The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-03-13
!, American Women Stirred
by Armenian Horrors

lReanor Franklin Egan In Saturday
Evening Post Describes Conditions
Among People OF Western Asia.
'NHERCIFUL GOD. it's all truel
AVE- Nobody has ever told the
whole TRUTH Nobody couldr"
Thus Eleanor Franklin Egan, In
the Saturday Evening Post, quotes
Howard Heinz Of Pittsburgh, Her
bert Hoover's representative In the
Near East, on the real conditions in
Armenia as he saw them with his
own eyes.
Mr.. Heinz had been one of those
who had believed the stories Of star
walton and death in Armenia had
been exaggerated. Not until he went
himself to the Caucasus did his
views change. Then he was shaken
to the foundations of his soul by
what he saw.
Mrs. Egan, herself, admits she
went to Armenia in a doubtful frame
Of mind. She had been told by Mr..
Heinz after his return:
"'You will be sorry all your life
that you did go. What You will see
will make scars on you that you will
never get rid of. But, nevertheless,
you must go. 1t is a duty"
Fearful Awful! Horrible !!
Unbelievable 7" are some Of the adj
jectives Mrs Egan says must be used
IN speaking Of conditions in the Near
East, where Near East Relief, 1
Madison Avenue, New York. sup
ported by contributions from the
American people, is conducting the
only organized effort to save the
lives of these utterly destitute mill
lions. Everything she saw and heard
justified the necessity for quick and
generous aid from America. Her
forces the call of the Near East Re
lief for aid for stricken Armenia.
"'The Hunger grim Is everywhere
evident" Mrs. Egan writes. "The
pitiful hundreds seemed to me to be
weeping constantly. Not profoundly
as in grief, but whimperingly, ap-
pealingly as in unbearable physical
distress. A terrible population. Un-
speakably filthy and tatterdemalion
throngs; shelterless, death stricken
throngs milling from place to place.
children crying aloud, women sobbing
In broken inarticulate lamentation
men utterly hopeless and reduced to
staggering weakness, needless of the
tears rolling down their dirt-streaked
faces"
That is her picture of the Ar
menianS most in evidence In Ar
menia. These are the throngs. Then
she turns to the mobs. Large num-
bers here and there, wide-eyed,
eager, hands outstretched in wolfish
duplication teeth barred in a ghast-
Iy grin that had long since ceased to
sIniIe-an emaciated skin-stretched
grin, fixed and uncomfortable"
'Ts 1t any wonder" she asks, shat
I could not swallow my food? /
threw it to the children in the raven
ing hordes and started small riots.
The children fought together, snarl-
ed and clawed at one another for
small bits of army biscuit or morsels
OF bully beef.
sand then I was told that many of
them were so starved that solid food
was likely to kill them instantly.
This was too terribly true. Yet In the
whole length and breadth of the
land there was not an ounce of food
OF the kind necessary for such cases.
At Kars i saw one man die with
bread in his teeth. And IL you will
consent to look with me upon q too
awful thing, i win add that he show
ed evidence OF having eaten too much
grass.
IL went hungry In Armenia and
L associate remembered pangs of my
own with all my recollections Of the
terrible land. / had plenty. OF food
with me but for days on end / could
not eat. It was a physical impos-
sibility.