The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-12-27
AND TEUTON
Ambassador Morgenthau's Story of Great War Plots
BY HENRY MORGENTHAU.

fA"ANh - W AAAhAN = ~ - 49,
hammedan desert tribes, The real pur-
pose of the deportation was robbery and
massacre. When the Turkish authori-
ties gave the orders Of these deporta-
tons. they were merely, giving the
death warrant to a whole race, they
understood this well, and in their con-
versations with me they made no par
ticular attempt to conceal the fact.
All through the spring and summer
of 1915 the deportatiOns toow place. or
the larger cities, C~onstantinople, Smyr-
ma and Aleppo were spared; practically
all other places where a single Ar
menian family lived now became the
scenes of these ~unspeakable tragedies.
Scarcely a single Armenian, whatever
his education or wealth, or whatever
the social class to which he belonged,
was exempted from the order. In some
villages placards were posted ordering
the whole Armenian population to pre-
sen itself in a public place at an APP
pointed time-usually a day or two
ahead. and in other places the town
crier would go through the streets de-
liveTing the order voCally. In stu 9TH
ers not the slightest warning was CIV
en-. The gendarmes would appear be-
fore an Armenian house and order all
the inmates to follow them, They
would take ONE engaged in their
domestic tasks without giving them a
chance to change their clothes. The
police fell upon them just as the erup-
ton of Vesuvius fell upon Pompeii;
women were taken from the washtubs,
children were snatched out of bed, the
bread was left half baked in the oven,
the family meal was abandoned partly
eaten, the children were taken from
the schoolroom, leaving their books
| open at the daily task and the men
were forced to abandon their plows in
the fields and their cattle on the noun
ain side. Even women who had just
y .{vrz,, LG,AI - -I;ll.a, vf.Y,ll 10 fDrnal
to leave their beds and Join the panic
stricken throng. their sleeping babies
in their arms. Such things as they
huTriedly snatChed up-a shawl, a blan-
ket, perhaps a few scraps of food-was
all that they could take of their house
tions, Where are we going?" the gen.
darmes would vouchsafe only one re-
ply: ITO the interior"
In some cases the refugees were Civ
en- a few hours, in exceptional instances
a few days, to dispose of their prop
erty and household effects. But the
proceeding. Of course, amounted sim
ply to robbery. They could sell only
to Turks, and since both buyers and
sellers knew that they had only a day
or two to market the accommodations of
a lifetime, the prices obtained repre-
sented a small fraction of their, value.
Sewing machines would bring one or
two dollars-a COW would go for a dol
Law, a houseful of furniture would be
sold for a p~ittance, In many cases
Armenians were prohibited from sell
ing or Turks from buying even at
these ridiculous prices; under pretense
that the government intended to sell
their effects to pay the creditors whom
they would inevitably leave behind,
their household furniture would be
placed in stores or heaped up in pub
lie places. where it was usually pill
LACED by Turkish men and women The
government officials would also inform
the Armenians that. since their de,
portation was only temporary, the in
tention being to bring, them back after
the war was over, they would not be
permitted to sell their houses. Scarcely
had the former possessors left the vii
lage when Mohammedan Mohadjirs-
immigrants from other parts of Turkey
would be moved into the Armenian
quarters. Similarly all their valuables
money, rings, watches and jewelry-
would be taken to their police stations
for safe keeping" pending their re-
turn, n then parceled out among the
Turks, Yet these robberies gave the
refugees little anguish, for far more
terrible and agonizing scenes We're TAX
ing place under their eyes. The sys'
tematic determination of the men con
tinued, such males as the persecution:
which / have already described had left
were now violently dealt with. Before
the caravans were started, it became
the regular practice to separate thu
young men from the families, tie then
together in groups of four. lead then
to the outskirts and shoot them. PubliC
hangings without trial-the only offens,
being that the victims were Armeniani
were taking place constantly. TIL,
gendarmes showed a particular desir,
to annihilate the educated and the in
fluential. From American consuls ant
missionaries | was constantly receiving
reports of such executions and many o
the events which they described will
never fade from my memory. At An
CORA all Armenian men from IS to Z
were arrested, bound together in group
OF -four and sent on the road in tn,
:, direction Of Caesaria. When they ha,
travelled five or six hours and hat
reached a secluded valley, a mob o
Turkish peasants fell upon them witt
clubs, hammers, axes. scythes, spade
| and saws, Such instruments not onl
caused more agonizing deaths tina
! guns and pistols, but, as the Turk
( themselves boasted, they were NOR
I economical, since they did not involv
t the waste Of powder and shell. In thi
3 way they exterminated the whole NAL
t population Of Angora. including all it
4 men of wealth and breeding, and thei
4 -------
ITO ha continued