The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-12-05
APPEAL FOR ARMENIANS.
Victims of German and Turkish Afro
city arc i'm desperate Straits.

city, are i'm desperate Straits.
Two million human beings, men and
women like ourselves, and among
them 100000 innocent little children
in Armenia and Syria, think of it. it
staggers one, whose piteous voices
have been heard through the press in
every portion Of this broad land, in
tones of agony crying from hunger
bread, bread are now reaching the ear
of every citizen of South Carolina.
We cannot help hearing their songs of
starvation. There is no alternative
but to furnish them relief with food
or turn them away from our doors and
close our ears to their distressing
walls. Can we afford to send them
away empty? That is the question
each must answer for himself. Amer
lean charity is all they have to de-
pend upon. Either that or the hor-
rors of death from starvation. Here
is the situation.
Government aid from the United
States and other governments which
appropriate millions of dollars for re-
lief of women aud children in France,
Belgium and other countries is not
available in consequence of Armen-
ians, Syrians and Greek Christians of
Western Asia being scattered races to
which the United States cannot make
loan. 1t is now American charity
or death.''
The American Committee on Ar
menian and Syrian Relief in New
York gives this account of the bar
barities to which these desperate sup
plants have been subjected "Exiled
from their homes, robbed of their pos
sessions, wanderers in a desolate land.
their only hope for the barest neces-
sites of life being in American char
ity. They are innocent and indus
trious people and ordinarily are the
wealth producers of the land"
There are many calls at this time
from various patriotic organizations
all of them most deserving and insis-
tent, but none OF them which can
touch tender heart more keenly
than this. Human beings, little chill
dren, asking of as a bit of bread.
What appeal like this. What did the
Savior say: 1T were better for him
that millstone were hanged about his
neck and that he were cast into the
sea than that he should offend one
of these little ones"
The president Of the United States,
amid all his pressing engagements,
put them aside for the moment to is
sue an urgent appeal to the people
OF this great republic to aid these suf-
ferers. so seriously did he regard the
gravity of the case.
1t now becomes the duty OF the
home committee 10 present this awful
tragedy to the calm and prayerful
consideration of our tender hearted
citizens. Civilized history contains on
its pages no event so bristling with
savagery and crime
That dignified body, the House OF
Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal
Church of the Urited States, at a re-
cent meeting in Chicago, passed this
resolution for Armenian and Syrian
Rec:
"Resloved: That this House Com
mends to the syn pathy and generos-
ity of the American people the con-
tinued and increasing need of the peo-
pies of the Levant, especially the Ar
menians and Syrians. and refugees i'm
the Caucasus and Persia, brought
about by the deportation. massacre.
munger, disease al restitution"
We have presented as carefully and
as fully as space viii permit the afro
cities that have been piled upon these
noffensive people and now appeal i,
The name of humanity to Jew and
fentile. rich and poor. white and
black. 10 contribute to the extent ,,f
Iheir ability To help keep alive those
eTibie sufferers. Send your checks
TO Charleston. s. c.. which will Ec
gladly welcomed and promptly a..
ynowledged by A. G. Kaufman Troo.-
lrer Charleston, S. G.