A REVOLTING STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1916, Page 4

A REVOLTING STORY.

BRUTALITIES OF THE TURKS. CONIDOXjED 1?Y THE GERMAN'S. Australian-N.Z. Cable Association. New York, Sept. 20. The moot barbarous and revolting story vot published of Turkish atrocities against the Armenians is printed in the Now \ ork Times, which is in possession of photographs of the original documents. The faculty of tiie German High School, Aleppo, Turkey, lodged a protest with the German Foreign Office, in which it stated: —"We feel it our duty to draw the attention of the Foreign' Office ten tlie fact that it is impossible to carry out school work unless Germany ends the brutalities inflicted here on the exiled wives and children of murdered Armenia ans. : "Owing to the horrible scenes daily; near o.ur school our work is absolutely valueless. Girls, boys and women, practically naked, lie on the ground amid coffins waiting to receive them. Of 3000 healthy peasant women driven here from Upper Armenia only 50 are left, and they; are reduced to skeletons. The good" looking ones are decimated by the vice! of their gaolers, and the ugly ones victimised by beatings, hunger and thirsty Those lining the water's edge are not allowed to drink, and Europeans aro prohibited from distributing bread. Over 100 corpses are taken daily from Aleppo. "All this lias been witnessed by high Turkish officials. Fifty people, reduced to skeletons, are lying in a heap near the school, and are practically insane, and have forgotten how to eat. The natives declare that the .erraans are responsible. Educated Turks and Arabs shake their heads sorrowfully when they see the bmtal soldiers drag through the town pregnant women whom they beat with cudgels. "The scenes we have 'witnessed are degrading to mankind, and unless they are stopped they will be a serious Btain on Germany's honor for generations to eoine." ' Dr. flraetner. in an accompanying lettor, says: "This is not only a massacre, '.nit an attempt to exterminate the Armenians in Turkey. Talaat Bey's officials cynically admitted this to .the German Consul. Eighteen thousand Armenians were driven out of Charput and Siva*, and only S')() l'Mched Aleppo, Many of those weve driven into the Syrian steppes, where the survivors lead a miserable existence. They had seen many corpses floating in the Euphrates and lying on the steppes. '•with few exceptions Germans witness these things unperturbed, saying they are afraid to interfere test tliey offend the Turks. "The Armenians in t'rfa, seeing the fate of their compatriots, refused to leave the town, whereupon Count Wolf von Wolfskel ordered its bombardment, and, after l( ,p '.' Armenians had surrendered, he had not power to prevent all being massacred."