The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1895-12-10
STARVING ARMENIANS.
Necessity Of Speedy Action by the
Relief Committees. =
THE SULTAN LAUGHS AT THREATS

A constnntinopie Correspondent Who BE.
iieves That War Is Imminent, with
Russia. France and Germany Arraysd
Against England, Italy and Austria.
BOSTON, Dec. f0.-A correspondent In
Constantinople, in letter just received
here, describes the condition under which.
In his opinion. relief for the oppressed Ar
menians must be distributed advising
either an independent American commits
sion for the work, or one acting In con.
junction with an English organization OF
asimilar charatser. III
/ ITO insure effectual work." the writer
says, sit will ho essential for the United
States government to take under official
protection the men who distribute Other
wise II will not be permitted by Turkey
A relief commission should be organized
In America on an independent basis to
have at.least four superintendents of dis
tribution-one at Alexandretta to go to
Aintab, Marash and Oorfa, reaching the
cases also of the needy in the Taurus noun
tains, another at Trebizond and Erzeroum
with view to reaching the regions of Bit
lis and Van, and a third at SAMSON, for
the regions from Marsowan to Harpoot
The fourth should go to Diabkir.
There will undoubtedly be large
amount OF aid sent from England Prob
ably 1t will be well for the American com
mission to make some alliance with those
in England in order to cover the ground
without tapping.
There Is need of the greatest haste in
getting some effective relief into the field
The people will be dying of exposure and
starvation very soon. Moreover, the Turks
arc trying by every means in their power
to force the survivors to become Moham-
medans. They are offering aid on these
conditions in some places, and in others
are picking up the desolate widows and
orphans and simply taking possession of
them In order TO make them Moham-
medans without any will of the captiyes.
The correspondent, in referring to tho
general situation, says:
Inc concord between the powers has
limitations as to its extent of action. The
inertness OF Russia is due to England, and
not to her own willingness to act. This
state of affairs gives no cheering prospect
for immediate and lasting Improvement
In Turkey, and it seems now as II Eu
ropean war over tie ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF
the empire were imminent If there is
such war it will very probably be be-
tween Russia, France and Germany on
the one side, and England, Italy and Aus
tria on the other side But it is thought
however, that Russia may make an alli.
Brce with Turkey on the basis of sort of
vassalship of the new sultan (whoever it
may be) to the czar.
Meanwhile, SO long as the powers
merely'threaten the sultan with fleets, un-
accompanied with means for climbing
mountains, he simply ohuckles and pro
ceeds with his cruelties and outrages, while
euayely declaring all the time that neither
cruelty nor outrage exists save in the
imagination of the English Liberals and OF
the American missionaries.
WORD has been received here from
Bardezag, western Turkey, to the effect
that more than $4,000 people have been
butchered in Turkey, in spite OF the asser-
tions of the sultan and his advisers that
there have been only slight disturbances
These sfacts come from reliable CORE.
spondent who adds
THESE people have been flendishly
butchored under the very noses of the rep.
resentatives Of the SO called great powers;
their goods have been carried off, in many
cases their houses and even whole villages
have been burned, while the great blood
letter, at Constantinoplc, grins and snaps
his fingers in the face of Europe. Even
America has been sitting at ease while the
people she has been Instrumental in arous-
ing TO thoughts of higher things have been
driven as sheep to the slaughter. More
than 100000 widowed women, dishonored
brides, fathcrless children, inflrm and
feeble people, skilled artisans without
tools, farmers without fields to till and
merchants without goods to sell are now
crying to Heaven for pity.
THE other day the town was moved to
Its center by the services connected with
the burial Of a portion of mans head
The man, muleteer of this town, going
to neighborlng village, was foulIy muir
dered by Turks. Some young men, taking
their lives In their hands, went In search
of the body. They found that tho head
had been severed from the trunk. Ths
trunk was SO torn by beasts and in such
putfid state that they could recover moth
Ing of 1t for burial. They secured the head
from which the lower jaw and the eyes
were missing, and brought 1t home AS
the funeral cortege passed through the
streets soldiers in the coffee houses sat
drinking and sneering."