The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-24

CaDleSTalnS OH OCIOp6I IOiN briefly of tile escape of General liar bord and his associates of the United States mission to Armenia when they were attacked by banus of Turkish nomads in the desert and mountain regions of Armenian Turkey. Walter S. Hiatt of the Associated Press, was a member of the Harbord par ty, and has EescrIoed the 4nrident in the following graphic despatch just received by mail from EriVan, capital of the Armenian republic.
 Erivan, Capital Armenian Repub- lic Oct 20. (By a staff correspon- dent of the Associated Press.)-The attack on and detention overnight of the Harbord Mission to Armenia by bands of kurds, Tartars and Turks is illustrative of the laWless conditions existing throughout the Black Sea countries.
 While fraught with extreme dan ger, the members of the party were neither robbed, stripped of their clothes and turned adrift to make the best of their way to some friendly city, or even killed as happens to other caravans, because of the magic name of America.
  Cheftain of the nomad band en- trenched against the Armenians at the village of Kulp, which saved the lesser members of the mission from the customary fate of captured car avans.
 Shamil Beg came to the knowledge of the, mission members after this fashion. For three weeks they had been travelling from Constantinople, intent on really seeing the lands of Asia Minor as these lands have pro- bably not yet been seen by outsiders. They had come up from the dusty Aleppo by train across the northern strip of the shimmering Mesopota- milan Desert, until reaching Mardin, the magnificent stone city set upon a mountain. There the seven auto mobiles of the party had been taken off the flat cars of the Bagdad rail way and after countless adventures with impossible roads, bridging the unbridged Euphrates and Tigris, clire ping and descending the Taurus range of mountains which gradually clin1) to the plateaus of Ararat, the party crossed the Turkish frontier into Russian Asia Minor, CT Armenia as is now called parts of the coun- try.
 
 the almost dry bed of the Araxes, General Harbord's car was stopped by a humble patriarch offering mel ons carried by his son and the lat ter's strangely beautiful little girl, dressed in a bundle of rags. Then the missions forward machines met a wild old man oh horseback, who talked volubly, possibly to disguise his spy character.
 Following the lonely valley, while Billy" Poland, of the Commission for Belgian Relief d:scoursed on It's mineral richness, next the mission rolled around a gigantic bend of the road to behold the river bottom GOV cred with cattle and tents of some nomad tribe. Then Major H. w Clark, of Boston, deciarer~ se heard shots from the mountain side to the right. At the same time General liar bord's car was seen to stop, and the truck in the rear began to hasten it's speed.
 The Harbord car had been stopped by a much alarmed rif1eman drop ping to his knees and starting to fire pointblank. The riflenen's gun was showed aside by a greybear.. cneftain when he saw the American flag borne on the car. Directly the whole bottom was swarming with a motley throng of tribesmen dressed 1T sheepskin turbans, ragged white shirts overmantled by short packets of dark cloth, armed with Ions squirrel rifles and curiously carved knives or short swords. In the back. ground stood their women, all in z group.
 General ,Harbord left his machin, and walked over to the cheftain, ar x,11
 ly gave his name as Abdi Beg When he learned the party was com posed of Americans he e~told a stor, of having driven together with hi band from their mountain homes b, t1e Armenians, saying that now the, knew not what to do; that winte was coming on and he feared the, vonld starve. He appealed in vain he said, to the British and Turks and if he thought the American would come to establish peace h would sacrifice the sheep of hi tribe in a grand feat of rejofcine He gladly offered to let pass the req automobiles and took a note whicl he said he would deliver when the came.
 After a warm leave taking the a,u ton,obiles proceeded to higher groun and wider valley, when the gIisten Ing snows of Ararat came suddenl in full sight The party had come O; Sattath, the first day cs the week near the place of fabled flood wher the human race had been preserve by Noah's Ark landing until tn water cleared.
 Next the saddened ruins of KuI Were reached. As the party swun through the picturesque spot, sho, halt was made to speak to a startle hoard of Moslen1s, throngfng wit their rifles about the machines. whil hundreds of their women and chi dren sprang up in the rear, starin curfously. They told a brief story ( having no bread, of being hunted h the Armenians. Of having had thei homes destroyed and of having des troyed the Armenian village of Kul in retaliation
 The two forward machines. tn first carrying Generals Harbord an Mosely went twenty miles furthe climbing out upon the bare. home less brown plains above which Arg rat now shone in sunset splendo the creeping shadows of come