Arizona republican., 1922-04-16

Twelve men, with grave faces were
met to decide an issue OF life OF
death.
No burly criminal stood there to
receive punishment for his crimes,-
only a little child. begging for life.
Her sin was hunger and naked
ness.
She trembled, and almost fell, as
she stretched out thin, bare arms in
supplication.
Hunger. Bread" were the only
words she spoke.
A long time passed, while those
men fought to escape the. verdict
they must render. But then the
words came:
1--WE have not found anyone who
will give you bread, little girl. We
have told a great many people about
you, but they have given to so many
other boys and girls that they are
tired of giving. There is not enough
bread, now, to go around-no. not
event a crust. We are very sorry,
dear little girl, but-we must let
you die"
A cruel jest? No! A cruel fact,
multiplied thousands upon thousands
of timesi If only one such pleading
child were condemned to die because
we are tired of giving" it would be
enough to blanch the cheeks OF every
man and woman who reads this page.
But upon many thousands of boys
and girls the sentence of death has
just been passed.
In Armenia a Christian race is be-
ing blotted out-while the world
looks on. In Armenia peace did not
come when the rest OF the world
stopped fighting Last year lao vii
lagos were destroyed: thousands OF
mothers and grown daughters were
violated and slain; fathers were
herded into buildings and burned;
multitudes of orphaned children were
driven into the wilderness to. wander
and die, unless, perchance, they
might be gathered, like lost lambs,
into folds of safety by the Near East
Relief Conditions are worse than
at any time since the armistice.
Frantic appeals for more food to
save the children. for more clothing
to cover their naked bodies, for more
hospitals and orphanages to give
them refuge come surging over the
cables to "xind, generous America
the hoped for savior of Armenia.
And in the moment of this crisis,
when the question of life or death
for unnumbered thousands of chill
dren must be answered, the tender
charity of American mothers and
fathers has begun to fall Their an
swer to the multitude OF little or
phans whose only sin is hunger. and
nakedness, and immeasurable grief,
has been,--in December and Janu-
ary, and February, and March--not
more money and more clothing. and
fond h1Jf Aud he crllRI
order has gone forth from the offices
of the Near East Relief to reduce
all expenditures twenty-five per cent.
Twenty-Five children from every hun
dred now receiving care must be
turned away. Among the many thou
sands whose walls Of hunger, and
sickness, and cold have not yet been
answered. not one can be satisfied.
And now the cries of terror and
disnay are reaching America:
Cablegram, via Paris: Thousands
of deportees filling Near East thresh-
old, receiving crust of bread, hoping
them off our doorstep? Order of
twenty-five per cent reduction ne
cessitates closing March first all
general relief"
Cablegram, Constantinople: "Ap-
palling increase of need for general
relief throughout Anatolia, Caucasus.
Reduction in already inadequate ap-
propriations cut off multitudes who
are hopeless without American aid" ;"
Cablegram, from American Won
ems Hospital. Erivan: I'VE have eight
hundred and fifty two cases in the
hospital, and children dying in all
corners of Erivan All day long We
can hear the walls and groans of
little children outside the office build
ings hoping we can and will pick
them up. If the sun shines a little
while they quiet down; when it rains
they begin again One day when the
rain turned to Snow it was awful TO
listen to them. The note of terror
that came into the general wall was
plainly perceptible upstairs. and /
had the windows closed. They well
know what a night in the snow
would mean to them. We are picking
them up as fast as possible, but it
is fata1 to crowd them to such
point that we would lose even those
already in orphanage.'
Erivan-tlIat one time prosperous
city of Armenia, not far from Mount
Ararat. famous, in days of peace, for
the peach orchards and vegetable
gardens that surrounded it on every
side. Walk through its streets today,
and here is what you viii see:
children walking through the muddy
cutters hunting for bits of orange
peels, apples cores. or anything that
once resembled food: little boys and
girls sleeping in stables, with straw
and manure spread over their bodies
to keep them from freezing to death;
or. In the early morning, deserted
children lying in the doorways of
the buildings. wrapped in old burlap