The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1896-01-31
ARMENIAN WOES.
Depicted in a British Blue Book
on the Subject.
REPORTS OF THE INVESTIGATORS.

Indicsts,ns That the "Unspesksbie" Has
Been Painted Too Black When He IL Black
Enough-About Nine Hundred siaugh-
Obstacles Put I'm 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 acquits the Ar
menians of the charge brought against
them of burning their own property 10 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 fled 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 1t Is
impossible even approximately to fix the
number of victims. Six villages show a
total of 200 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 900. One
of the worst cases Of cold-blooded cruelty
Delegate Shipley says, was the murder of
prisoners in the camp at Ghelleguzan I'M
der 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 Shipley, while he admits that
there was violation of women, asserts that
the 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 the Turkish government
it must be admitted that the government
had failed in his duty of affording protec-
ton 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 adj
vance 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 of
the Armenians.
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 tho dele
gates against the intimidation of wit
nesses and the suborning of evidence by
the government agents; and their at
tempts to remedy this state of things were
always fruitless, so that the calculation of
the truth was very difficult Especially
on the question of the violation of women
did the commission display the greatest
repugnance to discovering the truth. Only
four female witnesses were hoard