New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-17

To the Editor.of The Tribune.
/ Sir: The report published recently descrio-
/ ing the condition Of the 10000 deported Ar
menians in Northern Arabia, who, deprived Of
| food. clothing and shelter, are subsisting on
grass, locusts and dogs, and who are eager TO
be buried alive to get rid Of the tortures oil
hunger, pestlence, scorching sun and the
cruelty of the Turk gendsrmes together with
the cable message transmitted from London
to this country under date of August "a
which reported the massacre by the Turks OF
10000 deported Armenians in the Bozantl
tunnel through the Taurus Mountains. where,
according to a previous report, they were re-
moved from the Aleppo concentration camps
TO work along the German Bagdad Railway,
brings home forcibly once more the insult
Ifciency, if not the ineflicacy, of the steps and
measures heretofore taken by this govern
ment in behalf of this stricken people and the
absolute faithlessness and the deliberate pur-
pose of the Young Turks to carry through TO
completion the plan OF Armenian extermina-
ton.
The Armenian situation is an index to the
Young Turk nationalistic policy, whose
avowed purpose is to eliminate the non-Turk
elements from the system Of the Turkish En-
pire If this policy Of Turkey for the
Turks" adopted by the Salonica platform Of
the Young Turks, and since repeatedly pro
claimed by the Young Turk leaders and advo-
Gated by Turk journalists and publicists, and
which is now powerfully supported by the
newly organized Yeni Turan Society meaning
Turanian stock, under the presidency OF
Enver Pacha, which advocates the federation
of all the Turko-Tartar races, and whose ma
tiona and ancestral hero is Genghis Khan,
goes unchallenged By the neutral world it
will, in its logical development, embrace the
Greeks, the Jews and the remnants Of the
Syrians The charges of disloyalty and re-
bellion preferred by the Turks against the
Armenians, to be found in the Turkish White
Book and the utterances by the Turk spokes-
men, in justification of the so-called precau-
tionary and suppressive measures known to
have been adopted by the Turk government,
clearly show that the penalty exacted is out
rageously out of proportion TO the offence
charged. and that therefore motives and pur-
poses other than those set forth must exist
for the Turk campaign of wholesale slaugh-
ter.
For a correct understanding Of the ubject
we must look into the substance of the prin-
cipa Turkish charges made against the Ar
menians and the extent of the punishment in
ficted for tho offence charged, and then We
can clearly fix the responsibility and accord
ingly adopt an intelligent course in the fut-
ure.
The Turks alege, in substance. that the
two million Armenians who inhabited the Ar
menian provinces, Asia Minor and Turkey in
Europe, wished for the success of the Allied
cause; that several thousand Armenians, from
Turkey and from foreign lands. who were
sub jects of Turkey. joined the Russian armies
or the other enemies of Turkey; that the
Turkish authorities found in dozen or more
localities firearms and discriminatory docu
ments. and that in several localities the Ar
menians offered armed resistance to the con-
stituted authorities. notably at Van, at FL
Mussa, etc. Talaat Boy. who il tho virtual
ruler Of Turkey. made the following state
ment on the subject "The Armenians have
been found guilty Of overt acts Of disloyalty
against the throne. Therefore, the govern
ment executed some Of the ringleaders, eSiled
and imprisoned others. numbering a few hun
! bred, and dcported about 100000 away from