The Owosso times., 1922-02-17

lteu armenia TO report on conditions.
The reader of this article should be
warned in advance that Mr. Hibben's s
picture of conditions there Is hideous- in
the extreme. Those who are not afraid
Of the truth will get 1t here in all its
naked vigor Those who would spare
their own feelings should read no fur
ther)
when l stepped off the train at
Alexandropol, Armenia" says Mr.
Hibben, 81 had to push my way
through crowd of refugees lining
the platform of the station. There
were aIlong them hundreds of chill.
dren quite naked, who clawed at my
clothes and begged for bread, not in
the sing-song Of the professional child
beggar Of the streets of Eastern
cities, but in desperate insistence, a
sort of sobbing, half-mad chatter,
with the words hunger and bread
tumbling over one another, with no
sense in it all. The grown people
were silent, staring ahead of them
with vacant eyes.
Rags Covered Bodies.
What they wore was not clothing
but rags pieced together with bits of
old sacking, disintegrating remnants
of sheepskin and odds and ends like
the filthy trove Of garbage cans and
back lots. AS walked through the
station I could scarcely make my way
for the women and children huddled
in heaps on the floor, lying all piled
together, listless and uncaring wheth-
er they were stepped on or not.
Across from the station l could
see more refugees camped on the
ground. To get away from them,
jumped off the side of the platform
onto what took to be a piece Of dis
carded sacking, next torn and dirt
stained comforter, evidently covering
something. AS my boot struck the
piece of sacking, little cry came
from it. tried to get my foot away
and my spur caught in the sacking
and carried it away. Under the com.
forter was a naked child. just born,
its eyes not yet open. and out from
under the shadow Of the covering
there peered the mother her eyes big
with suffering and her skin hot with
fever.
Right at the corner of the sta
ton, in the hot sun, almost naked
and pitifully emaciated, lay a boy,
quite dead, his staring eyes still open.
And people came and went about
their business-no one paid the slight
est attention to the pitiful body, ly-
ing there in the sun. In time the
dead wagon would pass the station in
it's daily rounds, and he would be
piled on 1t with the others and taken
away. There was nothing else to be
done about 1t.
Villages Just as Bad.
81 went out to see those 40 vii
lagos around Alexandropol, from
which the Turks were said to nave
driven the thousands of wretched
relics of humanity that had fiocked
into the railway center in the hope
Of finding food or of getting away
somewhere where food could be had
"One of the peasants told me that
when the Turks came to this district
they began by taking everything
away-cattle, grain, kitchen utensils
farming implements, everything Then
they began looting the houses for per-
sonal effects. Finally, one day they
gathered together all the men Of Ahk.
Boolag. Those of possible military
age were taken off to be made sol.
diers In the Turkish army and the
remaining, old men and boys, about
$50 In number, they crowded into the
two largest houses in the village and
set them afire, with straw piled all
over them to see that they burned.
The women, my informant told me,
they took all in one great batch to
the very place where he and l were
standing and, lining them up along
the edge of a gravel bank, first picked
out about 500 of the prettier ones,
whom they sent back to the Turkish
army, and then shot or bayonetted
the rest"
Mr.. Hibben, acting as secretary for
the Russian Commission Of the Near
East Relief, later covered more than
otVVV ihhCo Ill EuiOpCdu tuSSld.
the region which he traversed along
the Volga river, 1t Is estimated that
100000 men, women and children
are doomed to die Of starvation during
the next six months.
The Michigan Committee of Near
East Relief with headquarters at 1916
Kresge Bldg, Detroit, states that fol-
$500 a month or $4,000 year one oil
these starving children can be fec
and for $4,000 year child will be
fed, clothed and sheltered.
Governor Groesbeck, honorary
chairman for Near East Relief IL
Michigan, which is endeavoring e
save 6,450 orphans during the present
year, has highly endorsed the appea
and urges the people of the state t.
help save IT, remnant of that oldes'
Christian nation.