HELPING THE HELPLESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12698, 21 July 1919, Page 5

HELPING THE HELPLESS.

SAVING WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

RED GROSS WORK IN ASIA MINOR.

(By MAJOR SOLOMON LOAVENSTEIN, of tho American Red Cross Commission to Palestine, in tho ‘‘New York Herald.”) AVo guessed by the long curls that it was a little girl who stood blocking our road on tho way to the refugee camp in Aleppo. When she looked up and we saw the tear-stained, distressed brown eyes wo felt sure of it. But her dress ! It seemed impossible that any mother, no matter how poor, could let her daughter appear in such a ragThe girl Was hugging her thin little body with her arms, “I think TTI take her picture to send back. It will speak louder than words of the suffering and hardships out here,” I said to Colonel Finley, head of our commission. “ Tell her to take down her arms, or the picture will be spoiled,” Colonel Finley answered, addressing our Moslem guide. He spoke a few ■words in bis strange language. The child hesitated just a, minute. Her lips quivered visibly. “Oh. please,” her eyes said, although we could not understand the language in which she spoke. But years of terror had taught unquestioning obedL ence. The arms were put down, slowly. A deep red covered the child’s face. She stood before us; the _ rag! that had served as a dress had fallen to the ground. It was sights like this, repeated constantly, that made us understand the extremity of the suffering these Armenian refugees were undergoing and showed ns something of the problems ahead of us in our work of instituting Red Gross relief. In this particular case the immediate need was satisfied. Tho child w 7 as promptly furnished wit/, clothes, all the clothes she needed. But the problem goes much deeper than that—what to do with the thousands of refugee children driven far from their parents by the onrush of the Turks. Thousands of other children had seen their parents slaughtered. They were far from home, unable to Cave for themselvesRESCUED FROM THE STREETS. Our answer to the cry for immediate help was the establishment of orphanages. Hero in America, wo speak of orphan children as being rescued from the streets. AA'o use it as a figure of speech. Out in Sidon and Aleppo and Damascus that phrase has a terrible and literal meaning. AA’o used to go out ut night in machines, picking up the children lying in tho street, most of them without clothing. All were in, a starving condition. Many were too starved to bo saved. But we managed, to rescue hundreds of children in this ■way. Starvation was almost the rule in Asia Minor- In Lebanon tbe Moslems were organising a sort of starvation campaign, deliberately ridding themselves of the Syrian population by starving them out. In Sukh-el-Garbh ■we were told that thirty people were dying 'of hunger. Many of these could have been saved if food had reached them in time. AVo began immediately to open soup kitchens. The soup—a surprise dish containing unexpected slices of meat and many different vegetables—was prepared in. a central kitchen and sent around by machines in large tins to the various distributing centres. In one mouth oyer 70,000 portions were served in Beirut alone. It was very palatable soup. I have acquired the habit, through years r, t experience as superintendent of the Hebrew Asylum, of sampling everj'thing before it is given out. I was very glad to finish the generous plateful to which I was helped. Their fear of the Turks amounted to panic- In Arutab wo found a group of men, -women and children huddled over little stoves in the crypt of an old half mined church, iu actual terror ol their lives. MANY TAKEN FROM HAREMS, Fear for their lives was not even the worst terror. AA'omen were seized m largo numbers by the Turks to be taken to their harems. The problem of rescuing these women was one of the most difficult we had to grapple with. AA e worked on every clew. Our reward was the rescue of hundreds. Large numbers of these women had undergone terrible suffering and degradation. In £ ases tlley W6ro kindly treated. AVo collected on one occasion 150 women m the barracks in Damascus who were to be repatriated. An hour before they were to go a raid was made on tho barracks. A Moslem who had seized one of these girls was resolved to keep his prize at any cost. Wo discovered his plot in time to win back tie girl, who was sent safely to her parents- “ East is East and AVcrt i s AVest.” a T SGOVere d the truth of this in our efforts to institute our way of solving the problems. For example, in Jerusalem we insisted on having beds for the children m the orphanages. ‘ Tho people bod never seen European beds, -vt first they were interested. AATien we wanted to place tho children in tno beds they were horrified. AVOi'oever heard of a child sleeping in a box like p w/ aH °V ly tlieir worship of the Red Cross # that made them give in, shaking their heads in a wav that plamly said, “What will those queS people do next?” They trust the Red Cross implicitly. .° mm iw ti,c woik of the Red Cross in Asia Minor m m the words of the hero of a recent V! a - S \, Ksked if he was gome to do all the things that Napoleon did, lie answered lin going to do all the, things.Napoleon left undone.” That is the work of the Red Cross as our commission understood it—to do all the odd yobs that nobodv else ha" done, to bring the relief that no one else could bring.

The only undisputed locnlitv in the Hfe of Jesus Christ is Jacob’s "Well It is a mile and a. half east of Shechem Although it is 75ft deep, it never lias more than a fern feet of water in it ■'t any time.; generally it is dry. Tt I s excavated out of the solid rock and 55 about 9ft in diameter. Xo student °f the Holy Land has ever disputed the authenticity of this well as the original Jacob’s Well. Douglas Fairbanks never .wanted to be an actor. He wanted to be a miner. Horn m Denver, he went to the Colorado School of Mines, but didn’t care much for the classroom. He was one o! those fellows who. in college, appeared able to turn themselves to anyih.ing without an effort. He wanted lo leave college and go, right out to the mines, but his relatives, advised him to remain and graduate; Howevei, no went away ‘ f on. his own.” a theiitriGal troupy giving hi ;n lug fust op. , ; “^bg*.**-*-——, r -f"