The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1895-02-22
ARMENIAN MASSACRES.
The Truth May Never be Known
Regarding Them.
TURKS HAMPER INVESTIGATORS.
Giving ont Cholera Report and Placing
. Quarantine About tho Scene of the
Massacres Armenian Witnesses Not to
be Believed Under Oath.

Giving ont Cholera Report and Placing
. Quarantine About the Scene OF the
hIassacres -ArmenIan witnesses Not to
be Believed Under Oath.
LONDON, Feb. 2e.-The special cores
pendent of the Associated Press who was
sent out from London to Armenia to in
vestigate as to the atrocities said to have
been perpetrated upon the Armenians,
and whose first report, IN letter sent
from Titiis, Russia, was received here7 on
the I'd inst. and cabled to the United States
that day, has made second report. This,
like the first one, was posted at Tifiis. 1t
is dated Jan. 49, In 1t the correspondent
says:
In the letter I wrote ten days ago en-
deavorod to convey some idea of the diff
culties that would be encountered in
prosecuting any sort of investigation or
getting at the real facts of the case. That
did not cxaggerate these difficulties will
now be apparent from further informa-
ton on tho point which am in pc.
stion to supply Take, to begin with, the
cholera quarantine which is being enforced
In such u manner as to draw net around
the districts of Armenia in which the
atrocities are alleged to have occurred, and
to keep away from the scene Of the out
RACES all independent Investigators.
1t certainly is peculiar circumstance
that cholera should have happened to
break out at this season OF tho year in the
region of the Sassoun and nowhere else in
Asia Minor. Even in Constantinople and
STEAMBOAT little or nothing is known by
the public orby newspaper correspondents
concerning the cholera outbreaks officially
reported from time to time in these cities.
1t is pretty thoroughly understood that
quarantine law is the highest law on
earth, and that even international courtesy
must bow to it. So, when we are told
that an epidemic of cholera has suddenly
made Its appearance in the region Of the
Sassoun massacre even blind man can
see that 1t is meant to delay and obstruct
tho work of the Turkish commission of
inquiry. 1t is believed here that the Turks,
forced to the wall by the protests of the
foreign delegates on the commission, threw
up this last obstruction and hoisted the
yellow flag upon it.
No information has been vouchsafed as
to the form in which the cholera epidemic
has. manifested itself in the Sassoun
mohntans. One is forced to believe that
II is raging among the rocks and noun
tain peaks like snowstorm, for, as a
matter of fact, there are no human be-
ings in the Sassouu mountains at tho
present time for any sort of disense to feed
upon. Those who were not killed in the
massacre have long since fled to other
parts of tho country, and those who did
not have sense enough to fec have been
clapped into jail. OF course, there are
many persons in and around Moosh who
know what took place in tho Sassoun
mountains last autumn, and good, effec-
tive oh M M will than,
from getting at the commission or tho
commission from getting at them.
1t is argued that II the Turks have sue
ceeded In repairing the damages to the
Sassoun villages, there is no reason why
the commission should not be allowed to
visit the scene of the massacre and founder
about in ten feet of snow IL it cared for
that sort Of thing, but the refusal of the
Turks to allow any one to travel through
the Sassoun country, and the timely quar-
nntine, suggest that the money sent to re-
build the destroyed villages has been
stolen, or that the snow was SO deep be-
fore they arrived that nothing could be
done.
In that case the bodies of the butchered
Christians are lying unburied under the
snow. The Turks will take good care that
they reach the scene first in tho spring
anu ClthT away hll btdtSS VI bue iilhSodCTe
before indignant Christianity Insists upon
sending in an independent investigating
commission. The Turks are reasonably
safe until April, and by that time their
marvellous ingenuity may find u way out
of the difficulty.
Even without the cholera quarantine 1t
would be practically impossible for the
commission TO make any real Roadway
until spring, owing to the intense cold
and the great amount of snow in Armenia.
The situation may be judged to some de-
gree by the fact that the roads to Eerivan
and Kars, in Russia, which are in much
lower altitude, have been for more than a
fortnight blocked with snow
II the detailed facts of the Sassoun mas
sacre are ever established, and they prob
ably never will be, they must be estab-
lished independently of Armenian testi-
mony, OF their value may be seriously
questioned. Every Armenian with whom
1t has been my lot to come in contact
seems to have very vague idea of the
value of accuracy and truth, and in his
anxiety to make out case against the
Turk he is willing to publish as facts any
grotesquc rumor that he may chance to
fall over in the street. He does not really
know what actually took place in the
Sassoun mountains, but his vanity will
not permit him to acknowledge it, and SO,
to help along the cause of his people, he
embellishes the rumor that he hears, and
frequently says that he is in secrect COM
munication with friends in Moosh and
Mitlis who are harboring Sassoun refugees.
In this way, while meaning to do good
to the cause of his people, he really does
harm, for ho effeotually destroys his own
value as witness Tho fact is greatly to
4 ~ 81
age Armenian cannot be believed on oath.