Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1923-09-28
NEAR EAST RELIEF
The Following Letter Was Received
Bp ti.x Herald on Sept. rs, and
Will be of Interest to All
Who Have Contributed


Cause
Cable address: ''Near East"
Athens, Greece
Aug. rs, 1928
How l wish you could see some of
your overseas family!
DR.. Finley and l recently saa
$4,000 of them, orphans all, march
/ ing past in a single afternoon. Some
Iof them were so small that they had
Ito be carried on the shoulders of the
older boys.
They were a part of the $4,000
children in our orphanages in the
/ Caucasus, most of whom are refugees
from Turkey and at least three
ifourths of whom would have
tperished, had it not been for help
(which you. and others sent from
America.
We also reviewed another 10000
Iof your children, recently driven
from Asia Minor-some of them de-
fsendants of members of the Seven
Churches of Asia-now scattered
among the newly established orphan
/ ages of Greece, on the island of Cor
fu, at ancient Corinth, Oropos, Kav-
/ ALA (Neapolis of Pauls day., Salon
lea, (Thessalonica), Berea, Athens,
fChalchis, Syria, and elsewhere.
Last week in Jerusalem at St.
James Monastery (Armenian) with
n the ancient walls of the city, at
| he Convent of the Holy Cross and in
he Syrian orphanage just outside the
walls, l saw another thousand of
your children, most of them refugees
from Van and eastern Turkey, who
almost certainly would not be living
Today had it not been for your ex-
preston of true religion in sharing
Jour substance with the widows ard
orphans of Christian martyrs.
Again last week in Nazareth I saw
400 OF your boys, occupying at night
stable on hillside overlooking t.
village and by day the older of them
possibly averaging twelve years Of
tage, earning part of their support bv
WORKING IN modern carpenter shon
established by the Near East Relief
"lenin ten PAGES of where stood the
carpenter shop of Joseph, in which
the boy Christ labored at the carpen-
ter's bench.
"A total of more than 10000 such
children are now in various orpban-
ages throughout the Syria-Palestine
area. Fully 5000 of there are Ar
'nen!an children-orphans driven out
from Asia Minor within the past
twelve months.
Every child is being taught a trade
and the largest possible measure of
industrial self-support is being
sought in the orphanages, as well as
framing for industrial usefulness and
leadership in later life. AS rapidlv
as the children become sixteen wears
Of age or able to attain self-support
hey are placed out as apprentices,
adopted in homes or otherwise made
independent of outside assistance,
out they will never forget as long as
they live their Indebtedness to the
american people, to whom they owe
their lives.
NJ
More than 1000 of these children
nave been graduated or placed out
side the orphanages during the past
summer. The country is too impover-
lshed to receive them into homes. es-
Ipeclally as these regions are already
overrun with million or more Chris
tan refugees.
1 Our statistics show that $50 per
cent of the children are under four
teen years of age and 62.S per cent
are under twelve years, while the
Birds Nest orphanage at Sidon.
NESTING 389 Brides" and the doll
House, sheltering a part of the
l,ooo girls on the Island of Cepha-
lonia, are devoted chiefly to babies
land children of kindergarten age
IOne cannot look into the faces of
these thousand of children, potential
leaders of new Near East. without
being impressed with the strategy of
the great work in which you have had
| and are having a substantial part.
The thought frequently recurs 'EDU-
ICATION NOW OR BATTLESHIPS
LATER. There can be no doubt as
20 which is the wiser, more ..oncm-
cal and constructive program.
Even as l write the preceding
sentence, my ship pulls into the
-iraeus (Athens) harbor alongside
ship loaded with Greek refugees from
Asia Minor. The deck of the adioin-
.ng ship is damned with women and
children and an occasional man. I
have seldom seen cattle herded more
closely. A few months ago they had
comfortable homes; some of them
we're wealthy. Today they are home
less, penniless; but on this particular
morning they are compare lively
happy, for after months of indcsrib-
able hardship, hunger, sickness, and
loss of relatives by death, they are
at last in friendly harbor. Some of
us in school days wept or were deeply
moved by Longfellow's "Evangeline,"
but Longfellow's story is midsum-
mer holiday romance compared with
the stern reality that I now witness
in the Piraeus harbor.
This ship is but one of the dozens.
if not scores, of such vessels that
have arrived and must yet arrive be-
fore the first chapters of the great
tragedy are completed. Many, if not
most, of these people are living to-
day because of assistance given by
the Near East Relief, in which you
have shared. Admiral Bristol, the
American High Commissioner in
Constantinople, in his official July
renort IN the Gnvernuaut rafprrinp