The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1917-08-01
Conducted BY Miss Julia Neal
RED CROSS WORK
IN THE NEAR EAST.

IN THE NEAR EAST.
The Red Cross War Council has
appropriated 100000 to be expended
in July for relief work in the Near
East, through the American Commit
tee for Armenian and Syrian relief.
The Red Cross will appropriate like
amount for each Of the five remain
ing months of the year if the work
of the committee is not sufficiently
hampered by the Turkish government
to make further grants inadvisable.
The American committee is the on
ly organization outside Of the Red
Crescent controlled by the Turkish
governmenD, which is allowed to ad-
minister relief in certain portions of
the Turkish empire. Its field of oper-
atoms includes not only Asia Minor
and those portions of Armenia and
Syria that are in the Ottoman empire,
but it also includes large section of
Armenia now dominated by the Rus
sian army, as well as the Russian
Caucasus, Persia, Mesopotania and
portions of Egypt and Macedonia in
to which refugees. Armenian, Syrian
and Greek have fled in large numbers.
With the exception of the work being
done by the Jewish relief committee,
the American committee is the only
agency organized for affording relief
in this great area.
The making Of this appropriation by
the Red Cross is in accord with the
policy of the Red Cross to cooperate
with relief agencies in the theatre Of
war to the end that there shall be the
utmost aid afforded, while overlapping
of effort is as far as possible avoided.
The appropriation is made upon appli-
cation of James l.. Barton, chairman
and c. w. Vickery, secretary respeci
lively of the American committee of
Armenian and Syrian relief and after
investigating, is thoroughly approved
by the Red Cross committee on coop
Grafton of which Judge Robert S. Low
EFT is chairman.
The appeal to the Red Cross for aid
estimated that there are 100000 peo-
rlc in Western Asia whose death can
be prevented only by direct and con-
tinued help from this American COM
mittee. These people have been exiled
from their homes and are in regions
where self support is practically impos
sible. From one town alone there is a
call to provide for 10000 fatherless
children. The estimated number of
orphans in another district is given
by the American consul as 10000. In
the entire field the number of orphan
ed children is estimated to run into
the hundreds of thousands.
In the Caucasus, the American COM
mittee has found it imperative to pro
vide employment for women, many of
whom have lost their husbands, their
children and all their material pos
sessions These women take wool in
the rough and make it into garments
for other destitutes.
While it is true that the larger part
of the American committees relief
has been given to Christians, this has
not been because they were Christians
but rather because they were residing
under Moslem rule that were first to
suffer
Of the Armenians alone, nearly a
million were deported and put to
death in 1915, and the remainder Of
the race within Turkish dominions
were exiled from their homes into
the desert regions where self-support
was impossible. Since then approx
mately 100000 Greeks, who formerly
resided in prosperous villages south of
the Black sea, have been deported in
similar manner and are now destitute
and helpless.