Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-01-29
ARMENIAN WOES
Depicted in a British Blue Book
on the Subject.
REPORTS OF THE INVESTIGATORS.

Indications That the "Unspeakable" Has
Been Painted Too Black When He Is Black
Enough-About Nine Hundred slaush-
tered in the snssoun District-Moslum
Obstacles Put in the Way OF Getting at
the Whole Infamous Truth.
LONDON, Jan. 29-Blue Books have been
Issued containing all the official dispatches
relative to Armenia between July "a. 1894,
and Oct. 16, 1895, and the reports of the
consular delegates attached to the Sassoun
commission. The report acqdits the Ar
menians Of the charge brought against
them of burning their own property TO in
cite an outbreak amongst their people,
adding that the facts elected failed to
prove that the Armenians were in revolt,
but show that the agitator Murad insti
gated several Armenian outrages on
kurds. The latter then retaliated, and
the Armenians fed to their villages. The
conflicts between the Armenians and
Kurds followed, and the government did
nothing
Number OF Killed Grossly Exaggerated.
The report shows the number killed has
been grossly exaggerated, but admits that
owing to the absence of registration it is
impossible even approximately to fix the
| number of victims. Six villages show q
total of 265 victims. These villages were
all burned and the Inhabitants were scat
tered. British Delegate Shipley, in a
memorandum attached to the joint re.
port, estimates the total number of VIC
Tins in the Sassoun district, including
| deaths from starvation, at about go. One
of the worst cases of cold. blooded cruelty,
Delegate Shipley says, was the murder of
| prisoners in the camp at Ghelleguzan un-
| der a promise of a safe conduct. But the
number of those SO murdered was only
forty or fifty and not hundreds, as has
| been stated.
Wholesale Butcheries Not Confirmed.
| Delegate Shpley, while he admits that
there was violation of women, asserts that
tine alleged wholesale butchery of women
was not confirmed He points out that
| while an agitation subversive of the Otto.
man authority had existed amongst the
Armenians in Turkey and abroad, and
had exasperated tho Turkish government,
it must be admitted that the government
had failed in his duty of affording protec.
tion to all classes Of its subjects. He com.
plains of the concoction and suppression
Of evidence before the commission by
| TuskiSh officials as not calculated to ad.
| vanco the interests of the truth He
further declares that the Armenians were
hunted like wild beasts, and if the
slaughter was not greater it was solely
owing to the vastness of the mountain
ranges, which facilitated the escape O,
the Armenians.
I Turks Refuse to Hear the Truth.
He was Convinced that the Turks aimed
at the complete determination of the Ar
menians in the Ghelleguzan and Talorid
districts. The report of the consular dele
gate records the protests made by the dele
gates against the intimidation of wit
ncsses and the suborning of evidence b,
the government agents; and their at
tempts to remedy this state of things wer'
always fruitlcss, so that the e!ucidation OF
the truth was very difficult. Espccia!l,
on the question of the violation of womel
did the commission display the creates;
repugnancc to discovering the truth. Onl,
, four female witnesses were heard.