The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-03-26
Urumiah Horrors De-
Scribed in Cable Mes.
sage by Son-In-Law
of S. w. Fleming
WAYFORCED INTO
AMERIC'N MISSION
Relatives Here Still Believe That the
Labarees Are Safe in Tabriz and
That the Information the Missionary
Sent Reached Him at That Place

New York. March 26.-Al the men
at julpashan. large village near
Urumiah, Persia, have been shot by
kurds. the women violated, an Amer
lean missionary beaten and sixty-hve
refugees taken from the French and
American missions have been hanged
on giobets crested in the mission yards,
according TO a cablegram received here
to-day by the Presbyterian Beard of
Foreign Missions
The missionary referred to as hav-
ing been beaten, is E. T. Allen, who
was born in London, Ontario, and be-
came naturalized American. Mr.. Al
len has been in the service of the
board since 1891. He was sent for the
second time to Persia in 1911.
Six thousand dollars for relief at
Urumiah was eabled to-day to the
American consul at Tabriz by the Per-
sian war relief committee.
The first information since January
concerning the Rev Robert NJ. Laharee,
one of the American missionaries to
Persia, known in Harrisburg through
having married Miss Mary Fleming,
daughter of Assistant Postmaster and
Mrs. Samuel =. Fleming OF this City,
was conveyed in a dispatch received
here to-day through the Associated
Press. Mr.. Labaree. with his family,
hai been stationed at Urumiah, Persia,
the center of the present Turkish mas
sscres, but recently went to Tabriz,
some distance away. Although the dis
patch refers to him as being in Urumiah.
Mr.. Fleming continues to-day to adhere
10 the belief that the Labarees still are
safe in Tabriz.
The cable message received to-day
) from Tidis, Russia, and dated
e Thursday. March %. P. NJ, via
Petrograd, March 26, 10 a. m.," and
SAYS:
Turkish troops have committed
further acts of violence at the Ameri-
can mission in Urumiah. Persia, accord
1ng to message received by the local
Nieeroy from Gordon Paddock, the
American consul at Tabriz.
Mr.. Paddock transmits a message
from Missionary Robert NJ. Labaree. at
Crumiah, to the effect that the Turkish
consul at Urumiah forced his wav into
the mission compound with a number
OF Turkish regular troops and removed
some Assyrian Christian refugees Who
were then massacred.
The Turks also beat and insulted
the American missionaries. -
Mr.. Fleming Not Alarmed
Mr.. Fleming. when shown the dis
patch. was inclined to doubt that Mr..
labaree is in Urumiah. He thinks that
while in Tabriz Mr.. Labaree received
Information regarding the Turkish
atrocities from the Rev. DR.. F. s.
Coan, the head of the Urumiah mis-
sion; DR.. H. P. Packard. the medical
doctor at the mission; the Rev. Mr..
Allen and the Rev. DR.. Mcdowell. also
stationed at the mission. and trans
mitted it to the American consul in
Tabriz who in turn sent it TO the local
viceroy at Tifiis.
Mr.. Fleming said that of course il
is possible that Mr.. Labaree has re-
Gently gone back 10 Urumiah. where
the disturbances are occurring, but he
thinks it hardly likely as the four
above mentioned Americans could di-
rect the affairs of the mission.
Tabriz is a hundred miles east of
Urumiah, and Mr. Fleming believes
the information was sent to Mr.. La
baree in Tabriz, who at once gave it
10 Consul Paddock for transmission 10
Ilfiis. Tabriz is protected by strong
force of Russian soldiers.
Mr.. Labaree has been a missionary
in the Persian field for the last thir-
teen years during most of which, time
Mrs. Labaree has been with him. He
spent the first ten years in Urumiah.
returning home for his vacation. and
then went back to Tabriz. where he
and his family-his wife and three
children, Robert, Benjamin and Eliza
beth-haye been for two wears.
His Brother Killed By Kurds
Mr.. Labaree was formerly pastor
of the Presbyterian church in Doyles.
town, Pa, but left there to become a
missionary. His father was a mission
ary at Urumiah, Persia, but died in
mid-oeean while on his return home.
Ten years ago brother of Mr.. La