A DREADFUL STORY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2883, 22 September 1916, Page 5

A DREADFUL STORY

BARBAROUS AND REVOLTING ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA HUNS INDICTED-BY THEIR OWN COUNTRYMEN Australian-New -Zealand, Cable Association, New York, September 20. The most barbarous and .revolting story yet published of the ' Turkish atrocities against the Armenians is prmted_ in. tho "Now York Times," which is in possession of photographs and tho original documents. The story states that the faculty of tho German High School. at Aleppo, in Turkey, lodged a protest , with the German Foreign Office, in which it stated: "Wo feci it our duty,to draw tho attontion of tho Foreign Office to the fact that it is impossible to.carry- on-the school work unless Germany ends tho brutalities inflicted! bore on the exiled wives and children of murdered Armenians. Owing to tho horrible scenes which occur daily near the school our -work is absolutely valueless. Girls, boys, and women, practically naked, lie on the groirnd amid the coffins waiting to receive them. Of 3000 healthy peasant women driven hero from Xlpper Armenia, only'fifty are left, and they are reduced to skeletons. The goodlooking "ones are decimated by the vice of their gaolers, and. tho ugly ones are victimised by beatings, hunger, and thirst. Those living at the water's edge are not allowed 1 to drink. Europeans are, prohibited from distributing bread. Over a hundred: corpses lire taien daily from Aleppo. Terrible stain on Cormany's. Honour. "All ,this is witnessed by the high Turkish \offictals. Fifty people, reduced to skeletons, are. lying m a heap near tlie school. They aro practically insane and have forgotten how to eat. The" natives declare that the Germans are responsible. The educated Turks and Arabs shake their heads sorrowfully when they see brutal soldiers drag through the town pregnant women, whom they" heat with cudgels. The scenes 'we have 'witnessed are degrading to mankind, and unless they are stopped will .be a terrible stain on Germany's honour for generations to come." 5 < "Dr. Graetuer, in an accompanying letter, says: "This is not only massacre, but an attempt to exterminate the' Armenians from Turkey. Talaat Bey's officials cynically admitted this to the German tionsul. Eighteen thousand Armenians were driven out of Kharput and Sivas, but only 350 reached Aleppo. Many of these were driven to tlie Syrian steppes, where the survivors have a miserable existence.. ' I have seen many corpses floating in the Euphrates and lying on the steppes. With few exceptions-Germans who witness these things are unperturbed, saying they are afraid to interfere lest they offend the Turks. Armenians at Urfa, seeing the fate of their compatriots, refused to leave the, town, whereupon Count Wolf von Wolfskel ordered a bombardment. After a thousand Armenians had surrendered ho not the power to prevent them all being massacred'." DESPOILERS OF OUR SOLDIERS OUTSPOKEN ADDRESS BY BISHOP ' OF LONDON. Australian-New Zealand Cable Association. London, September 20. The Bishop of London (the Right Rev. Winnington Ingram), in an outspoken address in tho open air in Piccadilly, denounced "those male hawks, for whom shooting is too good, who nightly lay in wait to stain tlie chivalry of our soldier boys." The Bishop also denounced mu6ic-hall promenades and writers and producers of slimy plays, which. the soldiers. did not -want. (Rec. Septembor 21, 5.20 p.m.) London, September 20. The Bishop added that these "malo hawks" were walking Piccadilly, taking the money, which helpless and trembf ing girls had earned by their shame. "It is the duty of middle-aged men, •who are not allowed to fight, and the women of London, to purgo the heart of the Empire of these things , before the boys come hack. If we still have the old London, our dead will have died in vain."