New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-12-20
ALLIES should Send
FORCE into TURKEY
YiSCOunt Bryce Wants to See
Order Maintained There by Arms

London. Nov. 81, Correspondence
of the Associated Press. I'm the
opinion of Viscount James Bryce,
former ambassador to the United
States, 'it is extremely desirable that
every effort should be made to send
in a sufficient Allied force to occupy
what was Turkish Armenia and re-
establish some sort of order there"
This view is expressed in COM
munication to the Manchester Guar
dian, coupled with a regret that the
conditions of the Turkish armistice
failed to provide fOr the immediate
occupation by the Allies of the six
Armenian vilagets and also of Cilicia
(modern province of Adana on the
Mediterranean.) Lord Bryce said,
however:
Il cannot think that this omission
was due to any doubt IT'S to the neces-
sity, and indeed the solemn duty, of
delivering all tho Armenian districts
utterly and forever from any vestige
of Turkish rule" The British gov
eminent, he continues, has pledged
itself $50 frequently and clearly to
this deliverance and, as we under
stand, both President Wilson and the
French government have expressed
such a policy, that we cannot doubt
the honest purpose of the govern
ment."
ut need hardly be said,'' the
statement goes on, that to leave the
Eastern Christians of Armenia and
Syria under Turkish rule would ex-
cite the warmest indignation all over
the country, and if possible still
warmer Indignation in the United
States, where the interest In Armenia
has been extremely great and has
been evinced by the enormous contri-
buttons which have been made to the
relief of the Arme nian refugees.
Can anybody in this country be
found who thinks that after the three
hideous massacres which the Turks
have perpetrated in Armenia since
1895, eliminating in the worst mas
sacre of all in 1915, when 100000
Christians persisted, it would be pos
sible, for any Christian power. or in
deed any power of human feeling, to
leave the Turk free to begin oppres-
sions afresh, or to fail to show by
turning the Turk out Of the country
the anger and horror which his
crue1ties have excited? I need hardly
add that the presence of Turkish
rule in these regions with their great
strategical Importance, would be
material to Germany, If ever she saw
her chance, in realizing her schemes
for pushing her influence towards
Persia and Central Asia.
lone fails to see any reason why
the Turks, being absolutely at the
mercy of the Allies, and having COM
mitted, with the tacit approval of
~
that has been committed in the whole
course of the war, should not have
been compelled to an absolutely I'M
conditional surrender. Why should
any favorable conditions have been
granted to them who have shown
that, whether under Abdul Hamid OF
under ruffians like Enver and Talaat,
they are capable Of the most revolt
ing crimes"'
Lord Bryce points out that the de-
mobilization of the Turkish army will
let loose a large number of armed
men accustomed to acts of violence
WHO will scatter over the country and
for whom the Turkish government will
not attempt to provide.
Another thing to consider, he says,
is that Allied forces, if on the spot.
could rescue many of the Christian
women seized by the Turks and car
lied off to be sold into slavery or to
become inmates of Turkish harems
They might rescue too, he thinks,
numbers of the boys that were seized,
given to devishes and carried off to
be brought up as Mussulmans.
Furthermor one should remem-
her, he says, the great numbers of
refugees that fed across the Russian
frontier from the Nothern Armenian
provinces, and who have not ventured
to return owing to the fear of en-
countering rowing bands of demobi-
lized Turkish soldiers. Only the pre-