Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-06-18

THE MAssAcREs IN TURKEY.
What a French Naval Officer Saw A


Extracts from a Private Letter, Pub
lished Unaltered in lie Figaro.
Mersina, April %.
Hardly had we arrived at Vile
franche to attend the presidential re-
view when we received orders to keep
up our fires and make for the Piraeus
at once. At Z that evening. we doubled
Cape Matapan.
The wireless telegraph apparatus
ratified continuously. The ships speed
ing toward the scenes Of the massacres
were exchanging messages. In this
way we corresponded with the Verite,
which started a little later than we did,
and also with the English warship
Swiftsure and the Italian warship Fer
ruccio.
Then we received orders sending us
to Mersina, in the Gulf Of Alexandretta.
Our consort, the Michseet, remained at
the Piraeus. We lef tSaturday even
ing and arrived at dawn on Wednesday.
having made an average speed of 1S3
knots. We could easily have done bet
ter had we been free to make greater
inroads on our coal supply.
The Lorelei, German ship from
Constantinople, was riding at anchor.
The Swiftsure from Malta had got in
a half hour ahead Of us. The Ferruc-
clio was expected soon. The consul in
formed us that the interior of the coun-
try was ablaze and that the bloodshed
had been terrible. At Mersina itself the
situation was critical, and our arrival
there afforded the authorities great re-
lief. The coming of the warships had
been announced two days previously,
but It had nevertheless been difficult
to restrain the populace, and the Ar
menians were already falling prey to
panic.
A Fair Land Indeed.
During the day the English arranged
a trip to Adana- Railway traffic had
been interrupted between the two cities
which are about twenty miles apart.
but a special train was placed at our
disposal. Leaving the station, the
train was soon crossing splendidly
titled region-a plain laden with grain,
vines and fruit trees. Happily the
husbandmen who live in peace in this
fertile land; o fortunatos nimium!" No
sooner had 1 uttered this reflection than
1 saw a burned and ravaged farmstead.
only a few fragments remaining of Its
blackened walls. Then another, and
another still. The desolation increas-
ed as we came nearer to Adana, and
the contrast grew sharper between
these symbols of deaths and the smil-
ing country round about.
On every one Of these farms Armen-
ians had been killed, mutilated and
none remained. Over
whelmed by the slaughterers, not a
chance of resistance had been left.
They had suffered tortures that made
them welcome especially the
young girls.
At the station we said goodby to the
English officers, who went to confer
with the British consul. France Is rep
resented only by an Armenian drago-
man. A Frenchman who is employed
at the tobacco works and who has liv-
ed In Turkey for years, kindly agreed
to pilot us about the town.
Shops Looted on Every Hand.
Under the inquisitive rather than
hostile gaze Of the crowds, we started
down the principal streets. At every
step we saw a shop that had been
sacked and in which nothing remained
but an empty Golfer pitched into the
mire. The looters had refrained from
applying the torch, for Turks and Ar
menians live side by side here. The
ravaged shops alternated with unharm-
ed stores, whose proprietors were
about with the satisfied air
Of merchants who had got rid Of their
and were calmly awaiting
the hour when It would please Allah
to set business going again.
But soon We came to the purely Ar
menian quarter. The houses were still
standing, notably the club and the
school. Our cicerone explained that
at several points the assailants had
met a vigorous resistance. They had
been content to operate from a dis
tance, as was evident from the bullet
riddled house fronts and they had not
dared to risk a hand to- hand fight with
men we'll provided with rifles and cart
ridges and determined to sell their lives
as dearly as possible. Besides, the
Turks believed that the neighborhood
had been mined, and this made them
the more cautious.
We made our way toward the mis-
sion, which occupies a large, handsome
building in the heart Of the city. AL
though we came merely as tourists,
the Fathers welcomed US almost as res
cuers, for they were still racked with
anxiety despite the apparent quiet that
had followed the three days Of blood
shed. A house containing large num-
Der Of refugees had been fired upon. A
Jesuit had been wounded while going
10 the terrace to watch the fighting.
The bullet had ripped across his breast,
nflicting a flesh wound. 1t was al
most by a miracle that he got off alive.
The Armenians Started tho Trouble.
Seated in the conversation room and
eager for details, we sought to know
what had brought on the troubles In a
region that had been spared during the
nassacres Of 1896. The opinion Of M.
-, our guide, was far from favor
able to the Armenians. 1t seems that
after the establishment Of the consti-
:ution they became insolent and quar-
-elsome-in a word, intolerable. That
was no excuse for the massacre, but 1t
helps to explain the fury that broke
oose. They made no secret Of their
,eparatist projects. They hoped soon
70 rehabilitate the Armenian kingdom.
They then distributed incendiary liter
,ture and Autographs representing
some Armenian sovereign Of the olden
times. In their theatres they staged
plays roasting" the Turks and drama
.izing the atrocities of their sultans,
going as far as Tamerlane for material