The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-27


ed by the Associated Press.-Special
correspondence Of the Associated
ress)-During the past three weeks,
I have had unusual opportunity for
obtaining additional confirmation of
the facts contained in my announce
ment of the impending uprising of the
Armenians in Turkey next month. I
have travelled many miles up and
down and across the border in search
of certain facts, and, as a result, 1
| have had the satisfaction of actually
seeing and handling some of the rifles
now being struggled across the Turk
ish frontier b. the agents of the
revolutionary party. Moreover. the
plans of the party have been fully ex-
planned to me by some of the most
active and intelligent of the leaders
of the eastern wing of the movement,
and I am now entirely satisfied that
unless unforeseen circumstances arise,
the uprising will take place as an
nounced The exact date for the up
| rising has not yet been hXed, owing,
! for the most part, to the fact that the
extreme section of the revolutionary
/ party is not ready for active opera
| LUIS. w HetUtT Vi IOI lue CSHlI d1
section will wait for the eastern wing
| longer than the month of May, l do not
know, nor has the matter actually
! been decided. 1 am asked to believe
that the eastern wing cannot be ready
| for hostilities in May, and possibly
not before the 1st of July. The east
ern wEghas been having hard time
of it 1wing to circumstances which the
! leaders have no control.
Blocked with Snow.
In the first place. the mountain
passes leading to Van have been
blocked with snow for months, so
that only special messengers, follow
ing the regular routes Of travel, could
| get through, and, therefore, it was
Impossible to follow with the guns
and ammunition from Russia and
! Persia to the district about Lake Van.
There are now guns on the border
awaiting transportation into Armenia.
In the second place the Armenians
in the eastern end of Turkey are in
condition bordering on starvation. 1t
is obvious that people in this condition
cannot fight. On this point a leading
executive of the revolutionary party
said to me three days ago:
IF men have nothing in their stom-
achs what will they do? We must
first feed them before we can expect
enough on hand to last them two
months, then we will show the world
how ArInenianS can fight"
Question of Food.
1t is this question of food that the
revolutionary leaders will find more
difficult of solution. The problem of
smuggling guns into Armenia will be
solved with the coming spring, which
is now just beginning to be felt in the
lower valleys. 1t is plain that if no
food is to be had the people cannot be
fed, no matter how much money they
may have, and it is a fact that in the
eastern portion of Armenia food is so
scarce that the well-to-do and rich
people have no more food than they
actually need.
Few crops were grown last summer,
owing to the fact that many of the
farmers and cultivatorS were thrown
into prison by the Turks under charges
of revolutionary conspiracy. Then the
cattle were stolen by the Kurds, and
what poor people had left in the way
of provisions or property was seized by
the government officials for taxes.
There will be no crops planted in east
ern Armenia this spring, for the coun-
try everywhere is suffering from a
reign of terror. The presence of the
commission of inquiry at Moosh and
had absolutely no effect on the con-
duct of either the Turks or Kurds in
eastern Turkey. I am just in receipt
of trustworthy advices from nom
Armenian source at Van to the effect
that a massacre is looked for at any
moment.
Orders of the Sultan.
1t is a fact which the British gov
eminent can verify by consulting the
report of MIR. Patton, an official of the
British consulate at Tebraiz, Persia,
that in several cases the Turkish Of
ficials in the devastated district of
Armenia tried hard to save the Ar
menians from death and their prop
erty from destruction, but when they
protested against the murderous raids
of the troops the officers read to them
the orders of the sultan, and so moth
ing could be done. Mr.. Patton has
lately returned to Tebraiz from an in
vestigating tour among the Armenian
refugees along the border between
Persia and Turkey. He found plenty
of refugees from the Lake Van and
Moosh districts, but not one from
Sassoun There are no Sasseun sur
vivors in Ouramia, Salmis, Ditiman,
Khoi, Tebraiz or any other place in
Persia and so very few in Russia that
they are most difficult to find. This
absence of Sassouns among so many
refugees from other districts of east
ern Armenia suggests the dreadful
possibility that few of these people
escaped the massacre. The investiga-
ton of Mr.. Patton along the Persian
border has confirmed, in a general
way, the facts which I have incident
ally obtained during the past eight
weeks. The events of the massacre
were so horrible that even the chronic
Axaggeration of the Armenian mind
fails to add anything to them.
Mr.. Patton was accompanied on his tour
of investigation by Dr. Wright an
American missionary, stationed at Sal
mis-.
Boiled Like Beef.
These gentlemen took .tsnie TN to the