The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-11-11

many offOrtS. we were considered as
| opposed to the government. We natu-
! rally had to be. we could not favor a
| government that was forcing Chris
| tians to become Moslems. The women
and little children were placed in n
| guardhouse in another part Of the city.
/ Although we could not see them. we
| communicated with them by letter and
soon learned they were To be exiied II
they refused to become Moslcms. Not
one of our teachers Welded. Some OF
| the women did. but only two who had
been processing Christians iii any real
way. The struggle was Il very hard
one. Their little children We're rough
/ ~ taken from them. They replied:
]! God gave them to us. We give them to
| Him. A few days later they were sent
out and as they were going through
| the streets on foot. II Turk With an
understanding heart said, Shame on
us. We call ourselves lion hearted.
These women are real heroincs. They
| reached .\leppo safely. i little band Of
%. About half of them We're able TO
stay III .tleppo and work i'll an Orphan
age there and, according to the latest
news we have. are still in Alcpro and
| are probably being reached by relief
| funds. The other half We're sent on
| to the Der Zor region, where, we fear,
| they have persisted.
after the teachers were sent away.
! the government began TO threaten aud
! prosecute our young girls in the effort
to make them Moslcms. For iixe long.
months they were kept III prison. Mere
| threatened with all aud more than one
| could possibly imagine, and these aW-
tui threats We're officially made. They
We're kept on extremely short rations.
| They were required TO work during the
hot summer days, each girl being ~
| qnired to make by hand four garments.
similar to what we might call bath
| robe. on one day. They were kept ~
hours without water. Many yielded.
| Some through fear, others because OF
the pleading Of their mothers and rala-
| tives. Thirty stood firm. OF these,
some We're taken hN force from the
older girls aud told that they were too
young to decide for themselves. At
last. as food supplies Were becoming
very hard to get, the government
| wished To be relieved OF the care Of
these girls and decided to allow those
who had become Moslcm to 20 to their
relatives and to send those who re-
fused to the Rcd Crescent hospital as
nurses.
THE general condition when all of the
| Americans left Cacsarea was Very bad
for all nationaities. Arincnittns. Greeks
and Turks. The cities OF Talas and
i tacsaroa We're occupied hy military
hospitals, besides which there were
several hundred prisoners, Russian,
English and French subjects and many
Turkish refugees from the E.rzroom
district The government seized nearly
al the food supplies for the hospitals
AMI when we left there was often two
days III u week when even tho sick sol
| diofs had no bread
"l3or the common people there WAS
no means Of transporting food, if, rer-
chance. some might be found in auoth
ct city. Houses were being torn dowt
To furnish wood to do the cooking foi
the hospitals. No attempt was made
TO heat the buildings where the SICK
soldiers lay huddled together ON TIL,
} floor, have seen them require all ol
the patients to go out of the larg,
doflait9rN OF tile girls school. now Sc
! ing used as a hospital. the floor flood
} cd With water, the bundles of rags
T called beds put back into the dormitors
, before tho floor was anywhere nea'
. dry, and the poor shiyering sick sol
$ diers driven back to their beds, perhaps
TO be told there was no bread that day
/ This was i'll the middle of the winter
~. a. 1. y
L Just before came away our forme
. druggist told me that they had beef
. ordered to save all Of the importan
drugs remaining to be used for The Of
: ficers.
4 "one could easily write several hun
bred pages Of similar facts.
i The Armenian hts suffered tefribl,