The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-13
PALESTINE IS DEVASTATED BY
 YOUNG TURKS Garry on Ruthless Policy of Plundering and
 Killing.

Cairo, Egypt, Aug. 13.-The situa- ton in Palestine this summer is the most serious since the war began. A scheme for the footing of Jerusalem already is being executed. and throughout the countryside the Turk has embarked ca a calculated policy of plundering nd killing the native inhabitants. so that if they are forced to vacate the country they will leave behind them a desert. The only thing that can save the natives, the only hope that buoys them up, is that the British armies now hammering at the gates of the Holy Land may Soon drive out the Turks.
 Information about conditions in Pal- estine reaches here from many sources some more or less direct The follow ing statement is given to the .Associat- ed Press by an official:
 'The attitude of the Young Turks toward the unfortunate non-Turkish races within their empire always has been harsh andi oppressive. During the war it has been an open campaign of robbery, exploitation and massacre, for the Young Turks, realizing that the partition of the lands under their rule in unavoidable, have determined to get as much as they can out of the
 
 possession.
 '"The stupendous wickedness of the externination of the Armenian nation canont be dismissed as @ mere device of oriental statecraft or as partic- ular measure aimed at one particular race, for it is the Turkish policy to- ward not only Armenians, but Arabs, Greeks and Jews-in fact, all peoples who are subjects of the Turk but not themselves of Turkish blood.
 While there was some prospect of being able to retain or even enlarge their empire the Turks although treating their subject races badly, did not actually seek to destroy them. To- day, knowing themselves doomed, it is their calculated policy to kill of the bulk of the inhabitants of Pales- tine and extort the last ounce of money and goods from them. so that if they are forced to vacate the coun- try they will leave behind them a desert, a poverty stricken and de- populated land.
 Their policy is not consistent with military and economic needs and is not supported by even the s1enderest pretexts for it's necessity. It Is dic- tated solely by a saving brutally, The Turk has in the past shown some aptitude for diplomacy, if little for statesmanship, but the modern Young Turk of the committee of union and progress is an infinitely worse tyrant than his predecessors, and all the na- tive savagery and blood lust that are his heritage now find vent in delib- crate and organized crimes. He
 works untrammelled by diplomatic convention and reckless of the inevit- able consequences. Germany has ex- ercissd no restraining influence and indeed shares largely in the Ottoman guilt.
 Palestine is today somewhat cut off from the world and news of the dreadful happenings within its bor- ders reaches civilization slowly. It is usually impossible to learn the fate of individuals, but a good general idea of the situation is in our hands. "The disaster that befe11 the Ar menian nation is now meted out to the mixed non-Turkish population o1 Syria and Palestine. Families are massa sacred, towns and territories eva | cuted, communities plundered anc given.
 '"The town of Gaza was recently