ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 909, 23 September 1916, Page 5

ARMENIAN ATROCITIES.

A TERRIBLE INDICTMENT. GERMANY RESPONSIBLE. New York, Wednesday. The most barbarous and revolting story published of Turkish atrocities against the Armenians ia printed in the New York Times which is in possession of , phonographs and original documents. The faculty of the German high schoolß at Aleppo, Turkey, lodged a protest with the German Foreign Office, wherein they stated:—"We feel that it is 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 hers, in the exile of wives and children and tha murder of Armenians Owing to the horrible scenes daily near the school our work iB absolutely valueless. Girls, boys and women He around amid the coffins Waiting to receive them. Of 3000 healthy peasant Women driven here from Upper Armenia, only 00 are left and they are reduced to skeletons. _- The good-looking oncn have been decimSted by the vice of their gaolers, and the ugly ones victimised by beatings, hunger and thirst. Those lying at the water's edg9 are not allowed to drink. Europeans are prohibited from distributing bread. Over 100 corpses a*e taken daily from Aleppo. All this is witnessed by high Turkißh officials. Fifty people reduced to skeletons are lying in a heap near the school. They are practically insane, and have forgotten how to eat. The natives declare that the Germans are responsible. The educated Turks and Arabs shake their heads sorrowfully when they see the brutal soldiers drag through the town pregnant women whom they beat with cudgels. The scenes we have witneased ate degrading to mankind, and unless stopped will bo a terrible stain on Germany's honour for generations to como.''

Dr Graetner, in an accompanying letter, says: "This is not only a massacre, but 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 Sivas, and only 350 reached Aleppo. M ny of those were N driven to the Syrian steppes wher* the survivors eke out a miserabe existence I have Been many of the corpses floating in the Euphrates, or lying on the steppes. With few exceptions the Germans witness' these things unperturbed, saying that they are afraid to interfere, lest tbey offend the Turks. , The Armenians at seeing the fate of their compatriots, refused to leave the town, whereupon Count von Wolfakee ordered its bombardment. After 1000 Armenians had surrendered he had not the power to prevent all of them being massacred,