The weekly Alaska citizen., 1920-01-19

Harbord and his associates of the United States mission to Armenia when they were attacked by bands of Turkish normads in the desert and mountain regions of Armenian Turkey Walter S Hiatt ol The Associated Press. was member of the Harbojd party. and has described the incident in the following graphic despatch just received by mail from Eriyan, capital of the Aremnan re- public
 ERIVAN. Capital Armenian Repub- lic.-(P)- The attack on and deten- ton overnight of the Harbord Mission 10 Armenia by bands ot Kurds, Tar tars and Turks is illustrative of the lawless conditions existing thruout the Black Sea countries.
 While fraught with extreme danger. the members of the party were neith- CT robbed. stripped Of their clothes and turned adrift to make the best of their way to some friendly city, or even killed as happens to other caravans. because of the magic name of America.
 It was the mind of Shamil Beg, chieftain of the nomad band entrench- ed against the Armenians at The yil- lage of Kulp. which saved the lesser members of the mission from the customary fate of captured caravans.
 Shamil Begs came to the knowledge of the mission members after this fashion For three weeks they had been travelling from Constantinople intent on really seeing the lands of Asia Minor as these lands have prob- ably not yet been seen by outsiders. train across the north strip of the shimmering Mesopotamian desert until reaching Mardin. the magnid- cient stone city set upon a mountain There the seven automobiles of the party had been taken off the dat cars of the Bagdad railway and after countless adventures with impossible roads, bridging the unabridged Eu- pirates and the TigriS climbing thrice their height to the plateaus of Ararat, the party crossed the Turk ish frontier into Russian Asia Minor or Armenia as is now called parts of inc country,
 A few miles out of Kaeizman in the almost dry bed of the Araxes, General Harbord'S car was stopped by d humble patriarch offering melons carried by his son and the latters strangely beautiful little girl, dressed in a bundle of rags. Then the mis- sion's forward machines met a wild old man on horseback. who talked yolubly, possibly to disguise his spy character
 Following the lonely valley, while Billy" Poland, of the commission for Belgian relief discoursed on it's mineral richness. next the mission rolled around gigantic bend of the road to behold the river bottom covered with tents and cattle of some nomad tribe Then Major H W. Clark, of Boston. declared he heard shots from the mountain side to the right At the same time Gen eral Harbord's car was seen to stop. and the truck in the rear began to hasten its speed.
 The Harbord car had been stopped by much alarmed rifieman dropping 10 his knees and starting to fire point blank. The rillemans gun was showed aside by a greybeard chieftan when he saw the American flag born by the car. Directly the whole bottom was swarming with motley throng of tribesmen dressed in sheepskin tur- bans, ragged white shirts overmantled by short iakets of dark cloth, armed with long squirrel rifles and curiously carved knifes or short swords. In the background stood their women, all in a group.
 General Harbord left his machine and walked over to the chieftain, an old man of scrawny beard who proud ly gave his name as Abdi Beg When he learned the party was composed of Americans he told a story of hay ing been driven together with his band from their mountain homes by the Armenians, saying that now they knew not what to do; that winter was coming on and he feared they would starve. He had appealed in vain to the British and the Turks, and if he thot the Americans would come to establish peace he would sacrifice the sheep of his tribe in grand feast of rejoicing He gladly offered to let pass the rear automobiles and took note which he said he would deliver when they came.
 After a warm leave-taking the automobiles proceeded to higher ground and wider valley, when the glistening snows of Ararat came sud denly in full sight The party had