New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-20
ARMENIAN MASSACRES.
Correspondent SCOTS at Alleged Truth Of
semi-OficiaI Statements.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Many of your readers must have seen
with arnazenent in yesterdays dispatches the
"serni-orciaT' communication from the Rus
sian government declaring that the late mas
sacres Of Arnenians In the Caucasus were
repetition Of the Armenian massacres which
took place some years ago in Turkey, and that
in both cases the fault lay with the Armenians
themselves who melted the Mahometans to
massacre them.
The author of that communication credits the
American public with too short a memory. We
have not forgotten that the Armenian massacres
in Turkey were proved by overwhelming evil
dence to have been deliberately planned and
directed by the Turkish government Let US see
whether there is reason to think that these later
nassacres in Russian Armenia also took place
with government completely.
At the time Of the Kishinef massacre moth
ing made worse impression on the American
public than the fact that the leading kishiner
newspaper, published under government censor
ship, had been allowed to go on for weeks openly
melting the Christians to slaughter the Jews;
and that, after the massacre, the paper received
large money subsidy from the government
In the same way for months before these late
massacres of the Armenians by the Ta-tars, the
leading Tartar newspaper in the Caucasus pub
lished under government censorship, had been
openly melting the Tartars to massacre the Ar
rnenians. Proclamations headed slaughter the
ArmeuiansP' were scattered around the streets
Meanwhile the police and soldiers went about
carefully disarming the Arnenians, While allow
ing the Tartars to retain their arms, ana In some
cases even distributing weapons to them When
the rnassacres broke out the government officials,
the soldiers and the police stood by ana looked
on without lifting hand to protect the Vlcu1ns'
In the censored dispatches the disturbances
were ascribed to racial feuds between the Tar
tars and Arnenians, to economic troubles
declared that the local government had not
troops enough to keep order. The respectable
citizens Of Baku where the greatest slaughter
took place, have been getting together and ex-
pressing their opinion to the cause of the
massacres. The lawyers passed the following
resolution:
THE Bar of Baku. having assembled for the
purpose of Investigating the terrible events of
the last few weeks. have arrived st the unani-
nous conclusion that the massacres were not
the result Of any national religious anirnosity
between the Armenians and Tartars. nor OF an
economic antag onism. They were caused exclu-
sively by the manifest inaction Of the civil and
military authorities. before whose eyes, during
four days, murder, plumber and incendiarsm
took place. whole families being burned alive"
The twentieth congress Of the Naphtha Works
Owners passed a resolution giving similar de-
scripdon of the inaction OF the authorities.
The Baku Stock Exchange, in It's resolution.
said in part:
During four days the massacre Of peaceful
citizens and the sacking and burning of dwell
ing houses went on steadily before the eyes Of
the authorities, who remained absolutely indif-
ferent and took not the slightest measure to
restrain the comparatively Insignificant crowd
Of disorderly roughs The Baku Stock
Exchange considers it necessary to declare that
all these events could have been prevented by
the local authorities. 1t is the unanimous and
deep conviction of the whole stock exchange
that those rnassacres were not caused by any
race religious or class animosity They
would not have taken place had there been no
exterior Indictment from sources authoritative
in the eyes Of the ignorant mass of the popu-
latfon."
The engineering managers of the Bibieybat
oil works adopted unanimously at q meeting
attended by $500 persons, resolution declaring
1--WE, the managers and technical engineers of
the Bibieybat Naphtha Works, after many years
fectIy definite conviction that the onslaught in
Baku can in no way be explained by any racial
animosity. Many years Of acquaintance with
the Tartars and Armenians have LED us TO the
conclusion that there is no particular animosity
between them. The four days massacre. origi-
mating in q trif1iug incident assumed the form
of a terrible catastrophe, owing undoubtedly
TO exterior influence. The responsibility for the
wholesale murder, not only OF grown men, but
Of women and children. falls exclusively on the
authorities, who took absolutely no steps in the
direction OF stopping the massacres while they
were still merely sporadic. Numbering, sacking
and burning were openly carried on for four
days before the eyes Of the military and police
and the troops not only did not use the arms
which on other occasions they have SO often and
so implacab1y used against unarmed crowds
but they cid not even make any attempt to
arrest or disarm any Of the murderers. We are
perfectly sure that the quantity Of troops in
Balzu quite sufficient TO have stopped the
catastrophe in time
Encouraged by impunity, is ii any wonder that
the Tartar mob ended by going further than
the government intended and burning the oil
The audacious hypocrisy of this attempt to lay
the blame Of the atrocities on the victims shows
how much reliance is 10 be placed on semi
official" communications from Russian bureau
ALICE STONE BLACKWELL
Dorchester Ma.