The weekly Alaska citizen., 1920-01-19
ESCAPE OF HARBORD NlISSIONI IN TURKISH MOUNTAIN REGION FROM
 R0BBER BANDS TOLD BY WITNESS

in retaliation
 The two forward machines, the first
 arry ing Generals Harbord and Nose Icy went twenty miles further climb ing cut upon the bare, homeless 'Tovn plain above which Ararat now
 hone in sunset splendor, the creep ing shadows of copper vaguely re
 ndtul ot the delicate beauties ol
 nice's green church domcs
 As this was again Armenian ter ! tory. a cavalry squadron came ow to greet General Harbord and then i ent away. finding he was striking camp beside the river instead of go ing to their village for the night. After waiting an hour without the truck l arriving. General Harbord sent back in their automobile Maj H W. Clark, 7sether with Mr. Poland, Hussein 1 Bey, Turkish interpreter and profess sor Of history at Roberts College, ! 1onstantinople. and The Associated i Press correspondent to find it. When the machine returned to Kulp, it's streaming lights announced its arrival In a moment the valley resounded with rifle shots, cries in the darkness rom hundreds of men, and dozens of fierce figures leaped about the machine as il stopped. Hussein Bey being the only one who i spoke Turkish, sprang from the machine and walked courageously towards the tribesmen with his right hand on his heart, shouting Peace, sre are friends"
 Soon came up a short, active Turk, afeiward known as Riga, whip in hand driving back his fellows lash ing them mercilessly with a short whip. next came an old crippled cheiftain, Alexander by name, and a gutter chettain Shamil Beg. It ! developed that the truck with it's 1 three men. one of whom was the i pal1y's chef Monsieur Lutard, form f c1y with General petain in France, was being held until the American General would return and vouch for l lt as American The members of the searching party were also in- formed that they 100 must remain un. iii the general had youched for them. ] lt vas explained that the precarious military situation of the band made l this necessary, tho it was suspected ] to be a subterfuge to get possession of the person of General Harbord.
 After much wrangling and argu- i ment, with many differences of opin- ion, it was agreed that Chiefs Alex ander and Riza would return with the automobile to the camping place of , General Harbord and ascertain for themselves then that the party had come fo, the purpose of Investigating he political difficulties in Armenia . and other neighboring countries.
 When they had gotten in the ma chine, a voice out Of the darkness de 1 nounced Hussein Bey as an Armen' ian, and the argument was begun anew. Finally the two leaders de parted, saw General Har bord, told him their wrongs, and pleaded with him to have the Americans settle the troubles of the land, and left promis- ing 10 free the prisoners and let pass the other four machines, which had as yet not arrived.
 Meanwhile Shami Beg took the prisoners to the center of his camp, had spread rugs for them to sit upon, a fire built and sheep killed in their honor Then he entertained them with stories of the life of his band, of the troubles growing out of the war, and declared the only way to bring peace to Asia Minor was thru a strong foreign hand More than this. he promised protection for the party and volunteered to rescue the other machines from the Kurds "We are all thieves, we must be to live" he said, with a sorrowful smile And | remember this, neither we nor the Armenians are fit for self-government. and we won't be for many long years Besides, we hate each other too much to rule together"
 Short. dark-eyed, determined, yet polite Shamil Beg sat thru the night. guarding the party against his own robbers. The party by the fire was broken up when the lights of the other four automobiles came in ] sight. The men of these ma chimes had terrible story to tell. They had just missed death Before coming to the friendly Kurds, they had been suddenly attacked from all sides by rifle fire Captain Loring's machine had run for it and escaped, Loring receiving a slight head wound The machines behind had been stop ped by huge boulders across the road and all had received several volleys until the machines halted.
 When the chief of the tribe had fully persuaded himself that the auto-