The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-12-27

: mainly. They were nor. They wer.
city dweliers. responsible folk, SINAI
shopkeepers. professional men, traders
like ourselves. like the citizens Of any
American small town, Winding their
Town affairs. self-supporting. well-fo-do
asking only to be let alone. Their
women were 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 more
dreadful fate than the fathers and
sons had suffered. They were told
| that they were 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
to die by the way by scores and hum
dreds. Children persisted 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 were sold to any who
would buy and passed into Turkish
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, fioated out into the
middle of the stream and showed over
board.
Thousands Are Slaughtered.
The Novoye Vremya of Petrograd
contained this news: "The Turkish
atrocities in the district of Bitlis are
indescrlbable. 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:
1.-The Turks have massacred the whole |
male population in the plain of Marsh. |
Only 5000 people have succeeded in |
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
sell rio In ~ Zoo
titles: "Of the Armenian people as
whole we may put an estimate that |
are gone, and this three
fourths includes the leaders in every |
walk of life-merchants professional
men, preachers, bishops and govern
nent officials-I have said enough.
Dur hearts are sick with the sights
md stories of abject terror and suffer-
ng. The determination of the race
seems to be the objective, and the
means employed are more fiendish
han could be concocted locally. The
orders are from headquarters, and any
'eprieve must be from the same
source"
No reprieve from that source ever
anne. Not until the allied armies on
he western front put quietus on the
'otsdam gang could there be any re-
rieve for this pitiful people. Not I'M
IL the "Unspeakable Turk" defeated
y the British under Allenby, has
nally been sequestered in strict
ounds can Armenians be safe. We
ave had no part in the horror of put
ing the Turk where he belongs. We
an at least come to the aid of his
itiful victims and help to restore
hem to some small share in the free
ON of life.