The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-02-10
TURKS VICTIMS
AD0RN HIGHWAY
American Envoy Says Consul
Counted Bodies Of 500
Women in Hour.
THOUSANDS OF BONES
Little Children Drop Down
in Street Exhausted by
Search for Bread.

San Francisco. GAIA Turkey that
is one-third Turks. Turkey with an
Arab population Of hundreds Of thou
sands who have a kingdom Of their
own and rejoice in every British VIC
tory in the Ottoman empire; a Turkey
driven by despair tn the depths of cru
city: a. Turkey that Germany won by
approving the breach of Turkeys trea-
ties.
American ambassador to the court of
the sultan, pictured recently in adj
dresses at the chamber of commerce
and the Palace hotel.
Elkus told the story Of a nation that
drove to death hundreds of thousands
of men and women and children and
uprooted whole villages, forcing the
Inhabitants to march across the desert
10 their own exile.
Thousands Of Bones.
1.-THE roads Of Asiatic Turkey are
lined with the whitened bones Of hum
dreds Of thousands OF human beings
that fell by the wayside and were
slaughtered or left to die by the
Turks" he said. mo one knows how
many there were. Some say 100000
have died and some say 100000 have
been the victims Of the Turks"
Tales of cruelty and violation he
. described as too horrible to relate were
skipped over by the ambassador. He
told of an American consul who
counted within one hour the bodies Of
500 women who had been bayoneted by
the Turks, and it was enough for his
audience.
But there remain many hundred
thousands Of persons, mostly old men
and women and young children whose
parents have been killed." he said. "and
they must perish unless America and
Americans come to their aid. They
have no country, they have no people,
and they must look to u.s."
America Feeds Starving.
At the outbreak of the war the allies
placed their affairs in the hands Of
the American ambassador in Constan-
tinople, and Elkus told of the relief
work that was forced on his staff.
America was endeavoring to feed
great numbers of persons that were on
the verge of and actually were starv-
ing" he said. 1--WE received money
from America and we used some of it
to establish kitchens to furnish soup.
1t was one of the saddest sights one
could see to observe long lines of
women and children waiting patiently
hour after hour to get just enough food
to keep body and soul together for
another day.
1.-THE streets of Constantinople were
lined with people who remained on the
streets often until late at night, beg
ging every passerby for bread. Every
scrap and crust was kept at the en-
bassy and the women used to put them
in a bag and give them to these chill
dren."
Children Drop in Streets.
Little children, he said, used to drop
exhausted on the streets, worn out by
their search for bread. They found
them in the morning; some Of them
were dead. One little fellow had eaten
nothing for so long he could take only
LIQUID nourishment. He knew it, but
he begged his nurse for bread.
Il want to put it under my pillow.
he said, 80 that when I am we'll and
my throat is strong / will be sure to
have some bread"
Elkus described the mixed compost
ton of the Turkish empire, of its Ar
menian Christians, Its Syrian Chris
tians, its Jews-all given special rights
before the war. Turkey always recog-
nized the independent powers Of these
religious bodies, he said. Foreigners
were protected by treaties.
"Out the outbreak of the war" E1kus