River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1920-12-30
ARM ENIANS NEED
ALL WE CAN GIVE

One of the most telling stories of
the treacheries of the Turks towards
the Armenians, was told IN the story
of DR.. Isaac Yonan, an Assyrian, who
spoke at the state confer ence of the
Near East Relief, in Milwaukee, re-
Gently.
DR.. Yonan is an Assyrian and has
come to this country to interest
Americans in the cause of the AS
syrians ans Armenians. In his plea
for help, he said:
"For the last twenty-five years l
have been a professor in the only col
lege in Persia. / have taught hun
dreds and hundreds of young men,
who, when the World war was on,
were needed as interpreters to the
British. The other day in Chicago
met number of them. Some had
been in this country for fifteen years,
but they could not speak word of
English. Over there we know your
language, your history; we are Amer
leans though on foreign soil. have
lived in that world of turmoil with my
father, with my people and / fought
in the war. My little boys, with me,
have seen starvation and the horrors
of war. have seen men sawed
asunder and l have seen women led
captive; / have seen husbands kill
their wives at the critical moment
when the Turk was ready to snatch
her to him. l have been in terrible
flights where mother, with bloodshot
eyes filled with horror and fear, has
taken their children-one on her back,
and carrying another, was fleeing to
save them and herself. II you had been
in those sieges as have, you would not
leave the city of Milwaukee till you
had done what you could to save 10,s
600 children.
II feel that the Armenians have two
just claims upon you. One, as repre-
sentatives of those Christian races
which were killed and crucified, tor
tured with hunger, many of whom
have died in the front line trenches of
Christianity. We have died for our
faith and are dying today. For 600
years the terrible Turk has been our
master. His program has been to
annihilate and exterminate us. He
has killed us, is killing us now, but
he can never kill our faith. He can
take babe by the hairs of it's head
and decapitate him with his Damascus
dagger, with smile.
when this war began, we gave our
selves to the allies. They made ex-
travagant promises to us. We refused
an offer of the Turks and Germans,
believing that the time had come when
we would be free of the Turk and that
we would put ourselves with the allies
and make the supreme sacrifice to get
liberty. We did our part. We did so
per cent more than the British and
80 per cent more than the French.
We gave 100000 young men out of
100000 people to fight the battles of
the allies. These young men never
surrendered and they never retreated.
1--WE organized our armies, and IA
year-old boys enlisted. Ny own boy
was one of them. We had $4,000 rifles
and little ammunition. We fought
one against twenty, defending our
homes. our daughters and the cause
of the allies. After six weeks we
never heard from the allies, and after
six months we never heard from them.
In the seventh month Of the siege, one
morning, we saw a British airplane
coming. What joy, we all thought!
1t was Capt. Pennington, from Mesopo-
tamia. and he was with us twelve
hours. He told us he was very sorry,
but that the British could not come
to our rescue. We watched him mount
higher and higher in his airplane the
next morning. and with the disappear
ance of that airplane, our last hope
fed.
Then we determined to attempt a
fight. At midnight on July 20, 1918,
we attempted flight. Eighty thou
sand people marched away, carrying
their children upon their backs to save
them from slaughter. The Turks pur-
sued and captured more than 10000
the first day. For seven days we
marched without rest or sleep. Ny
God, what my eyes saw those days
and what my ears heard! Our Amer
lean vice-consul and missionary, DIR.
w. A. Shedd, an American, our inspira-
ton, after seven days march collapsed
and in % hours died from an attack
of cholera. He was the only one that
was buried. And what a burial! A
hole dug, and his body put in it, only
to be drgged out later by dogs, and
eaten.
Can you imagine that out of 3,000,-
900 people in Turkey and Persia, not
one has home? There is not house
standing, not village, not a church,
not school. When we consider life,
almost two-thirds Of those nations
have been slaughtered.
: MY present faith is this: AS long
as there is an American living, my
people will not perish. / believe in
your sense OF justice. ! believe you
have a conscience. You are the most