The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-12-28
MACHINE 44gMgl THE NEWS SCIMITAR C3z4z H21E HELPS
AND TEUTON
Ambassador Morgenthau's Story of Great War Plots
~. upNpv NORcENTuAU

lNlE Nlili AAltAl ol'NAiNA - |
! Of dead and unburieG bodies, OF old
men and women dying IN the last
stages Of typhus, dySentery and Cho!-
era, of little children lying on thelr
backs and setting up their last plteouS
walls for food and water. There were
women who held up their babies 10
strangers, begging them 10 take them
and save them from their tormentors,
and failing this they would throw them
into wells or leave them behind bushes, |
that at least they might die undis-
turbed. Behind was left a small army
of girls who had been sold as slaves
frequently for a med1idie, or about ~
cents-and who, after serving the bru-
tai purposes of their purchasers, were
forced to lead lives of prostitution. A
string Of enCampments, filled by the
sick and dying. mingled with the un-
buried or half buried bodies OF the dead
marked the course OF the advancing
throngs. FloCks Of YultureS followed
them in the air and raVenous dogs. |
fighting one another for the bodies OF
the dead, constantly pursued them Inc
most terrible scenes took place al the
rivers, especially the Euphrates. Some
times when crossing this stream, the
gendarmes would push the women INTO
the water, shooting all who attempted
to save themselves by swimming. Ere
quently the women themselves would
save their honor by jumping into the
river, their children In their arms. In
the last week in june l quote, from
a consular report. several parties OF
Erzeroum Armenians were deported on
successive days and most of them mas
sacred on the way, either by shooting
or drowning. One, Madame Zarouhi,
an elderly lady Of means, who was
thrown into the Euphrates, saved her
self by Clinging to a boulder in the
river. She succeeded in approaching
the bank and returned to Erzeroum to
hide herself in a Turkish friends house
She told Prince Argoutinsky, the rep
resentative of the 'All-Russian Urban
Union in Erzeroum. that she shu9-
dered to recall how hundreds OF child
rem were %bayoneted by the Turks and
thrown into the Euphrates, and how
men and women were stripped naked;
tied together in hundreds, shot and
then hurled into the river. In a loop
OF the river near E%rzinhan, she salu
the thousands OF dead bodies created
such a barrage that the EuphrateS
changed its course for about a hundred
yards"
ment to assert that it ever seriously IN
tended to 'deport the Amenians to new
homes" the treatment which was gwen
to conveys clearly shows that exterml-
nation was the real purpose OF EhVer
and Talaat. How many eXiled 70 the
south under these revolving condltions
+ ever reached their destinations? me
experiences of a single caravan snow
, how completely this plan of deportation
, developed into one OF annihilation.. The
details in question were furnlshed me
directly by the American consul AT
/ Aleppo, and are now on file in the state
! department at Washington. on the
a first of JUNE a convoy of 5000 Armen-
. Iians, mostly women, girls children,
. left Harpoot. Following the usual GUS
: tom the government provided them an
! escort of 70 gendarmes, under the com
= mand Of d Turkish leader, a Bey. In
, accordance with the common expert
/ euce these gendarmes proved to be not
= their protectors, but their tormentors
A and their executioners. Hardly had they
- got well started on the road when . t.
. Bev took 400 Iiras from the caravan,
= on the plea that he was keeping 1t safe
lly until their arrival at Malatia; no
sooner had he robbed them Of the only
. thing that might have provided them
+ with food than he ran away, leaving
! them to the tender mercies of the gen.
u All the way to Ras-ul-Ain, the first
g station on the Bagdad line, the exist
~ ence of these wretched travellers was
one prolonged horror, The gendarmes
went ahead, informing the half-savage
tribes of the mountains that severa
thousand Armenian women and girls
y were approaching. The Arabs and
~, Kurds began to carry off the girls, the
< mountaineers fell upon them repeatedly
violating and killing the women, anC
the gendarmes themselves Joined in the
~ orgy One by one the few men who
- accompanied the convoy. were killed
II The women had succeeded in secretiint
70 money from their prosecutors, keepint
w. 10 It in their mouths and hair; with tins
Z, they would buy horses, only to haVt
y, !, them repeatedly stolen by the KURDISH
w tribesmen. Finally the gendarmes, haV
20 ing robbed and beaten and violated am
- killed their charges for IL days, aoan
III i. doned them altogether. Two days ar
III terward the Kurds went through tn
" party and rounded up all the males VIII
a. still remained alive. They found aoou
80 $50, their ages varying from 10 to 3
i5 years, and these they promptly too
:" away and butchered to the last mar
But the same day another convoy fror
'es Sivas Joined this one from Harpoot, In
10 creasing the numbers of the Whol
caravan to 5000 people.
" Another Kurdish hey now took com
to mand, and to him, as to all men piaGe
a5 was regarded merely as one for ,pil!ag!t
i ~ outrage and murder. This chiettal
~ summoned all his followers from tn
~ mountains and invited them to wor
ell tleir complete will upon this grea1 mas
l ~, after night the prettiest girls were car
lnSd ried away; sometimes they returned. /
Gu a pitiable condition that told the III
~ story of their sufferings. ANY, strae
,lv glers, those who were so old ana mir
ny and sick that they could not keep y
II. with the m%archers, were prompt
ssy killed. Whenever they reached a Turl
n ni ish village all the local vagabonds WEI
Oh permitted to prey upon the Armenia
rms girls. When the diminishing ban
~, us reached the Euphrates they saw tt
US bodies Of 200 men floating upon the SUI
IT. face. BY this time they had all been 5
I'm repeatedly robbed that they had pract
ne cally nothing left except a few ragge
on clothes, and even these the kurds no
took. the consequence being that Il
up whole convoy marched for five da,
ar completely naked under the scorchir
az desert sun. For another five days tn
ts did not have a morsel of bread or
Inc u drop Of water. Hundreds fell dead
lne the way" the report reads, the
or tongues were turned to charcoal, al
when, at the end Of five days, thu
we reached a fountain, the whole conv'