THE ARMENIAN RACE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 February 1916, Page 10

THE ARMENIAN RACE.

THE TERRIBLE TRAGEDY OP ASIA MINOR. TURKS DELIBERATELY PLANNED EFFACEMENT. The mirage of mystery, equivocation and studied silence has been lifted from 'the deserts of Asia Minor sufficiently, writes -tire Washington correspondent of the Boston Monitor, to enable me to reveal all that is available at this date concerning the- tragedy of exterminated Armenia. The source of the information may not be given, but in that connection'it may he said that it is unquestionable and authoritative. The facts as laid before this bureau confirm the truth of the Crane report, and eonfirm also stray reports that have appeared at intervals since that date, only with this added significance: When the Crane report was published the deliberately planned effacement of the Armenians was in the process of being accomplished. Now it is done, with the exception of a remnant of ihat people ! who either are in Constantinople or are j taking refuge among the Russians in 1 Russian Armenia, or Transcaucasia. In Constantinople and vicinity there are approximately 200,000, while in Caucasia in the district of which Tiflis is the centre, there are 230,000 more Armenians, it is estimated. Some scattering remnants arc Turkish territory occupied bv Russian armies. When it is considered that at the beginning of the year, and before the l'orte put into execution its policy of evtermination, the Armenian people numbered ; 1,750,000, it is seen that at least 1,000,- j 000 of this population have fallen vie- ! tims of the Mohammadans. A REBELLION. - ■ * From 'the same course whence come these facts .it is related that at the beginning of the war the larger portion of the Armenian people were to be found In the country districts, the cities and the hamlets of thei region bounded on the north by the Russian border and the IJlaek Sea. as far west as the western confines of Trebizond province, on the west of Aleppo, on the south by the thirty-eighth degree of latitude and on the cast by Erzerum, Van and Bitlis. As soon as Tuhkey became active in the war the Xrmenian highlands were taken possession of, as was also north-eastern Persia. The Russians later invaded Armenia and also Persia and drove the Turks out, following them into the Armenian highlands. It wag at this time that a portion of the Armenians rose in rebellion against the Tnrks, and it was generally reported at the time that the Armenians captured Van before the arrival of the Russian troops. The city was later recaptured by the Turks, and subscqoently fell into the possession of the Russians.' This minor participation of the Armenians in the war against the ' was really undertaken in _ selfjefence, and in any case was not justitottlon tor what followed. In this action there «rti so evidence of trauof

whatever against the Armenians, though there was no doubt of their sympathy with (the Russians. PLAN OF EXTERMINATION. As told in the Crane committee report, the inauguration of the, Turkish plan of extermination came in the spring. As told in that report the atrocities continued through the summer. Reports that have come out of the country this fall, however, show that the entire region of Armenia lias I been swept clean of its former inhabitants. Only recently the informa'tion reached America that a district near Aleppo, where dwelt 60,000 Armenians, now contains only a few scattered individuals. The others have, been driven into the desert, attacked by Kurds, or have perished on 'the march. Later information as to the methods employed by the Turks show a system, a finesse, a precision and business-like organisation surprising to those who understand the proverbial Turkish way to be the exact opposite to those qualities and ways of doing things. It is as though they had been trained and shown how to accomplish one of the most gigantic crimes in the history of ihe race of men, an enterprise that even the Camel Driver of Mecca himself must have foreseen when he wrote chapter CXI. of the. Koran: | "The hands of Abu Lahed shall perish and he shall perish. His riches shall not profit him, neither that which he hath gained. He shall (?o down to be. ... and his wife also, bearing wood, having 011 her neck a cord of twisted fibres of a palm tree." The story of what happened in ">ie district or town is the story of all. The soldiers had one thing to do, and one 1 method of doing it. They would come j to a village and the first move in every ! case was to summon all'the Armenians, I men, women and children, to assemble.

BRUTAL METHODS. | As soon as the people had obeyed the order the soldiers went about and seized their property, and the people were at once started off under a small "escort'' towards the desert. Thoy had little to feat or drink, and were subject daily to the attacks of the Kurds, which attacks invariably left fewer to continue the march. Nor is this all, but it is all of the details of their march that can be told ill the Monitor, Invariably the soldiers failed to protect their charges. Never was there any deviation from the set method. It was a steady process from one end of the region to the other, ending, so far as the information at hand goes, with the extermination of the district before referred to, where 80,000 persons have disappeared. And those that are left in Constantinople and vicinity are subjected to extortionate taxes and are bereft of their goods, while the younger men are forced into the Turkish army. j PUT OFFICIALLY. The only official information that has come from the region that lias been given out for publication, and that at the request of the Turkish authorities, is » note from the American Consul at Trebizond, who «aii>

"A commission has been formed at Trebizond by the. Governor-General for the purposo of taking possession and selling the property of the Armenian population, which has been banished from that province. Persons having claims against Armenians are invited to present the same to the. commission in order that they may bo examined, and, if found in order, registered. There were a great many Armenian merchants and commission agents in Trebizond, some of ivhom had extensive dealings with Europe and England. It is not. believed that Armenian firms have claims of any great impor?- :icc. Tf there are any claims, however, an itemised statement, duly sworn to before a notary ] public and certified by a Turkish Consul in America, might be sent to [lie consulate, to be presented to the commission." Ambassador Morgenthau, at Constantinople, is still waiting for a reply to ■ the message he delivered to the Turkish [ Government protesting against the Ar- j monian atrocities, but no answer has been given and no attention has been I paid to this Government's action. j INSTAXC'ES. I A a result of late reports received by the Armenian Relief Committee, these particular instances are cited: A consul of a friendly Power has reported that he has examined a large caravan of Armenian refugees, driven .from their homes, who had travelled 200 miles without shelter and little .food, and found that about 50 per cent, of the number that had originally started out had perished by the road, The journey then was only half done. Another mail, for whom this committee can vouch, passed 011 (lie railroad from Angora to Constantinople, within two or three days, as many as 50,DU0 refugees. Other reports tell that cities with Armenian populations of 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 and more lmve been entirely depopulated. In other cities from half to one-third of the Armenians have gone and those remaining are being continually threatened. Many have accepted Mohammadanism to save their lives and large numbers of women have been driven into Moslem harems. Official representatives of neutral Powers have reported that two or three weeks ago there were coming into some of the centres of North Syria and Mesopotamia great masses of survivors from caravans and that 'the aggregate numbered scores of thousands, with the stream flowing on without abatement. 1