The Penn's Grove record., 1921-04-22
DIR. VANNEMAN'S RETURN
Persian Missionary Visits OH Home
of BOyhOOd Days

DI. william -. Nanneman, q native
of Penns Grove, who spent his child.
hood days on the farm where Camp
2 vas located, attended the funeral OF
his aunt, Mary c. Vanneman, last
Friday and renewed old acquaintance
He stayed a few days with his brother
Robert N. Vanneman, in Salem. Ole
citizens remember his father, Edwin
A. Nanneman, who took a prominent
part in public affairs before his death
in 1874. EN ~ W.
his location the past few months
has been at New London, Conn.,, with
his wife, where his daughter, Irene, is
teaching French in a high school.
He spent two years in Princeton
College and was graduated in medi-
cine from the University of Pennsyl-
vania. After spending some years in
hospital and dispensary work he and
wife became medical missionaries to
Tabriz, Peru, in 1890. He is on his
third visit to America, having arrived
two years ago. In September, 1918,
he was a prisoner of war of the Turks
and suffered much anxiety and from
lack of food. During his stay he has
recovered his energy and strength and
has been taking a course in medicine
in New York City the past winter.
He was most pleased on April 9th
to meet his daughter Aimee, her hus-
band, John Higdon, and their son
William, who had just arrived from
Tabriz, Peru, where the babe, William,
was born December goth.
They left in January, and had to go
to Bagdad and thence to Bombay, In
dia, because the Bolshevist control Per-
STA and hinder travel to CONSTANT
nople by the northern route.
Mr.. Higdon is from Kansas City.
After graduating from the University
of Texas, at Austin, where his wife
was al instructor, he taught mathe-
MATES to the a~viators during the time
we were at war. He entered the avia-
ton service but before he learned to
fly the wal ended.
Then they married and entered the
Near East Relief service by going to
Mrs. Higdon having been
born and lived in Tabriz until she
was fourteen years of age she could
talk the dialects used there. They adj
ministered food to the Armenians, the
Christian sect on earth, who had
been ravished by the Turks until the
Russian Bolshevists got control. Then
they went to the Presbyterian mission
at Tabriz where she was cared for
during her illness with typhus fever.
The Turks sacked the Christian
mission during the war. The hospital
erected and conducted under DR.. Van
neman's supervision was closed and
the personal property sold. Two men
remain to look after the property and
nold religious services on Sundays.
Mandate For Armenia
The League of Nations offered a
mandate for Armenia to the United
States Government. President Wilson
recommended it, but Congress did not
accept it.
1t is Dr.. Vanneman's opinion that
Woodrow Wilson is about twenty-five
years ahead of the people and it will
take half a generation for the conserv-
atives to die off and the younger gen
Grafton to understand his principles
for world wide democracy.
1t is DR.. Nanneman's opinion it
would be the best and greatest act for
civilization for the United States to
lake a mandate, not only for Armenia,
out also for Turkey. The best citizens
m those countries wanted it done, be
cause they have confidence in the in
and unselfishness of the Amer
can people as eXemplified by the
Christian missionaries. They had
heard what the United States did in
Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines.
During the past fifty years there
has been Roberts College in Constan-
a Christian missionary i%nstitu-
ton from which many of the second
generation have been graduated. 1t
vas the influence of that college which
Kept the United States from declaring
war on Turkey, hence the United
States was in a position to take a
mandate from the Allies. 1t
IS the influence of the Roberts Col
.ege graduates that is governing
Bulgaria successfully and peacefully.
If the young men of Armenia and
Turkey who had attended Roberts
College had been put in charge under
the supervision of the United States
It is Dir. Vanneman's opinion that
affairs would have been quoted be-
fore this.
The gunboats, battleships and ma
now loafing in American waters
could have done so in the Mediterra-
and Black Seas and had a Won
derful pacifying influence on the peo-
Pile. A few machine gun trials on the
Kurdish and Cossock raiders would
have had as beneficient influence as
American soldiers had OIL the Boxers
China twenty years ago.
DR.. Vanneman says the greatest
need in those countries is good roads.
There are practically non there now.
The people could be given employment
building roads and loaned implements
and seeds to raise their own food with
out so much gifts from America, if
they had protection from marauders.
There is great mineral wealth in
those countries which will take mod
ern engineers to develop. The natives
must be shown and kept at peace.
British commercialism on the south
and Russian on the north have kept
Turkey, Armenia, Persia and Georgia
middle grounds for hostile intrigue
and contentious.