News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1921-01-19

than billions of dollars spent later in
suppressing international warfare and
strife"
Mr.. Vickrey considers the need in
| the Near East and especially in Ar
menia greater than anywhere else in
the world, because, as he says, I'm the
| countries of Central Europe there are
going governments which have merely
been temporarily impoverished by war
In the Near East, on the other hand,
there is no such thing as stable gov
eminent. The whole fabric of the
state has to be created from the be-
ginning, and the innocent and help
less children have to be trained to the
responsibilities of future citizenship.
Peace in the Near East and, in great
measure, throughout the world, will
depend very largely on the character
of the. citizenship of the peoples of the
Near East"
Irresistible Appeal of Orphans.
Describing the orphanage work Of
the Near East Relief in the Armenian
ltepuDllC, MT. NlCkFey Sd4u
1--WE have at Alexandropol in the
Caucasus, one orphanage where there
are approximately 10000 homeless
children, fatherless or mOtherless,
many of them having no known living
relative. Some of them do not even
know their own names, or the place of
their birth. They have shown wonder
full recuperative powers, and to see
them play their kindergarten or other
games under the direction of our Ameri-
can relief workers. one could never be-
lieve that they had passed through
the years of suffering that most of
them have experienced since they, or
their parents, were driven from their
homes in Central Turkey five years
ago.
For the accommodation of these or
phans there are sixty splendid stone
buildings, erected as barracks for the
Russian army. These buildings are
now given to us by the Armenian gov
eminent for a period of ten years and
lend themselves admirably to relief
purposes.
This Orphanage at AlexandrOpol~i
but one of the 300 orphanages that the
Near East Relief is now operating in
various parts Of the Caucasus, Anato-
liza, Cilicia, Syria and the CONSTANT |
area
'"lhirty miles from AleXandropoI, at !
Kars, there is another group of Rus |
sian army barracks, which were given |
rs by the Armenian government for |
'elief purposes. l was going through
he dormitories of this orphanage at /
<ars when the young American col
ege girl in charge turned TO me and
said: Mr.. Vickrey, it sometimes makes
ne feel just a little older than Me-
huselah to be called Mother" by
5000 of those Armenian children
And that is exactly what she was
he only mother that these 5000 Ar
neniah children have. except as she
walls herself of the organized assist
lnce of native Armenian women, in
airing for this large family.
''In the hospital at Kars l found
,150 beds, which, the day | was there,
we're occupied by 1,26S patients, it
frequently being necessary to put two
r more children In a single bed. At
.leXandropol we have in one hospital,
+ group of hospital buildings, 1850
patients At Karaklis, forty
niles east of Alexandropol we have
n orphaEage devoted exclusively to
he care and training of the blind
hildren. At Delijan we have another
rphanage, located on a mountain side,
or the care OF tubercular children.
his segregation being as much for
ne welfare of the healthy children in
ne orphanages as for the care of the
Unfortunate consunptives. At Erivan
'e formerly had twenty-six distinct
rphanages, though they have now
cen reduced and consolidated 10
even in number. There are some
ling more than 6,0O0 orphans in the ,
7