ARMENIAN RELIDEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18458, 23 July 1923, Page 10

ARMENIAN RELIDEF.

f SUCCOURING ORPHANS. '. ':■ WORK IN PALESTINE. The care which is being taken of the many thousands of refugee . Armenian orphans by relief organisations in Syria and '■■; Palestine, wis described by the Bev. James ; E'vCresßwell, national secretary for Australia for , the Australasian Armenian Belief Fund, in a lecture at the Y.M.O.A.' yesterday afternoon. Mr. Cresswell explained that last year Australia contributed between £15.000 and £20,000, besides goods, toward the relief of the sufferers, and the bulk of the ■■ money raised was-spent, in Australian ; foodstuffs and goods, which were sent to the relief centres." He had been sent to get first-hand information before the work \ of consolidating the organisation in Australia and New Zealand was commenced. He came back with the feeling that a great work was being done in giving thousands of orphans, who bad been through terrible experiences, succour and hope lor the future. He was particularlyinterested in the Australasian orphanage at Antilyas, which was controlled by Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Knudsen, of Ohrißtchurch, and' occupied by Armenian orphans, • who had been driven out of Anatolia by the Turks. <In all there . were 14 orphanges in Pales-, tine and Syria,"including one at Naiareth, and ij three at Jerusalem, while ' the American relief was raising funds for a large orphanage at Bethlehem for children who are to be brought out of Aleppo, Constantinople had its refugees to whom relief is given. ! ''■ :£'■ "''.•'".'■.'-:' Mr. Cresswell spoke most appreciatively of the attitude of the Greek Government, which had ; handed over large buildings for the accommodation of Armenians, and Anatolian Greeks.' It was estimated- that Greece now ; held about 1$ millions of these destitute people. While the Near; East relief has many thousands: of these Unfortunate™ under its care, its agents, estimate that there are another 50,000 yet to come out of Anatolia, bo. that the refugee problem is not yet over. ' In Eussia Armenian relief is being given to 20,005 erpftana, 18.000 of whom 'are at ihfc isAlexanafenople Military Barracks, which were handed over by the Bolshevik authorities to the Near East Belief Coxaraittee.

A number of pictures, illuslrating conditions in the various orphanages were shown by the spe&ke?, who stated that the children were -being educated and trained in many forms of industry. y The Armenians were, be said, ? divided into three distinct types. There were the hardy Zeytounlits,"of.the mountains, who-! had retained their independence since the fourteenth century until they were almost all massacred in ' the * present war. r Then, there were the agriculturists of the plains, and, thirdly, y the business ' men and artisans .of tnrj towns. They were all intelligent. : industrious,, and frugal. Earl Cromer had described tnem as the-cream of the peoples of the Near East. In the Great War they had lost more fighting men in proportion to tKeir numbers IKan | any of they Allies.:;; 'ji ':