Evening star., 1929-07-02

slams we're exposed to starvation.
Says DR.. ,Nansen % ITO the relief
fund the American people through
| Mr.. Hooyer's Observation-Disclosures
more than any other, while the United
States Government added $4,000, 900
10 the large sums poured in from pri-
vate sources. Toward the end of the
famine the American organization was
feeding 10000, 900 people, and millions
of lives were thereby saved. MIL
lions died in the torture of. hunger.
Thousands upon thousands went mad
| from pain before the end. Cannibalism
was rife throughout a population as
great as that of the States Of New
vania combined"
He continued: "All of that was in the
civilized Europe, of which we are so
proud. If the Western European gov
ernments had taken effective steps
Immediately, and while there was sti,l
time, nearly all could have been saved
As 1t was, at least two or three mil
lions died. Our only consolation is
that II 1t had not been for the Ameri-
can and European relief work many
more millions would have died"
American "Shylocks"?
everything mentioned so far" added
Dr. Nansen, has resulted directly or
indirectly from war. Yet terrible as the
sufferings of the refugees have men,
toned, they are all eclipsed by the hor-
rors through which the Armenian peo-
pie have gone" THE Armenians
were hated and feared because they
were clever and much more gifted
race than the Turks. When the World
War came, and there was no possibility
Of protests by the European powers, the
Turks decided to wipe out the 'ac-
cursed race as the Armenians were
called.
1.-THE first step was to arrest, In April,
1915, the 500 leading Armenians in Con-
stantinople and send them to Asia
Minor, where they disappeared, only
eight Of them being heard of again.
Thus the most important spokesmen
| Of the Armenians were silenced. Then
In June, 1915, began such horrors of
which there Is no parallel In history.
From all the villages of Asia Minor and
Mesopotamia the Armenian Christians
were driven forth on their death march.
The work was done systematically, one
district after another being cleared, SO
that there would be clean sweep of
the entire Armenian people living under
Turkish rule. AS the majority of men
had already been taken for war work,
in which they were gradually killed of,
1t was chiefly q matter Of turning wom-
en-, children and the aged and sick out
of house and home"
DR.. Nansen gives details too horrible
for general reading. Even he adds: 1T
cannot repeat them-it was q hell" 'It
is estimated that at least 1,000,0 900
Armenians were exterminated"
Then he relates the catastrophe of
the Turkish Greek War, when another
| massacre of both Greeks and Armenians
was perpetrated by the Turks, In 1912.
He adds:
when rumors Of what was happening
TO the Armenians reached Europe, the
governments Of the entente powers
promised the Armenians o national
home, independence and perfect liberty,
II they would fight with the entente
armies. These pledges were solemnly
confirmed by Asquith and Lloyd George
as Prime Ministers for Great Britain,
President Wilson for the United States
and Clemenceau for France. Armenian
volunteers to the number of 200,000
sacrificed their lives for the entente
! cause; but when the war ended there
were only words in fulfillment of their
pledges to the Armenians."
Empty words from our entente, plus
the assurance of the Kaiser that he
would remain "eternally the friend" of
| the unspeakable Turk. And now the
Kaiser Is invited to return to Deutsch-
land ueber allies. The 500, ,000, 900
Moslems are unpublished.
These brief quotations from the
blood-curdling description of prisoner
conditions, following the World War,
merely suggest the seriousness OF the
problem now faced by the conference
In Geneva, for the purpose of an In
ternational agreement as to how ciyiii-
zation should conduct itself in any
| future crisis of like character.
How far has civilization really adj
vanced beyond the ideals of the
ancient "barbarians"?
! tcopyrisht. is7ssgby Paul v. Collins,