The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2S, 1915. THE ARMENIAN' HORRORS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 231, 28 September 1915, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2S, 1915. THE ARMENIAN' HORRORS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong tlfat nedds resistance, for the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

One of the moßt appalling cpieodce of this terrible war is the 'fate that has overtaken the hapless Armenians. An unwarlike Christian population, eurroimded by ferocious tribes of Moslems, ,T they have been for centuries wholly at the mercy of their cruel rrraeterß, and the • records of .Armenian history hav r always boon deeply stained with blood. There seems to be something in the Armenian i. character which renders this unfortur - nate race peculiarly detestable in the eyes of the Turk—perhaps their euprrior industry and intelligence and their capacity for accumulating wealth, as contracted with the ignorant shiftlesanees and thriftlcssness of the Turkish peasantry. In any <■»*<>, their distaste for war And their appurent Inability to defend themselves h ave left them nn eaey prey to fht< brutal" fanaticism of their rulers, and massacres of the Armenian Christians have recurred periodically in Asia Minor for centuries pant. It was reserved (or Abdul Hamid to devise a' _ systematic policy of Armeniin ntroci-l ties, in which he indulged whenever in! his opinion it was advisable to divert the attention of his sublets from his own shameful misgoverument, or to help them forget the lossee and indignities to which Turkey was exposed under hie rule. The climax of the.se horror* was a reached twenty years when Abdul "■ Hamid appears to have deliberately' initiated a scheme for the extirpation! of the whole Armenian race.. At la*t the, terrible tale of torture, starvation, and; outrage inflicted upon score* of thou-j hands of helple** and innocent victims] • reached the outer world, and induced; England to approach the other Powers - with a proposal for direct intervention' , in A»ia Minor But this proved fruit- j !<■«, and nothing kaved the remnants of; the Armenians but the rapid develop-1 ment of a diplomatic crieie in the Near' East and the pro-occupation of Abdul: Hamid with the many ingeniou* intri i t, gurs by which he so long and so incoei»-| ''fully outwitted and over-reached hUl> ~ enemies, by playing oil one Power or : combination of Ponn against another.j ( It ehould lu-vj-r W forgotten lhat Eng- , land is. in a diplomatic sense, responsible I (or the jvrotevtion of the Armenian*, and j | imbued df all tb<> Chriitian MibjeoU of!', lurkt-y. «f."i:n*t mi*j*overnrrt«Mtt and tyranny. When the Berlin Congrcus. alter tht> Rutso-Turk*h war of IS7B com- ■ i jK-llcd Rnmin to tear up th« Treaty of | > . San Stefano and to nOcept the Treaty of : , ; Berlin. Macedonia was detached ; i from Bulgaria, and the Armenian* were | ■ deprived of the protection that they i would have enjoyed if the boundaries of ] Russia bad been extended further couth ' in As.a Minor. But at the mggr-nion ( of England the Power* agreed to guar- j antee the Chr*tian eubjeeta of Turkey i against any recurrence of such horrors a« the Dulganin atrocitios. which Mr. . Gladstone made so notorious. Of course, j ' it »as understood th»t "moral pressure , ' . was to be brought upon Abdul Hamid ' to secure proper treatment for his sub . joct-v But the Sultan soon discovered . that the Powers were too aelf interested I and too jealous of one another to inter- j ' vene by force, because they wrro con . J vinced that the Turkbth Empire mii-l he t ni.iiutain.-d, le»t a great war should , result from ''the ru»h for the spoil" thnt would be caused by its disruption. Thus < Abdul Hamid learned that he could ' flout the Powers with impunity, and ho j coon proved by experience that no m:it ( ttr what he did in Macedonia and Anne- j nia, they were not likely to go v -oyond < diplomatic remonstrances. To the en riurlng shame of the grent Powers, ' Greece wat the only State that ventured \ to take artne, in We VfcW eflon to rcecuc j ( the wretched Macedonians from the j < Turk. Rut the Powers, not content with j aid her. rebuked her pro , Mimplion snd applauded her defeat. To i siich depttrs • of doaredation doe* the j < doctrine of politicnl expediency lead. J It is true that in ISOn, when the Aγ ; menian atrocities reached a climax of » horror that thrilled the civilised world, J Lord Salisbury npp#»lHl trt R\iwia toL join with England in n scheme of active \ ] intervention in Asia Minor. But Riwsiu J r could hardly be cxpecU-d to foTgrt thnt " I it wa« chiclly berausp Knjjland didi-d with Onnnany 'and Austria asrainst , RiiMia »t Berlin in 187H that Turkey I r ((till -retained the power to tyrannise j x over the 'Macedonians nml Armeniann. i f Thus the BritUh ; proposal wiu-i reiec-ted: and we c'tin hardly dony F that the responsibility. which ling- * land α-ssumed at Berlin for the safety of-the phrjetian subjects of i Turkey has never yet been discharged. It may be some slight consolaUon to, , remember that no British ruler has evor: i deliberately encouraged the Turkish ' tyranny to break loose from all re.■•traint hy-AMnciating himself perD.inally ( in friertdshlp nnd alliance with the < 1 Sultan. Rut tlhoT\aiser in 1807 greeted i I thn Rultnn no, '''friehir afid brother." 1 while Abdul Hamid'e hnnde wore etill ' { reeking with Armenian blood. It ia i ch.irnctiTistic of the (Ifiman attitude n toward such monstrous rrimes that f Count Bernedorff, in the face of an I enormous accumulation of unlmpeaeh- j I able -evidence, should now deny that the r 1 Turks have committed any atrocities in < Armenia. It is hard to imagine what, J good end the German* expect to achieve j i

by Buci puerile evasions oe this. But we may at least hope that the measure of iniquity ie now full for these ■wellmatched allies, and that they will never again be allowed to commit the foul outrapes on suflennp humanity perpetrated by the Germans in France and Belgium, and by the Turks in Armenia.