The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-24

thirty million dollars from the peo- pie of the United States. Upwards of 4.000,0oO peope including 100000 orphans are in dire distress. The generosity of our people is the only barrier between these victims and death by starvation
 You will kindly read the procla nation to your people and urge them to contribute to the campaign with their wonted Hberalfty."
 "we cannot let these people perish and by so doing complete the brutal work the Huns and the Turks set out to do we must save thenl-but in sav- ing them we will be saving not sim ply these peoples but the whole Near East.
 Tn other words I am very desir- ous that our appeal shall be put on this high level and the people lifted up above the mere appeal for charity to which they have been accustomed.
 T am not overstating it when I say that liberal financial support of the American committees program is constructive craftsmanship of the highest order.
 Yours fraternaIly.
 M. ". Jacobus
 State Chairman"
 Editors-You are urged to reprint the following editorial from the New York Journal of Comerce of Feb. 19:
 (JournaI of Commerce)
 But when the Turk has been finally driven out of Europe there will arise once more the eternal question of the possession of Asia Minor, over which a European war would almost inev- itably have come had an earlier pre- text not been supplied by the Balkan inlbroglio. Here. then. are three Ques- tions closely interlocked, without whose satisfactory adjustment there can he no lasting peace-the future Of Russia, the guardianship of the Straits and the division of Asia Minor. It is a highly significant fact that there is a growing disposition in Europe to regard the satisfa ctory set tlement of all three questions as be- ing dependent on the action of the United States.
 From an influential body of Brit ish opinion there comes arguments like these. The traditional claims of the Russian autocracy to the posses sion of ConstantinopIe and the Straits which Great Britain and r. ance were fain to admit In the early stages of the war have Iapsed with the dissolution of the Russian Elm pire, and the great American Re public, having abandoned its policy of isolation to join in the life and death struggle for right Against might, will assuredly he called upon to take her share in the common task of securing the maintenance of the worlds peace and the furtherance of the worlds progress and liberty for which she came into the war If there is one part of that common task which America is eminently quail 1 fed to discharge by her a1oofness from all the political entanglements l of tho pre-war past. 1t is by under | taking to act as the trusted custodian l the Straits. So also as to Asia | Minor. the argument runs that for l exactly the same reasons that render i the United States the custodian of 1 the Dardanel1es, her task in preserv- l ing the autonomy of Armenia Arabia and Persia would be easier l than if it were to rest in British i hands. The fact is not to be denied that Robart College and the Amerf- 1 can missions in the Near East have 1 given this country preponderatine share of public spirited men with a first hand knowledge of those regions | and as steward of the Near East we l could certainly render services to Russia of fnca1culab1e value.