" WORSE THAN BELGIUM."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16035, 29 September 1915, Page 8

" WORSE THAN BELGIUM."

OUTRAGES IN ARMENIA, MURDER AND TORTURE. THOUSANDS HOMELESS.

The secretary of the American Armenian Relief Fund. Mr. John A. Rowell, of New York, recently issued the following appeal ■ in behalf of thousands of destitute Armen-

Lans :— ■ •''".;"•• " Among the greatest sufferers by th«": European war have been the Armenians, mk Their condition is even worse than thrill of the Belgians. Massacres by the Kurds and Turks have again broken out, accom- _. panied with atrocities. A multitude of Armenians whose homes had been ruined and burned have fled across the frontiers from Turkey and Persia into Russia. There are about 100,000 of these refugees, most of them "women and children. ' Never. gtSs my life have I seen such suffering,' writes? TolstoFs daughter, Alexandra, who is serving with the Red Cross near the irontier. " Some of the refugees in her hospital had had their hands and feet cut off. AS were emaciated and in tatters. They are not only destitute, but Broken-hearted, many having seen their husbands and cMl* dren slaughtered before their eyes. •>, Ac-Jagg cording to a later despatch from TiSis, , under date of August 10, 225,000, Armenians have abandoned their country with the retreating Russian army, and are taking refuge in Trans-Caucasia. "In Turkey, where every able-bodied man has been forced into the army, the" condition of the women and children ii even worse, the ravages of famine and pestilence being added ■ to those of Kurdish savagery. In one town not a grown person was found—only 500 orphans. " The Armenians of Van were successful in repulsing the attacks of the Kurds and Turks until the arrival of the Russian army. Thus thev saved themselves, awl||| upward of 50,000 helpless men and women with children, who had flocked there from! the surrounding villages. But this heroid ;:. deed caused intense irritation to the Turks) and Kurds, and it cost the lives of many more thousands of Armenians in the . districte of Bitlis, Mardin, and Diarbekir. J* " Speaking of the Christian population of these regions, a circular of the Amen--can Board of Foreign Missions, undes * ' date of August 4, says: — ■ "The suffering among them is beyond •-. description, and the need of help immediate and overwhelming. - --J f~& ( " Most heartrending is the fate of the in- .-_; habitants of many towns in Armenia and ' Asia Minor, who" have been exiled whole- ' sale, and whose homes and lands have ■; been' given to Mahommedan immigrants from Balkan countries. The men of thesefamilies have been detained for some un- : known purpose, and the women and c v ii-' i dren sent to distant parts in Mesopotat ia and Konia, to live in unhealthy places, or ' rather to perish, far from friends and coreligionists. ..~~Tf£ I "From under this terrible weight of woe Armenia appeals to the kind-hearted American people. The Armenian colonies" „ established in the United States and in other parts of the world have made great '; efforts to relieve their people in the mother country. They have already raised among themselves, and sent to the prope* agencies for distribution, hundreds of thousanls of dollars. But the misery is so great and so widespread that help from , i other sources is urgently needed." *."'ij