The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-27
ARMING FOR A CONFLICT
Lack Of Food Supplies Alone
Delays the Threatened
Uprising.
BRUTALITY OF THE KURDs
eigners Investigating the
SaSSoun Massacre.

AAleo, ItOooiaI oPlh ZOs~buIlHS tuc
past three weeks | have had an unusual
opportunity for obtaining additional con-
frmation of the facts contained in my
announcement of the impending uprising
of the Armenians in Turkey next month.
l have travelled many miles up and down
and across the border in search of certain
facts, and as result have had the satisfac-
ton of actually seeing and handling some
of the rifles now being smuggled across the
Turkish frontier by the agents Of the revo-
lutionary party. Moreover, the plans of the
party have been fully explained to me by
some of the most active and intelligent of
the leaders of the eastern wing of the
movement and am now entirely satisfied
that unless unforeseen circumstances
arise the uprising will take place as an
nounced.
The exact date of the uprising has not
yet been fixed, owing for the most part to
the fact that the extreme section of the
revolutionary party is not ready for active
operations Whether or not the central
section will wait for the eastern wing
longer than the month of May has not
been actually decided. 1t is said the east
ern wing cannot be ready for hostilities in
May, and possibly not before the LIST of
July.
The eastern wing has been having hard
time of it, owing to circumstances over
which the leaders have no control. In the
first place the mountain passes leading to
Van have been covered by snow for
months, so that only special messengers
following the regular routes of travel
could get through, and therefore it was i'm
-ncSihla tn fo1lOyv wit tho
munition from Russia and Persia to the
district about Lake Van. There are now
guns on the border awaiting transporta-
ton into Armenia.
In the second place the Armenians in
the eastern end of Turkey are in condi-
ton bordering on starvation. 1t is obvious
that people in this condition cannot fight
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 conspiracy. Then
cattle were stolen by the Kurds, and what
the poor people had left in the way of pro-
visions or property was seized by Govern
ment officials. There will be no crops
planted in Eastern Armenia this spring,
for the country everywhere is suffering
from a reign of terror.
The efforts of the commission of inquiry
at Moosh and of the Christian powers OF Eu-
rope have had absolutely no effect upon the
conduct of either Turks or Kurds in East
ern Turkey. Advices from non-Armenian
source at Van are to the effect that mas
sacre is looked for at any moment
1t is fact that the British Government
can verify, by consulting the report of Mr.
Patton, an official of the British Consulate
at Tebratz, Persia, that in several cases the
Turkish officials in the devastated district
of Armenia tried hard TO save the Ar
menians from death and their property
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 nothing could be DONE
Mr.. Patton has lately returned from Te-
bratz from an investigating 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 Sassoun survivors in Our
manua, Salmis, Ditiman Khoi, Tebratz or
any other place in Persia, and so very few
in Russia that they are most difficult to
find.
many refugees from other districts of
Eastern Armenia suggests dreadful pos
sibility that few of these people escaped
| the massacre. The investigation of Mr..
Patton along the Persian border has con-
firmed in general way the facts which 1
have incidentally obtained during the past
eight weeks. The events of the massacre
were so horrible that even the chronic ex-
aggeration of the Armenian mind fails to
add anything to them.
Mr.. Patton was accompanied on this tour
OF investigation by DR.. Wright, an Amer
lean missionary stationed at Salmis.
These gentlemen took testimony to the
effect that when the Turkish soldiers and
Kurds appeared at certain village they
collected some of the villagers who dared
to protest against the outrages, and MANY
of the dead men were cut up and thrown
into a kettle and boiled like so much beef.
These boiled pieces were then given to
the villagers for food. The wretched crea-
lures were compelled to eat their friends
to the last mouthful.
In another village a party of Kurds
found child asleep in cradle. They
overturned the cradle and smothered the
child. Then they dissected the BODY and
roasted pieces of it before the fire. AS a
climax they compelled the mem bers of the
family, including the child's mother, to
eat the roasted pieces.
The refugees who tell these stories are
for the most part ready to return to Ar
menia to wreak vengeance on their perse-
cutors as soon as they are supplied with
ammunition, arms and food by the reyo-
lutionary party.