The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-05-25
Trustees of Near East Re
lief Trying to Arouse
Congress to Re
strain Turks

NEW YORK, May 25.-The United
States congress has been asked to exert
pressure on the allies and upon Turkey
to stop the state of anarchy in the Far
East and avert impending disaster to the
Armenians under control of the Nation
alist Turks.
The appeal is made in the form of a
memorial addressed to congress by a com
mittee of the board or trustees of the Near
East Relief, ''in behalf of at least 20
100000 of the people of the United
States who have contributed TO American
relief work in the Near East"
The committee is composed of DIR, James
L. Barton, secretary of the American
board of foreign missions; DIR. Stanley
White. secretary of the Presbyterian
board of missions, and Walter George
Smith of Philadelphia.
They ask that congress and the United
States government take immediate action
and insist that England. France and
Italy shall restore the Christian minOrities
in Asia Minor to their homes and protect
them.
Start Big Propaganda.
In addition, the three trustees of the
Near East Relief have sent an appeal to
about 10000 contributors to American
relief work in the Near East asking them
to bring pressure upon congress to obtain
the action urged by the committee.
In explaining the action of the commit
tee. DR.. Barton said that the Near East
Relief had disbursed over S60OOO,OOO in
money and supplies contributed by the
American people and. he added, I'VE now
see that enormous humanitarian invest
ment of American philanthropy in dan
ger of coming to nothing on account OF
continued anarchy in the Near East. We
have, therefore. decided to try to bring the
force of those who gave this money to
bear upon our own government and the
governments of our allies in the late war
to put an end to the present state of af-
fairs in the Levant.'
Tale of Inhumanities.
The memorial reviews political develop
ments in tie Ottoman Empire since the
armistice. and continues:
1t is reported by absolutely trust
worthy Americans that Turkish Nation
aliStS have proclaimed that the mosques
and minarets destroyed in their conflicts
with the French they will rebuild with
I'll = skulls of Armenians.
Women and children declare that they
would choose death, in whatever form it
might come. to such 4 state of distress, of
hopelessness and of perpetual terror, and
yet no way of escape opens before them.
AiltLS lHFSt ulStI dt1tu ! lAilNlldli pfpIltS
a state of panic prevails. Their safety
seems to lie only in flight.
There appears to be no protection for
them in territory controlled by the Turk
ish Nati0nalstS and the French protest
their going into Syria. They seem con-
demned by circumstances beyond their
control to certain death.
America Can Save Them.
america is in a position to secure the
protection required, if it acts promptly
and decisively. We can insist that Eng
land, France and Italy. who have incensed
the Turk by depriving him Of much Of his
choicest territory and created in him a
spirit of revenge. shall now demand and
enforce the demand that eXiled and men
accd peoples be restored to their homes
and protected there"
The memorial states that all Europe
and the Turk know that the United
States neither seeks nor desires territorial
acquisitions or control in any part of
the Turkish Empire; but they should all
be convinced that the people of America
cannot and will not remain Indifferent
when inhumanitieS of such a character
are openly practiced upon a helpless and
unprotected people.
This can be done without craftsmanship.
since the recent platforms of the two great
political parties declared in favor of read-
ness to render every possible help to the
suffering Armenians There has never
been a time when that aid was more i'm
perative than it is today. Delay is peril
GUS