The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-04-18
APPEAL IS MADE FOR THE sss
 LITTLE CHILDREN OF LEBANON

Solomen's beautiful temple in Je- eusalem was called the house of the forest of Lebanon, because 1t was built of the famous "cedars of Le- banon" sent him by the king of Tyre to whom they belonged. Jerusalem was then at the height of its glory and IsraeTs sister Kingdom. Tyre, also at the zenith of its prosperity-rich with a multitude of all kinds of riches
 Nearly one half of the total popu- lation of 127 villages ds dead. Of the remaining e4,972 residents of these villages 2s,1S1 are in absolute need of help. The total number of orphans needing help is S,642." This is the official report of the American Com mission.
 It is @ great orphange among these mountains, The Moslems. strange to say, started this orphange in the building of a Christian College they had seized, They had spared only the younger children of murdered SyrlRns and deported Armenians, given them shelter, one coarse gar Tnent each and just enough food to sustain dfe, evidently intending to rear. them as Mohammedans. But at the coming of General Allenby and Ll19 Lne IISus
 The orphenge was at once taken over by American Relief workers, and 1s supported by the American Com In!ttee for Relief in the Near East. And now after years of being always hungry, after nearly starving to death, these children have all they can eat. They are clean, they have tops and rag dolls to play with, they have work Ito do and lessons to learn and are so Ihappy this Easter of 1919 after all they have suffered. But they are only s644 out of the more than six thousand dn the Lebanon district alone who are ehomeless and hungry,
 'sRy The Waters of Babylon"
 By the waters of Babylon the cap 'tive Jewish exile sat them down and ywept' when Raylonia was a great power subjugating all the little na- ftlons of Western Asia. By the waters tof Babylon Armenian extles whose fate has been far more tragic and horrible than that of the Israelites of the Captivity have sat them down in a misery too great for tears.
 But their oppressors have been conquered by g. new Cyrus the Great and modern Ezras have arisen to re- store them to their distant homes. Refugee camps have been established
 
 lover which these destitute wanderers tramp wearIly back towards their northern villages Here they rest a day, are fed and bathed and disin- ifected and the sick cared for.
 Outside the city of Bagdad not fay from ancient Babylon the Great is "a camp where the British authorities are shelterdng in tents, feeding and caring for medically 10000 destitute Srefugees, while representatives of the American Committee for Relief in the aNear East carry on an industrial re- slief work, giving employment fitted Ito hts capacity to every man physi- Ically able to work. Into an orphange tare gathereds70O children uncared for and unclaimed by anyone.
 The .Mesopotamtan Campaign will not be truly ended until these refu- agses between. the two great rivers are .repatriated and permanently rehab- Antated. Haster 1919, sees this task begun VIII Easter 1920 see it well Ion it's way to accomplishment?
 History,s Grim Pleasantly.
 When at first .Assyrian Empire was lat the height of its magntticence and sposver there was monarchy rtvalling lit in tsplendour in the north among Ithe mountains of Ararat This was kthe kingdom of the ProtO-Arm enians as Professor Sayce calls thems-the fore-rurners of the present day Ar rnenians whose ancestors conQu cred them, iutermarried with them and sGooz over their culture we'll as their cities. And of this monarchS the city of Van, stin standing and stl beautiful, was the capital.
 Not one trace of the great ARsyrda ar Kingdom or its people remains but the iArmenians, though prosecuted and oppressed for centuries are still a vital iheroic race and those who have sur vived the massacres and Appropriations ,. of the last four years believe they ars t1; build up new and free Armenia
 Multitudes of them are now herdet in the streets of Mosu1, the ancten GVineveh. just across the river from 1t excllEated ruins. They are on theil >/ way home though sick. weak, starvinf so that many will die by the roadside before reaching the goal of thei1