The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-02-14
NEAR EAST RELIEF
NEW YORK COMMITTEE DENIES
THAT CATHOLICS IN ARMENIA
ARE DlSCRiMlNATED AGAINST
ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR RE-
LiGION.

| CA correspondent asks if Catholics
| in Armenia are treated with Partially
on account of their religion Several
letters from high Catholic authorities
in Armenia have asserted this. The
| Near East Committee, however, has
just sent us the following letter, which
we give for what it is worth.)
Letter of Committee.
Statements from prominent clergy
and laymen of the Catholic Church
| have dispelled an impression in GER
tain quarters that there has been
some discrimination in the distribu-
ton of relief among the stricken peo-
pie of Syria.
A letter addressed to the people of
the diocese by Most Reverend J. W.
Shaw, Archbishop of New Orleans,
! carries information which will prove
| interesting to all Catholics whose
hearts have been stirred by the cause
of the suffering of the Near East.
| His Grace makes the following
statement:
| Recently l had occasion to learn
from a distinguished Catholic lawyer
| who spent seven months in relief
work in the Near East, that the suffer
! ing and poverty of the Armenians and
Syrians beggars description, and that
unless generous help is given to the
| Armenians in particular in the very
near future, they will virtually cease
| to exist as a nation.
''By way of comment may add that
owing to the unavoidable absence of
regularly organized Catholic charita-
BILE centers,- the distribution of the
relief which America has sent to these
starving peoples has been largely in
! the hands of non-Catholic mission
aries. My legal friend was pleased
and gratified to testify from personal
experience that these missionaries
were impartial in their distribution of
the funds and supplies allotted to
them and were free from the reproach
of proselytism."
| Although there is no organized
| Catholic center in the Near East,
many notable names of this faith
are on the rolls of the Near East
Relief 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
The statement that Col. William N.
Haskell, the allied high commissioner
who has full control of the distribu-
| ton of Armenian Relief in the Trans
Caucasus, in a devout Roman Catholic,
and that many on his commission are
also Catholics, should in itself be a
guarantee to Catholics of the country
that their contributions to the Near
East Relief fund will not be withheld
| from people Of their own faith.
Miss Olive Smith, assistant to Major
Arnold, who has distribution of sup
| plies in the district of Anatolia, Cilicia
and Central Asia, is also a Roman
| Catholic, while in our own country
the faith is represented in every
! branch of the work.
Such men as Robert Cuddihy, of the
Literary Digest, and Walter George
Smith, ex-President of the American
| Bar Association, are members of the
Committee, the latter being one of the
| trustees, but recently returned from
! those countries.
His Eminence James Cardinal Glib
| bons, member of the Committee Of
the Near East Relief, recently sent an
urgent appeal to the clergy and heads
/ of the Catholic Educational Institu-
| tons in the District of Columbia.
The Executive Committee of the
Near East Relief for some time has
had a standing challenge to anyone
4 who can show any discrimination
along religious lines, but not one bit
/ of evidence has ever been produced to
/: support this false accusation. More
/ over, the Executive Committee will
/ at once dismiss from the service any
person shown to have withheld relief
from any individual caused by re-
ligious differences. The same rule
applies to any person who is shown
to have used his connection with Near
East Relief for furthering sectarian
ends, s =