The morning call., 1895-02-22
OBSTRUCTION OF THE TURKS TO
AN INVESTIGATION IN
ARMENIA.
SNOW CONCEALS THE PLAINS.
EVIDENCES OF THE MAssACREs TO
BE CLEARED AWAY BEFORE
COMMISSIONERS ARRIVE.

whose first report, in a letter sent from
Tifis, Russia, was received here on the
I'd inst. and cabled to the United States
that day, has made second report. This,
like the first, was posted at Tif1is. 1t is
dated January IS. In it the correspondent
says:
In the letter wrote ten days ago, giving
the result of some preliminary inquiries
that l made at Constantinople, Sassoun,
kerasund, Trebisond and Tiflis, concern
ing the alleged atrocities and the state of
affairs generally in Armenia, I endeavored
to convey some idea of the difficulties that
would be encountered in prosecuting any
sort of an investigation or getting at the
real facts of the case. That 1 do not exag-
gerate these difficulties Will be apparent
from further information on the point,
which l am now in a position to supply.
Take, to begin with, the cholera quaran-
tine which is being enforced ON various
portions of the, Sultan's dominion in such
manner as to draw a net around the de-
partments of Armenia, in which the afro
cities are alleged to have occurred, and to
keep away from the scene of outrages all
independent investigators.
1t is announced that cholera exists in
Van, Bitlis and Moosh, and that strict
quarantine regulations must therefore be
enforced. Now it is certainly peculiar
circumstance that cholera should have
happened to break out at this season of the
year in the region of the Sassoun massa-
cres and nowhere else in Asia Minor.
Who is to prove or disprove the state
ment that the disease is raging in the
snowclad and practically inaccessible
mountain Businesses? Even in CONSTANT
nople and Stamboul little or nothing is
known by the public or by newspaper cor
respondents concerning the cholera out
breaks officially reported from time to
time in these cities. In the Turkish capt.
tai medical officer reporting a case of
cholera receives double pay until a clean
bill of health is returned from the affected
district, and in a country like Turkey it is
not surprising if doctors find symptoms of
cholera in everything, from Group to
typhoid fever.
1t is pretty thoroughly understood that
quarantine law is the highest law in health
and that even international courts must
bow to it. So, when We are told, as we
have been here for the past few days, that
an epidemic of cholera has suddenly made
its appearance in the region of the Sassoun
massacre, even blind man can see that it
is meant to delay and obstruct the work of
the Turkish commission of inquiry. 1t is
believed here that the Turks, forced to the
wall by the protest OF the foreign delegates
on the commission, threw up the last OBJ
struction and hoisted the yellow flag upon
it. Even a foreign delegation could not
ignore cholera quarantine or find means
to avoid it.
1t is argued that if the Turks have sue
ceeded in repairing the damage to the Sas-
SCUM village there is no reason why the
commission should not be allowed to visit
the scene of massacre and founder about
in ten feet of snow if it cared for that sort
of a thing, but the refusal of the Turks to
allow any one to travel through the Sas-
SCUM country and the timely quarantine
suggests that the money sent to rebuild
the destroyed villages has been stolen, or
that the snow was SO deep before the
money arrived that nothing could be done.
In that case the bodies of the butchered
christians are lying under the snow. The
Turks will take good care that they reach
the scene first in the spring and clear all
traces of the massacre before indignant
Christianity insists on sending an indie
pendent investigating committee. Even
without the cholera quarantine it would
be practically impossible for the commits
sion to make any real Roadway until
spring owing to the intense cold and the
great amount of snow in Armenia.
Tales of oppression, outrage and murder
in other parts of Armenian Turkey con-
tinue to come out here and along the
southern coast of the Black Sea. If the
detailed facts of the Sassoun massacre are
ever established it must be independently
of Armenian testimony, or their value may
be seriously questioned. In the first place
every Armenian with whom it has been
my lot to come in contact seems to have a
very vague idea of the value of accuracy
and truth.
In the second place, in his anxiety to
make out case against the Turks he is
willing to publish as fact any grotesque
rumor that he may chance to fall over on
the street. In the third place, 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,
W NC up WIN the times anu TO nelp the
cause of his people, he embellishes the ru-
mors he hears, and frequently says that he
is in secret communication with friends in
Moosh and Bitlis who are harboring Sas-
SCUM refugees.
In this way, while meaning to do good
to the cause of his people. he really does
them harm, for he effectually destroys his
own value as witness. An Armenian
came to me lately and said: Seventeen
hundred Armenians have just now been
massacred by Turks"
How do you known" asked.
"A refugee has Just come in"
90 ou wish me to publish that as fact ?"
eyes; why not2 The people of England
and America wish to know these things"
Every well. Bring the refugee to me
that | may write down his story"
The so-called refugee was not refugee
at all but simply laborer from Erevian in
search of work. His story amounted to
this: In Erevian he had heard man say
that another in Etchmedzin had said that
100 people had been killed in the Sassoun
massacre. Another Armenian was willing
to swear to me on the Bible that $500
people had been killed in the Sassoun
Il