Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-08

visers to organize a crescentade in Asia Minor; and l have good evidence for say ing that, if Europe does not Intervene speedily, the Armenian question will soon be settled by the eXtermlnatlon or the Armenians. Massacre, even in Armenia, has been found by the Sultan to be dangerous method of diminishing the Christian population. This time, there fore, they are to be eXterminated by ram inc; and not only the Armenans, but the Nestorians of Kurdistan. The Christians are to be swept out ofthe whole region in the following way The Kurds nave been encouraged to feed their cattie III the corn fields of the Christians, anu to destroy such crops as their cattle leave, and the Christians are obliged to look on in helpless despair. In addition, the Fur kish government has within the last few weeks issued orders to the local autnor- ities to collect the taxes from the Chrs- tians a year in advance. The Chris- tians plead that they have no money, but the plea is not allowed. They then beg for some delay, in order that they may sell cattle or goods sufficient to sat iSfy the tax collector. The answer IS, No; you must pay at once The IurAsh authorities then seize the cattle and household goods and set them up at auc- tion, the Christians forbidden to bid. The Kurds, meanwhile. receive notice of the sale, and buy the cattle and goods of the Christians, and then divide the spoils with the Turks. In this way many vil- lages have been ruined this year;1hun- dreds of Christians have died Of starVa- ton, and the rest arc keeping soul ana body together by feeding on roots and grass. They, too, will perish. More over, the Turks and Kurds are indulging in wholesale outrages on the women.
 Tn their agony of despair the young men of different districts of Armenia have resolved, if the great powers of Eu- rope do not act speedily, to organizes an insurrection, which will result in a frightful massacre of probably 10000 Christians, in order to rouse the apa- thetic conscience of Christendom to their wrongs. They reason-and who can blame them ?-that it is better that 20,0o0 Christians should perish at once If the rest of the Christian population can thereby be saved, and their wives and daughters saved from further outrage. I know what I am saying when l express my deliberate conviction that hardly a Christian woman of adult age can be found in Armenia who has not been out ragged by Turks or Kurds. And this goes on daily. Hussein Agha, whose record of atrocities, as related by British con- sul, is given on pages 16 and 29 and 3l of this pamphlet. has been promoted to the rank of pasha by the sultan and has been sent to Van to resume his career or m fanny. and he openly proclaims that he has received orders to work his will on the Christian population, who are abso- lutely at his mercy.
 And what are the Christian powers doing to put stop to these horrors? They present very inadequate scheme of reforms to the sultan, who has treated it with such contempt that he would not deign to answer the ambassadors or Great Britain, France and Russia when they humbly begged to know the parts of the. scheme to which he objected. And now he has impudently announced to the ambassadors that he is going to reform Armenia in his own way, and has ap- pointed Shakir Pasha to superintend the reforms.
 How long are the Christian powers to endure this insolence on the part of an infamous and decrepid power, which owes its existence to their sufferance? How long especially is England to en- dure it-England under whose protec- ton these infamies are being perpe- trated? For it is the security which the guarantee of the Anglo Turkish conven- tion offers for the protection of his Asi- attic possessions that encourages the sul- tan to f1out the indignation of the civil iZed world. This Christian nation is thus responsible before God and man for one of the greatest crimes-a crime go- ing on now-in the annals of Christen- dom. Is the British public going to wait for another massacre before whose 1urid glare that of Sassoun will pale into in significance? Let it be distinctly under stood that what is needed Is not a scheme of reforms, but European con- trol in the disturbed provinces to secure the execution of the reforms promised and proclaimed by the sultan in the Hatt-i-Humayoun of 1856. Anything short of European control will be sham and a mockery. The experience of fifty years proves this to demonstration.
 '"rhe true policy would be to call European congress for the purpose of compelling the sultan to carry out, not only in Armenia, but throughout his em- pire his engagements in the treaty of Paris and the treaty of Berlin to make life tolerable for his Christian subjects What right have the powers to bring pressure to bear upon Bulgaria to ab- stain from intervention in Macedonia when they stand calmly by themselves and allow the sultan to make hell upon earth before their eyes of province which, after being liberated by Russia in 1877, they restored to the cruel bond age of the Turk in 1878?
 ''Lord Salisbury understands the east ern question better than most men and I trust that he will deal with this question more energetically than the late govern ment-now that he has not only an oyer whelming parliamentary majority, but a united nation at his back-in policy of Justice towards the Christians of Turkey. I have never doubted that If he had had a free hand at the conference of C6nstan- tinople in 1877, he would have made a sat isfactory settlement without the need of Russia's sword to extort an incom- plete remedy"
 ;, In a private letter Canon MacCall says: "I hope the Armenians will not despair, or think that their cause Is lost because thousands of their cpmpatriots have been murdered and tortured. Every great cause has it's martyrs, and they never fail who die in a great cause. The Ar menian cause is g. great and holy cause,