The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1921-02-23


than billions of dollars spent later in
suppressng 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, id 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 orpllanage work of
the, Near East Relief in the Armenian
Republic, Mr.. Vickrey said:
I'VE have at AleXandropol in the
! Caucasus. one orphanage swhere 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 biMh. They have shown wonder
full recuperative powers, and to see
4 ,,1u ~. l.. NIL vt Ton hnr
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 live years
ago. .i,. a
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
| ernment for period of ton years and
| lend. themselves admirably to relief
I purposes.
This orphanage at Aleyandropol is
but one Of the 300 orp'.anages that the
Near East Relief is now operating in
various parts of the Caucasus. Anato-
lia, Cilicin, Syria and the Constant!-
Gople- Straits area
Thirty miles from, AlcXandropol, at
Nars, there is another group of Rus
sian army barracks, which were given
us by the Armenian government for
relief purposes. | was going through
the dor.aitOltes of this orplanage at
Kars when the young American COL
lege girl in charge turned to me and
said: Mr.. Vickrey, IT sometimes makes
me feel just little older than Me-
thuselah to be called "Motlpr" by
G,000 of those Armenian Children
And that is exactly what she was
the only mother that these 6,OO0 Ar
menian children have. except as she
nva1ls herself Of the organized assist
ance of native Arntnian women, In
caring, for this large family.
In the hospital at Kars l found
1,l5O beds, which. the day was there,
were occupied by l,26S patients, it
>frequehtly being necessary 10 put two
or more children In a single bed AT
Alexandropol We have in one hospital,
or group Of hospital buildings, 1850
,tachoma patients AT Kurakls, forty
miles east of Aleyandropol we have
an orphanage devoted exclusively to
the care and training of the blind
children. AT Dcliian we have another
orphanage, located on u mountain side,
Tor the care OF tubercular children.
this segregation being as much for
the welfare of the healthy children in
the orphanagcs rs for the care of the
unfortunate consumptives. At ErIvau
we formerly had twenty-six distinct
orphanases, though they have now
been reduced hnd consolidated IA
seven in number. There are some.
thing more than 3000 orphans In the
region OF HarpouC
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