The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-02-22
ARMENIAN MASSACRES.
The Truth May Never be Known
Regarding Them,
TURKS HAMPER INVESTIGATORS,

Giving Out "a Cholera Report and Placing
Quarantine About the Scene of the
Massacres Armenian witnesses Not TO
be Believed Under Oath.
LONDON, Feb. 22.-The special CORES
pondcnt of the Associated Press who was
sent out from London to Armenia TO in
vestigate rs to the atrocities said to have
been perpetrated upon the Armenians,
and whose first report, in n letter sent
from Tiflis, Russia, was received herel on
the I'd inst and cabled to the United States
that day. has made a second report. This,
like the first one was posted at Tifiis 1t
is dated Jan Is. In it the correspondent
says:
In the letter l wrote ten days ago en-
deavored 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 exaggerate these difficulties will
now be apparent from further informa
ton on the point which l am in a po-
sitlon to supply. Take to begin with, the
cholera quarantine which is being enforced
in such manner as to draw a 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 the year in the
region of the Sassoun and nowhere else in
Asia Minor. Even in Constantinople ana
Stamboul little or nothing is known by
| the public or by 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 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 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
mountains One is forced to believe that
it 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 Sassoun mountains at the
present time for any sort of disease to feed
upon. Those who were not killed in the
massacre have long since fled to other
parts of the country, and those who did
not have sense enough to flee have been
clapped into Jail OF course, there are
many persons in and around Moosh who
know what took place in the Sassoun
mountains last autumn, and good offec-
tive cholera quarantine will prevent them
from getting at the commission or the
commission from getting at them.
1t is argued that if 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 if 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-
antine 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
e Christians are lying unburied under the
snow The Turks will take good care that
they reach the scene first in the spring
and clear away all traces of the massacre
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 way out
of the difficulty.
Even without the cholera quarantine II
would be practically impossible for the
commission to make any real headway
until spring owing to the intense cold
i 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 a much
> lower altitude, have been for more than d
fortnight blocked with snow.
If the detailed facts of the Sassoun mas
: sacre are ever established, and they prob
ably never will be, they must be estab
lshed Independently of Armenian testi
mony, or their value may be seriously
questioned Every Armenian with whom
it has been my lot to come i'm cOntac
seems to have a very vague idea Of tn,
: value Of accuracy and truth, and in hi
anxiety to make out case against tn,
Turk he is willing to publish as facts any
grotesque rumor that he may chance &,
fall over in the street. He does not really
u know what actually took place in tn,
II Sassoun mountains, but his vanity viii
a not permit him to acknowledge it, and so
10 to help along the cause of his people hC
IL embellishes the rumor that he hears anC
y frequently says that he is in secrect com
y munication with friends in Moosh anC
~ Mitlis who are harboring Sassoun refugees
In this way, while meaning to do gooC
20 20 the cause of his people, he really doe
. harm, for he etfectually destroys his owl
" value as witness. The fact is greatly t,
- be regretted that i'm this matter the aver
~ age Armenian cannot be believed on oath
ia Murdered for Kicking a Dog.
~ CHARLESTON, W. Va, Feb 22-At Can