The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1921-10-14
HUNGER HORROR
WAITS SNOW CUE
IN THE CAUCASUS
vIcKREY, NEAR EAST REl'trs
NATIONAL SECRETARY, TELLS
OF ADMINISTERING WHEN
AUGUST CURTAIN ROSE.
10000 CHILDREN MUST DIE
THIS WINTER, WITHOUT AID

"one Of the most appalling horrors
of history. the death by sUarVa'ion
Of tens of thousands of children ana
even larger numbers OF aaui.s' W.
be enacted in the Near East TINS WIN
ter unless food is sent then
America before snow flies.
The statement was made by Charles
V. Vickrey, national secretary Oh Near
East Relief, who has just returned
To New York from three-months "Trip
Of personal inspection in the old kus-
sian provinces of Transcaucasia anu
bordering lands OF Asia Mlnor'
Into these war.hedged regions hed
as refugees those remnants OF the
Armenian and neighbor races VINO hao
escaped massacre or capture py lurhss
and Kurds or death by hunger, expos
ure and attendant disease.
Mr.. Vickrey said, in part:
There are two distinct large areas
involved in the Russian famine prob
| lem: the Volga region, reaching north
westward from the Caspian Sea; and
southern Russia or Transcaucasia. EN-
bracing the new republics of Georgia
and Russian Armenia, to the west
ward of the Caspian and extending TO
the Black Sea.
1921 neath Harvest Early.
"It has been my lot to travel IN
southern Russia each August OF the
last three years. In those years the
wholesale death harvest did not de-
velop until late Winter or early
Spring. Never before have seen
actual widespread starvation in the
month of August. This year in Rus
sian Armenia | found the dead lying
in the streets: saw the death-wagons
90 upon their twice-daily rounds;
learned at frst-hand of the other
, corpses-infants, children, adults-py
: the waysides beyond the cities, the
, hurled and the unburied. This In the
month of August instead Of in Janu-
, airy, February and March
I'm the once busy and comparative
:, ly well-stocked market places of Fri
l van. capital Of the war-born republic
:, Of Armenia, encountered only wo-
men, children and, very. aged men,
wandering, wandering from street to
street. dumhly trying to exchange
frayed garment or other fragment OF
personal belonging for a portion OF
D food to ease their hunger.
@ Worse Than At Armistice.
e THE causes of the yearly famine
Ie date back to and include the huge
4 massacres of 1915, following upoI
er the opening of the World War, whel
a hundreds Of thousands of Armenian
n. fed the Turkish-Kurd raiders AM
a. sought a refuge in the Russian eau
III casus. Every year since that time tn
CO country has been overrun and pill
-. aged by contending or unfriendly mi
% itary forces. War has not ceased 10
= Armenia. Conditions appear wors
a' today. in the closing months OF 1872.
ny than they were at the signing OF tn
- armistice.
Is Upon withdrawal of the Turks
he forces from Alexandropol last Apr
be carrying away with them all tran
portable food supplies and every pro
erty that might be useful to the Tur
sh army fighting the Greeks on II
=. Western 'front.', the Armenians d
everything they could to plant and 6
III cure a crop, for they are So per ce
io- a farmer people. But the task WI
I've impossible the result inevitable.
~ 10000 Fed; 10000 "Must Die"
,on "In the vicinity of AlexandroI
Lie alone, Near East Relief with the Q
- of more than SO American experienc
rescue workers is caring for 200
orphaned children, constituting pr'
Iry ably the largest assemblage of p
up- entless infants and youth the wo
DO. ever has known. The president
:, the local government Of the Alex
cit dropol district states there are 20,t
ON. other children IN his district who v
die of hunger and exposure this W
ter II they are not added to our
EEL phonage population. The whole nj
her of orphans in Near East Re
DEL territory exceeds 100000.
fer These are the reasons why N
be East Relief is calling upon the pee
the of the United States for 5000,
an bushels of corn and wheat to be
The ,,vered into the famine regions
s it fore the tragedy Of early snow
TO scends to choke the roads and bl
nc TRANSPORT into the Interior ..
lean Michigans quo,a - ~" '
ehts grain-gift is 100000 bushels now