PRIVATIONS OF ARMENIANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18774, 30 January 1923, Page 9

PRIVATIONS OF ARMENIANS

“INDESCRIBABLE MISERY.” The following appeal, issued by Friends of Armenia, whose address is 47 Victoria street, Westminster, S.W.I, was received by the last mail : “It is well known that this is a very critical time in the history of the Armenian people. Our hopes for them of improved conditions and protection from their enemies have, alas! been shattered. Continued disappointment, fear, and oppression are the burdens laid unon them, and the appalling conditions in the Near East to-day tire unprecedented. “Thousands of refugees have not onlv suffered the hardships of exile, while driven from their towns and villages to already overcrowded seaports, but their sufferings have been greatly accentuated by the complete lack of accommodation in the towns to which they have been forced to go. Hundreds have already fallen victims to typhoid. “A large percentage of this suffering mass of humanity consists of weak, helpless, and emaciated children, who, without the loving care of relief workers there, must inevitably die from starvation and neglect. “Constantinople and Beirut arc centres of indescribable misery. From the former city Miss Burgess writes: ‘Our poor are obliged to remain here, so we remain to look after them. Refugees swarm around us, and we shall show in a very practical way that God is, through the sympathy and generosity of His children, showing them that He cares. We are now faced with the threatened expulsion of all Christians from Asia Minor, but wo hope that our orphans which we moved to the Lebanon will be safe, at any rate, for the present.’ “Miss Davies, writing from Syria, reports: ‘Armenian refugees are beginning to come from Smyrna to Beirut, which means that the need for relief is going -to increase tremendously. What are they going to do here) herded together in places not fit for cattle to live in?’ “In face of such terrible privations our workers continue their devoted work of uplifting these discouraged refugees. The only hope oi saving lives is to send immediate assistance. “In the name of Christ we feci constrained to appeal to you for a continuance of your loyal support, which will be forwarded to those for whom given as soon as possible.”