The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-11-23
WANTS US TO FIGHT TURKEY.
States to Interfere in Behalf of
Armenians.
To the Editor of the Press:

been engaged i'll helping Armenian
refugees. They established temporary
homo for them there, where they are
made welcome on landing and
from whence they were sent on to join
other Armenians who were SO fortunate
as to live under the protection of the
United States or Great Britain. 1t was
very good work that these two women
were doing, even though the little they
did was not final, and dough it leaves
the Armenian question still unsettled.
Theirs was the sort Of work the Sisters
of Mercy perform for wounded soldiers
at the rear Of q great battle field, while
the men are fighting at the front; with
this difference, that in this instance
there were 10 men fighting at the front.
So the real Importance of their work
lies in the fact that the little they did
shames those who did nothing, that it
sets an exam pie to those in high places,
who might do SO much. and that it
leaves no one an excuse to sit idle with
folded hands while the crime of this
century is being perpetratsd.
For the last two years he churches
of the world, especially those Of this
country and Great Britain, have had
accredited agents in Armenia to whom
thousands of dollars have been sent and
who sheltered and fed thousands of
Armenians and societies and mission :
aries, emperors and am bassadors have
been appealing and threatening, and have
shown ceaseless activity, and they have
accomplished nothing.
Miss Clara Barton has gone and re.
turned and been interviewed and the
money that eager people poured into
her hands and into the hands of other
professional philanth ropists has been
distributoa; che herself has scattered
plows, painted red an marked "Clara
Barton Relief Fund" all over Upper
A STA wherever they would do the most
good. But in spite of these for some
reason, the massacres have continued,
and though ambassadors have met in
council and issued protests and edicts
and found rOhbins-almost everything
in TACT but ultimatums, until they are
IA common as the editions of an evening
paper. the massacres have not ceased.
In fact, in spite of the money offerings
and the indignation meetings of societies
at home and of the earnest efforts of
their agents in Asia, everything is ex-
aotly as it was two years ago with the
slight difference that some twenty thous-
and men and women who were alive
then are lot alive now, and that while
the money poured in and the am bassa-
doris fretted and fumed, men were
dubbed to death and dragged through
the street OF Constantinople by the heels,
aud women had their brains dashed out
with musket butts, and children were
spitted Oh lances and hayonets; and our
secretary Olney wrote to humbly thank
the Sultan for allowing the wives OF
these Armenians who have escapad him
to Join them in this country. Week
after week and month after month fol-
two long years the murders have con
tinued, and we still wait, properly hnr-
rified, for some one to DO something
And in tie meantime, Miss Frances
Willard and Lady Henry Somerset, W ho
han grown tired of waiting, went down
TO Marse1lles to dc the little they could.
Ihe question is not whether the Arne-
nlsns ara Christians or Mohammedans,
or Mormons, or whether there are bad
men among them or worse men re-
senting them at a safe distance In for
eign cities. The question is one of hui
manity. ''Old Gods give way to new
Gods; here is your brother.
This as a small world in which we
live, ana We live in it for very short
time, and what we can do to help those
WHO are with US III infnitesimal. Blu,
thar is only the greater reason for doing
ii at little and showing tb at this ia better
world to-day than it was when the publ
cans passed by ON the other side
while robbers were beating the traveller
to death and when Cain asked Am
my brothers. keeper"
We are all familiar with the different
arguments which explain why no one is
called upon to interfere with the Sultan
of Turkey in his butoheries. The great
European powers say th3y cannot do SO.
because such Interference would bring
on great continental war, which
seems an excellent argument, even if il
be selfish one. Great Britain has been
warned that if she NEEDLES with the
Moslem all Of her Mohammedain sub
jeGts in the midas and in Afghanistan
might rise against her; and, moreover,
as one Of the powers that signed the
treaty of Berlin, she must not act with
out the consent of the other powers.
Signing that treaty, however aid not
stop her from selling the Mohammedans
at Dongola month ago, nor from de.
stroying the Matabele with Maxims il
the Matoppo Hills last July, nor has il
prevented the French from killing the
Hoyas in Madagascar. But it absolutely
prevents these two powers, not from
taking, but from saving the lives Of
some thousands of human beings in {
territory which each has bound herself
TO protect.
They are helpless because they signed
the treaty of Berlin, and oddly enough
the United States government cannot
Interfere because she did not sign it
1t would not do for her to become Ell
tangled in foreign alliance, nor tt
drag this country into war over ques
tion which in no way concerns her
This has been explained fully in latt
number OF Harper's Weekly. a journa
of civilization, in an editorial which
fairly .shrieks with terror, and which
repudiates the suggestion made by III
English newspaper that the people of thu
United States have any responsibility