The sun., 1919-07-13
Beating of Aged Armenian Woman
Stands Out as Example of, Turks
. Cruelty Solitary Confinement
Most Terrible of All


And he spread his hands In cheerful
resignation to fate which. except for
the prospect Of peace. would have besu
worse than death,
All the prisoners lived on hops--and
loot. When he nrst arrived they all
crowded eagerly round Capt Yeats
Brown. ciamoring for news and cigar.
cites. The news he could give than
was good; but they had been 80 often
disappointed that they undoubtedly
preferred the more tangible cigarettes.
Everything that one could not actually
hold on 10 was looted In less than no
time. Morals there were none; and,
poor devils! who could blame them.
living down there, where they got no
news, no tobacco and scarcely any
food, and where from the outside
nothing could be heard hut the cries OF
beaten men and the dull sounds Of
bastinado on flesh!
The days In tho lower part Of the
prison were terribly dull. but not so
dun as the solitary confinement TO
which Capt. Yates-Brown was trans
ferred. From the company OF those
cheerful sconndrels he was suddenly
removed to the upstairs regions and
lived in the LUXURY" of which the
Greek had spoken. There ne existed
for a month without exercise and was
allowed to speak to no one. The only
occupants Of this new room besides
himself were the little things which
crawied and hoped. These proved in
the long run to be amenabls to Keat-
ings, Of which the Princes eunuch
smuggled in q supply.
Intriguing from time to time with
the Prince and his attendant, gossip
ing furtively to the Egyptian nobility
when sentries had been brfbed into
acquiescence. and eluding the rnachi-
nations of the prison spy were his sole
distractions.
For the rest, things were desperately
Gull. Captain Yeats Brown, like others
Of US who suffered solitary confine-
ment, played for hours at time with
bit Of string and invented all sorts
OF games with matches. Thinking was
to be avoided at all costs, for too much
Of II in solitary confinement IL q dan
ger to sanity. The great difficulty.
especially at night Is to stop ones
brain from racing. In this respect the
vermin were useful for they provided
a gentle mental and physical exercise.
From my own experience at Nsza-
reth, and from the experiences of
other officers, am seriously of opinion
that solitary confinement, without
books or writing materials, is ono of
tho worst fortunes a civilized man can
be made to endure. 1t doesn't sound
so bad. but try 1t for just week,
Left alone and with nothing to dis
tract bis brain. the lonely prisoner can
do little but think and think and think
and all his thoughts are bitter. And
IL one has recently seen dreadful
sights--such as the torture Of the old
Armenian woman witnessed by Capt.
Yeats-Brown-one lives of necessity
inr a. state OF mental nightmare.
Hopes of escape or release, and of
ultimate punishment for the fiends re-
sponsible for the horrors OF the Black
Hole Of Constantinopie, were ali that
made the dreadful life worth living
Few Faced the Consequences.
Have the fiends responsible for the
torture of the Armenian woman, and
for many hundreds of similar brltali-
ties, been punished? Probably not, for
when they saw that the game was up
few Of the gang that dominated Turkey
stayed to face the consequences OF
their violence. Fnver Pasha Is hiding
somewhere in the Caucasus. Djevad
Bey has also disappeared. AS for the
loser brutes who were the actual tor
turers, acting under orders. most Of
them scurried away and donned civilian
clothes. Many. should imagine. are
now peaceful citizens OF CONSTANT
noplc, obtaining food from the allied
relief commissions.
But. in heavens name, let US see to
it, once and for all, that the Turk shall
never again be in a position to commit
such horrors.
Cunning, cruel, savage. and with no
culture OF his own, he knows no con-
troll except fear For more than a
century he has thrown dust in the
eyes OF civilized Europe. playing OFF
one country against another, and TAX
ing full advantage of whatever inter
national formula happened to be the
order Of the day. He Is totally unfit
to govern even himself. He massacres
hundreds of thousands Of his Chris
ton subjects-as in the days OF Abdul
Hamid. the Red Sultan. Faced with
the universal horror OF other nations,
he then becomes afraid, and promises
to reform, He submits to some mild
form OF international control, and for
n time he does reform-but only be-
cause the alternative is national en-
tinction. Then, when he thinks he
can throw Off all international control
he breaks out with redoubled violence;
as happened during the war. when the
enlightened Committee Of Union and
Progress" ordered the Massacre Of
nearly a million Armenians. and in
stigated the tortures OF the Black
Hole OF Constantinople-tortu
which were duplicated in every jail
all over Turkey.
Even now the present Sultan and his
advisers are playing the old, old game
OF throwing dust In the eyes Of West
erners, They are the sheep. they
claim, while the wicked Young Turks
politicians are the goats-just as in
1908 the Young Turks were the sheep
and Abdul Hands party the goats.
Inspired by fear. they are even hang
ing and imprisoning members OF the
regime that ended with the armistice,
as a sop to the worldwide demand for
justice.
Secure In the fact that Washing
tnn iG thonaapa p,lins alsk.-s