The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-05-23
now The TURKS
ATTEMPTED TO
MURDER. A NATION
Former English Ambassador to Amor
lea Relates How the Attempt
Was Made.


ever appealed to this county-bal
none" Is the way q county leader de
fined the appeal for funds for the Am
erican Committee In the Near East
which Is assisting the starving Chris
tians in Eastern Europe and Western
Asia who have been starved, exiled
and prosecuted by the Turks, to live
and to regain q foothold In the coun
tries to which they are being restored
The red trail of war has left almost
100000 half starved. nearly naked
refugees in Armenia alone according
to Former Ambassador to Turkey
Henry Morgenthau, who describes the
prosecutions OF this people by the
Turk as a cool, deliberated and but
for the wars quick end. brought about
by the Intervention Of America, a sue.
cessful. attempt at 1.-The murder Of a
nation"
Viscount Bryce, the eminent English
historian and diplomat who is noted
for his history of THE American
Commonwealth" like Ambassador Nor.
genthau. made searching inquiry into
the prosecutions. He says:
Armenians Suffered Greatly.
1T is easier of course for the people
to sympathise with Belgium than with
a more unfamiliar nation in distant
zone of the war 1t needs little imagi.
nation to realize acutely that the Bel
gians are people like ourselves" sui
fering all that we should suffer If the
same atrocities were committed IN
US; and this realization was made
doubly easy by the publication OF min
ute, abundant, first-hand testimony
The Armenians have no such inn
mediate. access to our synp2thies, and
the initial unfamiliarity can only be
overcome by personal effort on the
part Of those who give ear to their
case; but the evidence on which that
case rests has been steadily accumul.
ating, for Armenia has not been with
out witness in her suffering" Most
witnesses were Americans and Euro
peans, some Of those who testified to
Turkish cruelities being German sub.
jects.
Thousands Were Massacred.
There is no dispute as to what hap
pened in 1915. The Armenian inhabi-
tants Of the Ottoman empire were ev-
erywhere uprooted from their homes.
and deported to the most remote and
unhealthy districts that the Govern
ment could select for them Some
were murdered at the outset, some
persisted on the way, and some died
after reaching their destination. The
death toll amounted to upwards of
100000, in 1916-but this has greatly
increased, and Is increasing rapidly.
For the Turks continued their mas.
sacres and prosecutions up till the end
of the war, and combined with their
efforts were terrible, terrible plaques
and wholesale starvation.
For the women" says Lord Bryce,
there was an alternative to deporta-
ton. They might escape it by CONVEX
sion to Islam; but conversion for the
Armenian woman meant something
more physical than a change of theol
ogy. II could only be ratified by i'm.
mediate marriage to Moslem man,
and II the woman were already a wife
Tor, rather widow, for by this time
few Armenian husbands remained
nlive) she must part with any children
she had, and surrender them to be
brought up as true Moslems in Gov.
eminent Orphanage, "a fate OF uncer-
tain meaning, for no such institutions
were known to be in existence. II the
convert could find no Turk to take her,
or shrank from the embraces of the
bridegroom who offered himself, then
she and the children must be deported
with the rest, however fervently she
had professed the creed of Islam. De-
portation was the alternative adopted,
" imposed upon, the great majority"
The Salvation Army Home Service