Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-01-17
Turkey Refuses Entrance to the Red

Gross.
The Turkish legation at Washington
gave out, Monday afternoon, this official
communication:
1.-THE imperial government will not per-
nit any distribution among its subjects, in
its own territory, by any foreign society or
individuals, however respectable same may
be (as for instance the Red Cross society
of money collected abroad. Such inter
ference no Independent government has
ever allowed, especially when the collec-
tions are made on the strength of speeches
delivered in public meetings by irreconcil-
able enemies of the Turkish race and reli-
gion, and on the basis of false accusations
that Turkey repudiates. Besides the sub
lime porte is mindful of the true interests
of its subjects, and distinguishing between
the real state of things and the calumnes
and wild exaggerations Of interested or fa-
natical parties, will, as it has done hereto
fore under its own legitimate control, allie
viate the wants of all Turkish subjects
living in certain provinces, irrespective of
creed or race"
This remarkable declaration comes Just
at the time when Miss Clara Barton, the
head of the Red Cross society in this coun-
try, was completing her arrangements to
start for Constantinople to begin the work
of Armenian relief, sufficient sum of
money to enable her to do this having been
raised. 1t was followed, Tuesday, by a
statement and alleged explanation from
the Turkish minister at Washington in
which he said, in substance, that the
whole question was one of the right of the
sultan of Turkey to govern his subjects in
his own way and to put down rebellion
among them:
Suppose your own Indians were to re-
volt against your legitimate authority.
Suppose you put down that revolt and sup
pose that in some foreign country some
foreigners were TO calumnate publicly
your civilization, your race and your reli-
gion. Not satisfied with that, suppose
that those foreigners, on the strength of
such false accusations, were to raise mon
ey and bring it for distribution through
their own channels, however respectable
the latter may be, to the very people that
revolted against you. Would that money,
raised on hatredIand denunciation--would
even a moral aid from foreigners be well
come TO this great country of yours, how
| ever welcome 1t might be, for obvious rea-
sons, TO your Indians? The Turkish gov
ernment has no animosity whatever
against the Armenians and only wishes to
see them prosper under its legitimate and
rightful authority"
What course the Red Cross society will
take under this development has not been
decided. Miss Barton shows, in pub
lished statement, that the work of raising
money for Armenian relief did not origin
ate with the society, bat that the society,
in this, as in all other cases, simply acts as
means Of distributing the aid thus afford
ed, without regard TO the creed or race Of the
sufferers. The Armenian relief commit
tee says from its headquarters in New
York that the work Of raising funds will
be continued in spite of this proclamation,
that aid has already been furnished to
100000 Armenian sufferers through the
committee of foreign residents and diplo-
mats in Constapinople, through Europe
an consuls, and the Americans who are to
be found in all the principalities of the in
terror, and that no valid reason can be
given by the Turkish government for re-
fuslng similar aid when rendered through
the Red Cross society.
BY the whole civilized world this atti.
tude of Turkey will be accepted as a dec
laration of the determination of its gov.
ernment to go on with the slaughter of the
Armenians, and thus keeping in check the
| Christian population without eXposinp il.
self to the danger of having the truth tolt
about its atrocities, as it would be by the
Red Cross agents.
The Boston Journal we'll says; "If the
Red Cross cannot enter Armenia, tn,
armies of the allied Powers should. Th'
sultan should be made to choose between
the two"