The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-01-11
BY JOHN M. OFT


Flooding across burning sands, Ever
thirsty. Lips parched. Throat dry.
Growing weaker with every step. Moth
ers are forced to lay their babies at
the side of the sandy, blood-marF ed
trail, bordered with skeletons and
dying humans, because they have no
nourishment in their breasts for thelg
offspring. Every shrub uprooted and
chewed until the last drop of moisture
is gone Nothing to eat. Nothing to
drink
Marching across desert, feet worn
to the bone, drops of blood are the
footprints in these sands of de-ola-
ton. Whitening bones of millions of
massacred men, women and children
strew the plains of Asia Minor from
the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf, In a
single days travel it is possible to see
the mutilated corpses of more than s.
600 women, outraged by the Turkish
army, their children wandering to-
wards what once was their home,
guided only by instinct such as an an
final shows when carried away.
Thousands of living babies have been
hurled into the rushing tides of the
Euphrates, Tigris and other rivers by
mothers who wanted them not to suf-
fer the agony Of slow death, From one
town $4,000 persons were deported.
Not permitted to take even crust of
bread. Allowed to carry only the
clothes they wore. Deported, driven
for endless miles over mountains,
numbed by biting winds; over plains
made barren by barbaric war; across
deserts of parching heat. Passing hur-
riedly from one extreme of climate to
another, driven by mounted guards,
ex-convicts, criminals and ruffians of
the lowest order.
After 81 days of wandering 1876 OF
the $4,000 were living. They staggered
into a town hundreds of miles from
where they started. Shuddering skele-
tons, covered only with rags of the
raiments that covered them at the
start, half blind from starvation and
heat, half dead Of their suffering.
This Is only one of hundreds OF
towns and villages similarly treated
by the Turkish armies. Horrors of the
underlings Of the Sultan Of Turkey
commanded by German officers. II
this was the end of the story appeal
would be useless and the work OF the
American Committee for Relief in the
Near East would not be needed But
with the end OF the war and the cessa
ton of hostilities these abused peo'
pies naturally attempted to return to
their homes. They had nothing where
they were When they started on the
return journey more of them died
However, hundreds of thousands man
aged to withstand the terrible ordeal
and reached what once were their
homes, only to find heaps of ruins.
Children lost their parents. Parents
who had not lost their babies could not
care for themselves They could not
be expected to feed others when they
had nothing with which to regale
themselves 1t Is to save these helpless
almost hopeless, pretty babies OF the
Western Asiatic countries that Inc
American Committee for RELIEF In the
Near East was formed from the Amer
ican Committee for Armenian and Sy
rian Relief. The Red Cross was mol
organized In these countries to succoi
these people. That organization gave
the American Committee for Relief in
the Near East money with which the
relief work was begun. No more could
be spared from that body's treasury
Therefore the committee decided 70
ask the people Of the United States FOL
sac. 900. 900 and the State OF Tennessee
vas allotted one per cent Of this tc
raise lust 5000, 600 Every hour tnal
the money is delayed, several hundreo
innocent babies reach up their arms
for crust Of bread, receive 1t not, ano
with cry Of despair, perish.