Evening star., 1915-11-27
NOSES WHITFIELD
IN TURK TQRTURES
Armenian Women and Children
Burned Alive by MosIems,
Is Charge.
MEN DIG OWN GRAVES.
BEFORE THEY ARE SHOT
Whole Families Commit Suicide
Rather Than Fall Into Enemy's
Hands, Says Viscount Bryce.

LONDON. November 2T-Viscount
Bryce last night made public the de-
tails of further Armenian masSacres
which in a letter accompanying them,
he says, "surpass in horror, II that
were possible, what has been published
already"
81 feel" his letter continues, that
such crimes ought to be exposed to
the utmost and that the charity of
other nations will more than ever be
drawn to the unhappy refugees when
1t is know.i what their friends and
fellow -countrymen have suffered
Niscount Bryce says the details con-
firm and amplify the CHASTITY history
of deportations by which Armenians
in northern and eastern Anatolia were
driven to a death of fiendlsh cruelty.
The first part of the evidence, he says,
was received by the committee of in
ouiry in the United States, and the
second part comes from an Armenian
gentleman at Rflis, who received 1t
from refugees who escaped from re-
Kions where the events happened
Sufferings Are Terrible.
@.The sufferings of the peasants and
the nlountaineers in the regions of
Van. Mush and Sanun,' Viscount Bryce
saws seem to have been terrible
These atrocities were not produced by
imagination. After giving the parts OF
the evidence received from the United
States. Viscount Bryce says that the
following extracts were taken from MS
correspondent at Tif1is:
Toward the end of May Djevdet Bey.
the military governor, was expelled
from Van Dievdet fed southwark and
entered sairt with some s.ooS soldiers.
He massacred most of the Christians
of Sairt. the details of which nothing
is known. On the best of authority.
however. it is reported that he ordered
his soldiers to burn in the. public
squares the Armenian bishop. Eglise
Iartayed, and the Chaldean bishop, Ad-
dai Sher.
Women Distributed.
June % the Turks surrounded the
town OF Bitlis and cut its communications
with neighboring Armenian villages. Then
most of the able-bodied fi1en were taken
away from their women by domiciliary
. visits. During the following few days all
the men under arrest were shot outside
the town and buried in deep trenches dug
by the victims themselves. The young
women and children were distributed
among the rabble. The remainder, the
useless lot were driven to the south. and
are believed to have been drowned in the
Tgris-
Amy attempts at resistance. however
brave. were quelled by the regular troops.
Many Armenians, after firing their last
cartridge, either took poison by whole
families or killed themselves in their
homes in order not to fall into the hands
Of the Turks
Head Men Are Tortured
1T IS in such a fashion that the
Turks disposed of about $4,000 Ar
menians at Bitlis. At Mush early in
July the authorities demanded arms
from the Armenians and large sum
inransarH- ef fotabies of the town.
The head men of the village were sub
1ected to revolving tortures. Their fin
ger nails and then their toenails were
forcibly extracted: teeth were knocked
out. and in some cases noses were
Whitfield down. the victims thus being
done to death under shocking, linger-
ing agony.
The female relatives of victims who
came to the rescue were assaulted in
public before the very eyes of their
mutilated men. The shrieks and death
cries of the victims filled the air. yet
they did not move the Turkish beasts.
Germans Participate, Claim.
In the town of Mush itself the Ar
naenians. under the leadership of Goto-
yam and others. intrenched themselves
in churches and stone built houses and
fought for four DAYS in self-defense,
(but Turkish artillery. manned by Ger
man officers. made short work of all
the Armenian positions. and every one
of the Armenian leaders. as well as
Their killed in the fiVhtinp
when they were dead and silence
relgned over the ruins of the churches
and houses. the rest of the Moslem
rabble descended upon the women and
children and drove them out of town
and into large camps which already
had been prepared for the peasant
women and children.
Women and Children Burned.
The shastly scenes which followed
may seem incredible. yet these reports
have been confirmed beyond ali doubt
The shortest means employed for dis
posing of the women and children in
the various camps by burning
Fire was set to the large wooden sheds
1n Allan, Mograkom. Khasjogh and
other Armenian villages and these alb
solutely helpless women and children
were roasted to death.
away their children. Some women
kneit down and prayed amid the
faipes which were burning their
bodies. Others shriehed for help. which
came from nowhere, and the execu-
tioners, who seemed unmoved by this
unparalleled savagery. grasped infants
Sby one leg and hurled them into the
fire. calling out to the burning moth
ers. Here are your lions
Prisoners Are Maddened
. Turkish prisoners who appareptlt
witnessed some of these scenes were
horrifed and maddened at remember
ing the sight. The odor OF burning
flesh, they say. permeated the air for
many days.
"In the hill country OF Sasun the sur
vfving warriors found themselves sur
rounded at close quarters by 10000
Turks and KuTds. Then followed one
Of those desperate. heroic struggles for
life which have always been the pride