The Elbert County tribune., 1918-12-13

mdnfty. Tney were not. They were
city dwellers. responsible folk. small
shopkeepers. professional men, traders.
like ourselves, like the citizens of any
American small town. mindilg their
own affairs, seif-supporting. well-to-do,
asking only to be let alone. Their
women We're as refined and delicate as
our own, as unused to hardship. hav-
ing the same religion. the same desire
for education for their children as we
have. These communities were first
robbed of their men. and then torn
from their homes and sent to a more
dreadful fate than the fathers and
sons had suffered. They were told
that they We're to be deported to other
localities. They set out on foot, desti-
tute. half-clothed. for their unknown
destination, under guard of their OPP
pressors, and were led into the desert
10 die by the way by scores and hun
dreds. Children perlshed of expo
sure. of cold In the mountains. of heat
and thirst in the desert. of starvation
elsewhere. Their mothers went mad
of frantic grief. The older girls and
younger women We're sold TO any who
harems or into the hands of more bru-
tai possessors.
So the diminishing columns passed
on to the most desolate regions of the
south until the remnants reached, in
some cases. the Euphrates. Here those
that remained alive were loaded into
boats or on RATS, floated out into the
middle of the stream and showed over
board
Thousands Are Slaughtered.
The Novoye Fremya of Petrograd
contained this news: 1.-The Turkish
atrocities in the district of Bitlis are
ndescribable. After having massa-
cred the whole male population of the
district the Turks collected 1900
women and children from the sur
rounding villages and drove them in
upon Bitlis. Two days later they
marched them out to the bank of the
Tigris, shot them all and threw the
5000 corpses into the river
A newspaper in Tifis reported
"rhe Turks have massacred the whole
male population in the plain of Marsh.
Only 5000 people have succeeded in
escaping and finding refuge in Sassam.
where the insurgent Armenians are
still holding out"
One of the directors of an educa-
tional institution supported by foreign
missionaries in an Anatollan town tes-
tifies: "Of the Armenian people as
whole we may put an estimate that
three-fourths are gone. and this three
fourths includes the leaders in every
walk of ife-merchants, professional
men, preachers, bishops and govern
ment oflicials-I have said enough.
Our hearts are sick with the sights
and stories of abject terror and suffer
ing. The determination of the race
seems TO be the objective, and the
means employed are more fiendish
than could be concocted locally. The
orders are from headquarters, and any
reprieve must be from the same
source"
No reprieve from that source ever
came. Not until the allied armies on
the western front put n quietus on the
Potsdam gang could there be any re-
prieve for this pitiful people. Not un-
til the 'Unspeakable Turk" defeated
by the British under Allenby, has
finally been sequestered in strict
bounds can Armenians be safe. We
have had no part in the horror of put
ting the Turk where he belongs. We
can at least come to the aid of his
pitiful victims and help to restore
them to some small share In the free
dom of life.