AN' APPEAL FOR ARMENIA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 211, 25 May 1918, Page 8

AN' APPEAL FOR ARMENIA

Sir,—Among the many calls on publio generosity thero is one more piteous than any-the last cry of Armenia's five centuries of martyrdom under the lurk.. It is, of course, impossible for British i agents to reach them on their own soil,, but the "Friends of- Armenia" are send- ( ing supplies to America, the American; missionaries being still allowed h) continue the relief work they have so en-. thusiastically and faithfully carried out for years. No pen can paint the horrors which this unhappy people have suffered during these two years of deliberate massacre. At least one million have' perished; over two millions are homeless and starving; five hundred thousand are refuses in British, Kussian, and Persian territory, and avcalso destitute. Speedy help is needed if the Armenian nation is not to perish utterly (his winter. , .• The Armenians appeal to British justice' no less than to British pity. When Lord Beaconsfield. at the Berlin Congress of 1878, made our ill-omened compact with Turkey, ho promised on Brit- f ain's behalf -lifo and security for oppressed Armenia. On that understanding ltiißsia was- refused -the .suzerainty over Armenia, which the other Powers would then have granted her. But Armenia was then left without protest to Turkish morcies. .What a etrong Russian Armenia would have meant to us during this war all can see. But while we have been punished for our timid and crooked Eastern policy, Armenia has died for it. Only' those who, know the inner history of the Middle East can estimate what America has dono and given there of. Into years; but the relief of Armenia, I at least, is more our affair than hers., sineo but for our interference she would ■ for forty years have been one of tho.not] unprosperoue Traiie-Caucasian provinces of Kussia, aiid a powerful factor on the j Eastern front to-day, or rather yeste!-i day, when Eussian arms still counted in the fight. ~-,', ; 'Funds given to the "Friends of Armenia" are not war charities, and are, in no danger of being diverted or misappropriated under organisation already perflated during nineteen years. A • pound a month will now save a life. The smallest, donations arc welcome, when sent to E. Wright Brooks, 47 Victoria Street, ' Westminster, London.--! nm, etc., JESSIE MACKA.Y.