ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

Taihape Daily Times, 9 March 1918, Page 6

ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

Some further revolting details of the massacres of Armenians by Turkish peasants are given by the Rev. G. E. White, president of the Anatolia College, Marsovan, Northern Asia Minor, who has recently returned to America. • "One group of our college boys asked permission to sing before they died, and they sang 'Nearer my God, to Thee.' Then they were struck down," Dr. White said. "On the pretext of searching for deserting soldiers, concealed bombs, weapons, seditious literature, or revolutionists, the Turkish officers arrest: ed about 1200 Armenian men at Marsovan, accompanying their investigations by horrible brutalities. There was no revolutionary activity in our region whatever. "The men were sent out in lots of one or two hundred in night 'deportations' to the mountains, where trenches had been prepared. Coarse peasants, who were employed to do what was done, said it was a 'pity to waste bullets,' and they used axes. "Then the Turks turned on the women and children, the old' men and little boys. Scores of ox carts were gathered, and in the early dawn, as they passed, the squeaking of their wheels left memories that make the blood curdle even now. Thousands (of women and children were swept away. "Where? Nowhere. No "fiestination was stated or intended. Why? Simply because they were Armenians and Christians, and were in the hands of the Turks. "Girls and young women were snatched away at every turn on the journey t The girls sold at Marsovan for from two to four dollars each. I know, because I heard the conversation of men engaged in the traffic I know, because I was able to ransom three girls at the price of £l."