Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-10-27
Prominent congressman Coming On Hawau Official Mission
TURK CRUELT|ES
GRAPHICALLY TOLD
BY MISSIONARY
Plan to Extirpate These Chris
tan People Made in Ger
many, He Declares
nv A..oc,a..A Pr.s.i

tlrpate the Armenian CuIlStiduS lIOni
Turkey was made in Germany and
suggested to the Turks by German of.
ficials," and where the Armenians
made a stand against their Moslem
oppressors II was German officers and
German cannon that broke them up,
according to the Rev. Alpheus Newell
Andrus. senior missionary for the Con.
gressional station at Mardin. Mesopota-
mia, who told of his experiences here
today The farsighted Germans. he said.
were looking forward to the time when
they expected to gain complete aonni.
nioa in Turkey and they Ngsfa to
eliminate the Armenian o. IN BY
getting rid of the Armenian No
"One of the ways the Turks went
about il was to load Armenian men ON
goatskin RATS on the understanding
that thev were to be deported- and
then they were taken ont and dumped
into the Tigris river and drowned, he
said. This was the fate of at least
$500 men from the vicinity Of Diar-
bekir and its suburbs In Northern
Mesopotamia.
ARMED soldiers were on the RATS,
which each carried about seventy-fiye
to a hundred victims. KUrd boatuen
rowed them out into deep water. Then
the soldiers would drive the ArmeEl.
ians to one side of the RATS until they
tilted and dumped them into the river.
If they tried to climb back on the RATS
the soldiers and boatmen beat them
and shot them until all persisted.
The Germans and the Turkish gov.
eminent. DIR. Andrus said, looked upon
the destruction of the Armenians In
Turkey as a cold blooded political
move and gave the actual execution
of 1t into the hands OF the Kurds and
Turkish soldiers whe went about It
with the ferocity of Moslem religious
fanaticisn1.
AT first the Turkish government
! objected to the German suggestion OF
THE removal of the Armenians on the
grounds that they were valuable as
Eartisens and business men and neces-
sary to the economic life of the coul1-
try" continued DR.. Andrus, but the
Germans promised to supply men to
take their places Having persuaded
| the Turks. the Germans then left It to
them to put the plan into effect.
But the Turkish soldiers in some
places could not overcome the Armen-
ians. At Urfa, the city Of suffering. the
Armenians resolved to resist deporta-
tion and defend their innocent families
and their church. They barricaded
themselves In their stone houses In
their quarters. For ten days they
withstood all the efforts OF the Tur.
| kish soldiery to dislodge them In the
end they would have prevailed b. lat
German officers brought and &Etd
cannon upon their stronghold and lore
ed them to flee.
Surely such people should not be
allowed to perish. There still remain
| of thee to be cared for $500 in Urfa
and nearby. Will not the American
people help care for them? Conditions
/ in Mesopotamia have not been brought
reason that there has not been anyone
to report the state Of things there and
because no report could get past the
rigid Turkish censorship.
More than 10000 Armenians were
ldeported from Diarhekir and its SUI
I burhs. 1T was some OF these who we're
dumped ilteathe Tigris and drowned.
The leadfHs and rich men were among
/ these. The utfIeis were detailed to
dig trenches and to do other work with
only an insufficient allowance OF bread
daiIyI Later they were shet in groups.
when no longer able to endure the
/ hardships involved ~
There followed an epidemic OF ehol:
era and then a scourge of typhas.
Before the war and deportatfons the
city contained some 60.O00ss infIaBi.
i tants The last I heard there were
lonly 1000 citizens left there.
Women were dubbed, stabbed or
shot down or the Mesopotamian
plains and left for dead in piles on the
ground or thrown into old cisterns
Some, coming to consciousness, crawl
ed out from the piles and up from the
cisterns and dragged themselves up
1.-THE mountain to cur hospital at Mardin
to have their wounds dressed.
Some of the Moslenls at Mardin
took pity upon more than thousand
babies of deported women. who in pas
sing through, left those they had no
milk to feed or strength to carry as
they went on to their lingering deaths
1 on the plains below. When the local
government officials learned that Mos.
lens had the little ones they issued
an order that whoever harboFed any
Armenian would be visited with the
treatment dealt to the ArInenians.
The Moslems, therefore, secretly
turned the little ones over to Chrf s.
families who clandestinely earede
them until their resources were Ok.
hausted. And now the latest informa.
tion from Mardin is that unless funds
are Immediately forthcoming the thou
sand orphans must be turned ont upon
the streets to starve
1 Help must be regular and contins
uous. The committee for Armenian
and Syrian relief has decided that s.
a month per child will be necessary
That is about II cents a day. Who
will add one more child to his family
. anh reckon the n cents along with
what he is spending daily on his other
hlldren and at the end Of each month
setd the S. to the committee?"
II 'Step lively" said the street car
CONDUCTOR. Not on your life, re-
, cr1knd od fba ororehv uaacoucnr tfIf