THE MIDDLE EAST.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17280, 22 September 1916, Page 5

THE MIDDLE EAST.

GERMAN BARBARITY.

ARMENIANS’ DREADFUL SUFFERINGS.

“SCENES DEGRADING TO

MANKIND.”

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.

NEW YORK* September 20.

A most barbarous and revolting story is published of Turkish atrocities against Armenians. , . It is printed by the ‘‘New York Times.” which is in possession of photographs and original documents.'. It . states that the faculty of the German High School at Aleppo, y in Turkey, lodged it protest,with the German Foreign Office in which it is statedWe feel it our duty to .draw the attention of the Foreign Office, to the fact that it is impossible to carry on school work unless Germany .ends the'brutalities inflicted bore on the exiled wives and children of murdered Armenians. “-Owing to the horrible scenes daily near the school, our work is absolutely valueless. “ Girls, boys aud women, practically naked, lie on the ground amid the coffins waiting to receive them. Of 300(1 healthy peasant women driven her* from Upper Armenia, only fifty ar* loft. They were reduced to skeletons. The good-lcokiug ones have been decimated by the vice of their gaolers, and. tho. ugly ones victimised by beatings, hunger and thirst. “Those lining, tho water’s edge are . not allowed to drink, and Europeans •

If) ~ are prohibited from distributing bread. Over one hundred corpses are taken ' daily from Aleppo, and all this is witnessed by. high Turkish olticials “Fifty poople, reduced to skeletons, E : aro'-lying in a heap near the school. They are practically insane and nave forgotten ho\v to eat. Natives declare ‘ that the Germans aro responsible, ancl • ' educated Turks and Arabs shako their ■heads sorrowfully when they see the brutal soldiers drag through the town pregnant women, whom they beat with cudgels.. “The scenes w: have witnessed are degrading to mankind, and unless they ere stopped will bo a terrible stain on • •Germany’s honour for generations to come.” - . . Doctor Graetner, in an accompanying • letter, says: —“This is not only a massacre, but ail attompt to exterminate the Armenians in Turkey., Talaatßey’s officials cynically admitted this, to a Gorman Consul. Of 18,000 Armenians ■ driven out of Kharput and Sivas, only .V 350 reached Aleppo. Many of. those* were driven over the Syrian steppes, -" * where the survivors have a. miserable V existence. “I have seen many corpses floating in the Euphrates and lying on the iteppes, and with few exceptions the !' Germans witness these things unperturbed, saying 'that they aro afraid to interfere, lest they olfend the Turks. V . - • _ ■* “ Armenians at Urfa, seeing the fate of their compatriots, refused to leave the town, whereupon Count'Wolf von AVolfskel ordered a bombardment. After 1000 Armenians ' had surrendered, lie said that he had no power to prevent it, and all were massacred.”