings have afforded gratification, and are calculated to
be of considerable service at Beyrout and elsewhere in Syria.
We are perfectly satisfied with your kind assurance that
the funds transmitted to the eemmittoe over which you
preside will be administered on the principles of perfect
impartiality indicated in our letter of July 27.
The committee attach great importance, as do the British
public, to our contributions not being used so as to throw
weight into the scale of any race, or creed, or party.
With a view to affording every possible assurance on this
head, we shall be glad (as we have already intimated in our
letter dated Aug. 23), if your committee should see fit to
add to its number resident gentlemen of character and re-
spectability belonging to the Jewish, Roman Catholic, and
Greek persuasions, and connected with other than the British
and American nations.
We feel sure, from what we know of those who appear to
be taking the most active part in your Anglo-American
Committee, that everything which tends to give a character
of world-wide humanity to your proceedings will be as
agreeable to them as it will be satisfactory to us.
In order that there may be no mistake, we beg to recapi-
tulate the amounts for which we have already authorised
you to draw upon our treasurer, at the dates severally at-
tached to each sum :—July 24, £l,OOO ; Aug. 4, £1,500 ;
Aug. 9, £3,000 ; Aug. 25, £2,000 ; total, £7,500.
A telegraphic message 'was despatched from the Foreign-
office, on each of those days respectively, to Constantinople,
to Sir H. L. Bulwer, and his Excellency replied by tele-
gram, dated Aug. 28, which informed Lord John Russell
that by the next mail-packet to Beyrout in each instance
he had transmitted the same authority to you.
We have now the pleasure of authorising you to make a
further draught on Messrs. Heywood, Kennard, and Co. of
£2,500, making altogether £lO,OOO.
Contributions are coming in nobly. In several leading
cities and towns, as in Liverpool, Manchester, &c., some
of the principal inhabitants, frequently headed by the
Mayor, Provost, or chairman of the Town Commissioners
have either called meetings or initiated subscriptions.
Many ministers of religion have preached for the object
and many more will do so for some time to come. Some
are about to take the opportunity offered by the sermons
and public prayers (more or less general) which have been
occasioned by the recent anxiety about the harvest to make
a collection for the suffering Syrians.
Continental friends are also coming to our aid. We have
addressed circulars to leading Christians and Jews (of which
we inclose copies) in most p Arts of Europe, intimating our
readiness to become the channel of their benevolence, should
they find difficulties either in establishing a national com-
mittee for themselves based on our principle of impartiality,
or in securing an administration in Syria which will be
perfectly satisfactory.
We are glad to find that in Prussia and elsewhere a na-
tional fund will be formed to which all will contribute, and
which will be transmitted to your Prussian colleague at
Beyrout.
An influential Committee at Hamburg intends to intrust
us With its funds. Geneva, Wurtembuts, Marseilles, &c.,
have formed channels of their own for distributing their
contributions. From other quarters on the Continent we
learn that our Committee will be deemed the most satis-
factory medium.
With the copies of the circulars issued to the leading
Jews of Europe we enclose copies of the address of the Chief
Rabbi in this country, the Rev. Dr. Adler, to the Jewish
community at large, by which that circular is in each in-
stance accompanied.
We are desired by the Committee to state that we have
read with much interest a suggestion of the Times' corre-
spondent, that some of the money collected should be ap •
plied to cleansing the town of Beyrout, so as to prevent
pestilence ; and we are to intimate to your Committee that
if they think fit to employ some of the destitute persons
flocking into your town in cleansing and whitewashing we
shall consider it a very legitimate application of (say) £2O a
week for two months to come.
We are also to add that the Committee have seen an ad-
dress of Madame la Contesse de Pertheres, and other ladies
in Beyrout, to the ladies of Marseilles, asking for materials
(old or new) for clothing a multitude of persons who are
almost naked.
A British Ladies Committee is in course of formation with
a view to assisting in sending you such materials as clothes,
&c.

Application will also be made to manufacturers to assist
in the same object. The articles which may result from
these efforts shall be transmitted to your Committee, to be
made over by them to such ladies or benevolent persons in
your town as your Committee may select.
Our Committee will receive with pleasure the reports
which you promise us, and they will be ready to concur in
all feasible plans that you may suggest for the relief of the
poor sufferers. They rely on your Committee to tell them
whether they can be of any use in sending out nurses or
surkeons, medicine, tents, &c.
In conclusion, we are requested by our Committee to con-
vey to you their congratulations on the apparent cessation
of the late fearful and odious massacres, and their hope
that the courageous and energetic efforts of Fuad Pasha may
have had their due effect upon the populations. We are
unanimous in desiring that, whatever severe examples it
may b 9 thought requisite to make of the chief culprits, re-
course will not be deemed necessary to indiscriminate and
extensive executions. We believe the object at which the
Governpient of the Sultan aims, the pacification of Syria,

will be best attained by the display of vigour and mercy
combined.

We trust that the day may come when a land so dear to
Jews and to Christians of every name, will attain to a state
of permanent tranquillity, and I need not say how telad we
shall be if the sympathy now being evinced by the people
of this country, and of Europe, conduce, by the blessing of
God, to that desired end.
" I have the honour to be, sir, on behalf of Sir James
Pergusson, M.P., and myself, your faithful and obedient
servant, C. E. EARDLEY, Honorary Secretary.
" N. Moore, Esq."

The following letter has been addressed to a con-
temporary : _

Sir,—The enclosed particulars of the origin and
causes of the Syrian outbreaks may yet be found
useful to your readers. Unchristian and false ac-
counts, laying the whole blame on the Christians,
having found their way into many of the English
and foreign papers, not without prejudice to the
public mind, induced me to seek for the real causes
at the best-informed quarters. My informant, not
being actuated by sectarian prejudice, favoured me
at my request with the under-mentioned details, to
which, as an advocate of truth and justice, you will
give publication in your columns. I beg to enclose
my card, and remain, sir, yours respectfully,
A SYRIAN MERCHANT.
14, South Castle-street, Liverpool, Sept. 3.

" In reply to your inquiries concerning the origin
and cause of the disturbances that have occurred in
this country this year, I beg to state that much, if
not all, I am sorry to say, is to be placed to the
debit of th- Ottoman Government, whose endeavour
is to govern people through a cunning and intrigu-
ing policy, and not by the exercise of legitimate
control, and who since the last arrangements made
made by Shekeib Effendi (which established that
the government of tlie mountains should be
intrusted to native princes) directed its best
efforts in order, as they say, to maintain
an equilibrium of power between Christians and
Druses, to assist the latter and strengthen them, lest
through their weakness and scarcity of number they
should be overcome and the Christian element pre-
dominate, and the consequence of this assistance
gave birth to many evils, as the Druses are by na-
ture lovers of murders, highway robberies, and
seizures of property ; so they began to perpetrate
these things with impunity, and in none of their
misdeeds ( we'l known to the Government) were
they ever punished or interfered with, except very
seldom, and when such things had any connexion
with Europeans, and justice was demanded with
power. Things remained in such a state until
Mohamed Kurschid Pasha was intrusted with the
government of Beyrout, with It's Wehaya and others
of his suite, like Atta Bey and Ahmed Effendi, and
also Ahmed Pasha, Seraskier of Damascus, and
similar officers ; then the insubordination of the
Druses and their aggressions were redoubled, and
ceased on the part of the Government every atten-
tion and consideration to the remonstrances made
by the European Consuls, and treated with dis-
dain was every European intervention, until
this state of things caused the outbreak between
Druses and Christians last year at Beit-Mery, in
the district of Metten, where the Druses not having
been successful, but rather beaten, they nursed at
heart the intention of revenge, and all means were
employed by them to arrive at this purpose; they
forged letters from the principal chiefs and nobles,
forged their seals to this effect and sealed them
without any foundation, the purport of which let..
ters is that the Christians have resolved to call the
French into Syria and exterminate from the land
all the other sects. In the interval, through the
aggressive policy and injustice of the Kaimakan of
the Christians, Emir Beschir Ahmed (who is of
Druse origin), and the cowardice of the family
Kazin, some agitation was caused among the people,
which ended in their expelling them, and the tern-
porary appointment of other people in their place.
Then amid this agitation the Druses took advan-
tage, and with their forged letters and other means
(as the vile machinations of the Emir Beschir Assaf
and similar unworthy chiefs, whose object was to
attain power), enlisted almost all in their favour.
They enlisted the Government from their jealousy
against allowing any power to the Christians,
whom they hate religiously. They enlisted tne
Moslems, first, because their religion commands
them to shed the blood of all those who differ from
them, take their property and violate their women
every time they deviate from the conditions laid
on them by Omar Ben Kattab—as not to ride
horses, or wear green stuffs, or pass to the right
of any Moslem ; secondly, they having been de-
ceived by the forged documents that the Chris-
tians intend to exterminate both them and their
Government; thirdly, the enmity contracted against
the Christians on account of the equality demanded
by the European Powers between Moslem and
Christian. They enlisted all the other sects, Me-
tualis and others, because these have no confidence
in the good intentions and behaviour of their Chris-
tian neighbours ; therefore, a conspiracy of all the
enemies of Christians was formed, preparations
completed, and nothing wanted but a motive—then
vexatious questions, revenge, and want of justice,
&c., began. The Druses first of all killed the supe-
rior of the convent of Ammyk, near Deir el Kam-
mar, and pillaged his residence ; also another per-
son from Obbadia, on the new French road to Da-
mascus ; afterwards three men at Khan Mohamed
Ali, near Saida; then a priest and four men from
Jezzin, in the lane of Mazrah ; then another of
Obea. These murders caused great agitation in the
country, and the Christians presented their com-
plaints to the authorities, through some influential
persons like Bishop Tubia and others (of those held
suspected on no foundation to be members of a
committee for the extermination of the Druses),
but no ear was given to their complaints, and then
these influential persons employed to obtain justice
from the Government, not having received any,
told their employers of the ill success of their cause,
and, if they were not satisfied, to obtain if they
could redress themselves ; therefore the Christians,
in their agitation, killed one Druse at Khan
Shayah, near Beyrout, another near the rivers of
Beyrout,and the Druses killed a Christian of Deir-el-
Kammar in Ainab, and in revenge the inhabitants
of Deir-el-Karnmar killed aDruse of the same town.
Things arriving at such a maturity, the Druses
surprised one hour before sunset the village of Beit
Mery, and with the assistance of some Bashi Ba-
zouks, stationed there on the part of the Government
since last year to keep order as it were, remained
fighting until half-past 3, after sunset, when both
parties withdrew, but not before the greater part of
the village was burnt down. Before these occur-
rences the Christians had sent about 300 men, most
of them from Kount Kesrouan, to Baabda, in order to
protect the district called Sahil against the Druses
of the Garb, and whom the chief Druses of that
place requested not to interrupt the peace existing
between them and themselves. In the meantime,
Mohamed Kurschid Pasha, Governor of Beyrout,
went into Haabeya, near the village Haddath, and
with him about 800 troops, with some cannon, and
sent some notable persons on his part, both Mos-
lems and Christians of Beyrout, to tell them to dis-
perse, else he would attack them, promising, ii they
obeyed, to keep the Druses from attacking them,
and guaranteeing them from all consequences if they
dispersed. This done, on the following day after the
attack on Beit-Mery the Druses surprised the villages
of Hareya, Wadey, Beitshey, Baabda, Haddath, and
adjacent places, and put to fire and sword the deceived
inhabitants and their houses, who, having received
the assurance of the Druse chief, and that of Kur-
schid Pasha, were totally unprepared for the at-
tack. The Turkish soldiers took an active and ap-
parent part against the Christians; however, the
loss of life in this engagment was trifling, as most
of the inhabitants were not at home, but at their
daily labours in the town of Beyrout and other
places. The same day the population of Dedbeya,
intimidated by their Druse neighbours, left their
village about evening, and with their families walked
on the coast side towards Beyrout. They were met
when near the Damoor River by the Druses of
Shouyfat, and some of the Shahar and Garb, who
surprised them and put them to the sword till morn-
ing, leaving the coast strewed with the dead bodies
of men, women, and children, then seized their

property, and went away. These poor fellows
suffered dreadfully, and the women left their chil-
dren on the sands, exposed to the dangers of hea-
ven, earth, and sea. This massacre was also per-
petrated with the assistance of some Bashi-Bazouks,
placed by the Government to guard the safety of the
road; also some Moslems of Beyrout took part in it.
A few days afterwards other massacres took Place
in the district of Jezzin and the villages of Saida.
No less than 3,000 people were butchered, and it
was then, when the remaining Christians were
running for refuge to Saida, they met with their
death by the hands of the Moslems and soldiers in
a more cruel and infamous manner. Afterwards
fights and engagements, massacres and destructions
were carried throughout the entire mountains. The
whole country became unsafe, and communication
between one place and another stopped. Then fol-
lowed the massacres of Hasbeya, Rasheya, Deir-el-
Kammar, and Zahleh, unprecedented even in the
annals of barbarous nations. These slaughters and

that of Damascus have been perpetrated upon the
Ottoman Gevernment giving assurances and gua•
rantees of protection to the Christians, disarming
them and then delivering them to their enemies,
who killed them with axes and other horrid in-
struments, and not with bullets and powder, as
they say it is a pity to waste powder on a Chris-
tian. The Imperial soldiers did not hesitate to
help in the perpetration of all these horrid actions,
besides they had robbed the Christians of their
most valuable property under the pretext of keep-
ing it for them. The number of those saved from
these wholesale butcheries is few, and whenever a
person was saved through the 'mercy of au enemy
it was a Druse, and not a Moslem or Turk, who
showed compassion. These are the original causes
of these disturbances, which will, no doubt, one day
be found out to be correct, and refute all the other
causes ascribed to the Christians, which have been
credited by some, as well as the news of a treaty of
peace having been arranged between the Druses
and the Christians, one of the greatest lies that
was ever invented to deceive Europe. In fine, the
sole cause of these terrible occurrences may be
placed to the Ottoman Government, and it is not
impossible that this very Government may one day
bceome the cause of the rain of the world."