Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1922-04-08
SATURDAY. APRIL s, 1922.
A HEARTREACMING APPEAL

: The "Near East Relief" the
great humanitarian organization
incorporated by Act of Congress,
formerly the American Commit
tee for Armenian and Syrian Re
lief), is now making a Lenten
sacrifice appeal to the American
public which cannot fail to touch
the heart of all who heed it. This
special appeal is i'll behalf of 25,-
600 orphan children in the Near
East Relief bread lines who, ow-
ing. to a rs per cent. cut i'll APP
preparations, due to lack of funds,
will have to be abandoned TO die
of starvation within the next few
weeks, unless the Christians OF
America come to their rescue.
These are children whom this
American relief agency has been
keeping alive on cocoa and a
quarter of a pound of bread day.
Should the people here forsake
them they will rejoin the ranks
of the thousands of helpless chill
dren i'll scanty rags who are seen
begging for bread, wandering the
roads, seeking for refuse or lying
dead in Transcaucasia.
The picture of this utter desti-
tuition is wildly protrayed by
Melville Chatter, who thus de-
scribed it: Tiny, withered up
crone-like creatures. upon whose
faces the skin seemed stretched
to drumhead's tightness
whose peering eyes shot terror
and anguish, as if Deaths pres
ence were already perceptible to
them, and in those young. yet
grotesquely aged faces, we seem
ed to see long lifetime of trag-
edy packed into eight or ten
childish years"
Up to date, the Near East Re
lief, through the generosity of
the American public (Which has
given $60,000,000) has saved the
lives of million ArmenianS. OF
these. over 100000 children are
safe behind the walls of orphan
ages, where they are being fed,
clothed, housed and educated for
the industrial and agricultural re-
habilitation of their country. 1t
is the policy OF the Near East Re
lief not to help adults until the
children are cared for and in each
case, if possible, to make the re-
cipient self-supporting.
There are 119 Near East Re
lief orphanages, mostly in old
army barracks turned over by the
Armenian government. The one
at Alexandropol houses $4,000
boys and girls and its mess
tables, If placed end to end, would
reach more than mile in length.
The mess tables of all the orph-
anages would extend over 24
miles. But for every child in
side, there is at least one, hall
naked, outside, who would be
turned away hungry were it not
for the Near East Relief bread
lines. In these bread lines there
are several thousand more chill
dren. as many as 100000 persons
fed day at the food stations. At
Tiflis, for instance, 1000 children
are given a meal a day in the
bread line in the churchyard and
it is in the bread line in the Rus
sian Garden at Tiflis that $3.50
orphans receive the ration OF
cocoa and a-quarter of a pound of
bread day mentioned above.
These bread line children are
those affected by the % per cent.
cut in appropriation. Together
with those in the orphanages.-
they are the ''hope of the Arme-
Man people" DR.. Talcott Mil
liams has called them ''the seed
corn of great race" represen-.
tatives of the oldest Christian
nation on earth. living in regions
that were Christian before the.
war, remained Christian after the
war, and dependent Oh them for
its continued Christianity" A.