The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-11


 The letters of two German nuns who were nurses in Erzingjan give a ghastly account. They say in part:
 "The personnel of the Red Cross were forbidden all association with Armenians, and all further walks and rides were forbidden for the reason that a shot might take the wrong direction'
 'The Armenians were given a few days in which to sell their belong ings, which of course brought ridic- ulously low prices. On the 11th of June the first transport started; we heard they were people in comfort able circumstances who were in position to rent wagons. They are supposed to have arrived to Charput, at least a telegram to that effect was received On the three following days further transports left. It was said that many children had been taken in by the families of Moslems, later we were told that these too, had been sent away. The Arrnenians in our hospital were also compelled to go, even to woman who was ill with tyhpus. Even the plea of the physi- Neukirch), was of no avail, only that she was allowed to remain in the hospital two days longer.
 'One of the soldiers with us, who was acting as shoemaker, lamented mostly over his year and a half old baby girl: "You never saw such pretty child, it has eyes as large as plates; if I could but crawl like a snake, I would follow her." He cried like a baby. The next day the same man came quietly and said: Now I know it, they are all dead.' It was only too true. Our Turkish cook told Us through her tears how the Turks in Kemagh Bohasy. attacked the de- fenceiess mass, plundered them and killed many.
 1.-TWO young Armenian teachers, who had been educated in the col lege at Charput and who were among the refugees, told how they had been taken under crossfire by Kurds and under the half-regular troops of a certain Talaat They threw them selves on the floor and pretended death and afterwards they were able by taking a roundabout way, to, reach Birmingham; they gave money to all the Kurds they passed. The one teacher was accompanied by her be- trothed, who was disguised in wo-
 
 city a gendarme wanted to take the girl as his wife; when her fiance pro- tested, he was shot down. Both of the young girls were taken into Mos lem houses, where they were treated kindly, but were ordered at once to become Mohammadans. They bade us through young physician, who was visiting an Armenian patient in our hospital, to take them to Char put; the one girl wrote: If she but had poison to take. Of the fate of the other, she could say nothing-it was too dreadful
 "On the following day we heard the soldiers tell how they threw the women on their knees, threw the chill dren into the Euphrates. Tt was aw- ful,' a young soldier said, T could not shoot, I only made believe In fact we often heard the Turks ex- press their pity and sympathy. The people said that wagons were ready to take the corpses to the river. From that time there was a con- tinual stream of refugees, who were all brought to the same place to be killed, as we were told by many peo- pie. Our Greek coachman told us that the condemned had their hands |
  river from high rock.
 Sister x and discussed the prob- | lem of helping these people and came to the conclusion that the best way to help them would be to follow an 1 expedition to Charput. We did not know at that time that the persecu- tion had been ordered by the govern ment, and hoped to be able to stop the abuses of the gendarme and also the attack of the Kurds as we knew their language and had some in- fuence with them.
 Referring to an unnamed German official, the nuns say:
 He did not believe that the at- lrocitfes mad been ordered by the government, but allowed himself to be convinced by the lies of the off, cials that everything as in perfect peace
 On the same evening" the letter continues, while the German physi- clans were at a garden feast, which a Turkish official Twas giving in ap- preciation of his recovery, a gend- arme met us and told us that at ten minutes distant from the place a tain of refugees was halting. He told us in a horrifying way how the HIGH Idu DSeUF kllISO, one aIter the | other, Kess, Kess, geliorlar (Kill 1 them, kill them, they are comingD. l How the women were abused wher- ever they arrived, how he himself wanted to take a girl, but was told he was too late; how the little chill dren had their skulls crushed when they cried or said they were tired. 'I had three corpses of women buried in order to do something good"' In this manner he concluded his grue- some tale.
 "On the following morning we heard how the refugees were being driven past our house, on their way to Erzingjan. We ran after them and accompanied them to the city, distance of about one hour. Some remained silent and tramped along patiently with their few belongings on their backs, holding their chill dren by the hand. Others begged us to save their children. Many Turks came and took children and young girls without permission of the par ents There was no time for thought. they were simply driven on and on.
 'The entrance to the city where the road leads to Kemagh looked like a slave-market. We ourselves took six boys, their ages ranging from three to IA years, who chung to us. and 1itf1a girl wa DI1f hor ip +bo