THE BUTCHERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17181, 26 October 1923, Page 11

THE BUTCHERS.

BLOODLESS MASSACRES IN ARMENIA. TERRIBLE REPROACH TO CIVILISATION. (London Correspondent Sydney ” Sunday Sun.”) “ Talcs of butchery and death became so commonplace, during the war period that the world heard them with scarcely a shudder. But actual contact with the victims of a cruel, cyni-. cal. remorseless aggregation of fanatics, the still terrible Turk, makes the blood creep, and man almost loses bis faith in civilisation.” In these words Mr Ernest Bryce, of Sydney, who, with bis wife, has just returned from a tour of Armenia, Asia Minor and tli© Balkans, expressed his ! utter abhorrence of the Turks and his sympathy with their victims, the Armenians. His mission was the result of a voluntary offer to investigate conditions in Armenia in the interests of the* Australian Armenian 'Relief Fund to determine whether the Armenians are really worth helping Ilis decision is that they are. He and his wife tell the most harrowing tales of Turkish oppression, injustice and callousness. Organised, butchery lias temporarily ceased, but they are driving the Armenians from pillar to post with the most heinous cruelty, sending them on long treks over foodless and waterless tracts, wholy unprepared for travel and totally unprovided for, with the result that their path is strewn with their dead. Fifty thousand were sent from Siras to Mersine. It was one. of the most awful journeys in the history of the world, for only four hundred reached their destination. There may be no butchery. But it- is bloodless massacre, and that i« more cruel than the rifle or the sword. REPROACH TO CIVILISATION. I The an fill plight of the Armenians is ! a terrible reproach to civilisation, j They are si nation without a, country, j -V'l the promises of the Allies that with the overthrow of the Turk the Armenians would come into their rightful inheritance, have been broken, and these unhappy people remain as they were before the war. Being naturally thrifty and industrious, and generally of a. very much higher mentality than their oppressors, the. Armenians, if left nlor.e, flourish wherever/they are. But the Turk will not allow them to settle anywhere. They are driven out of their homes, their property and gpods are j confiscated, and they arc forced to I crowd into the already congested cities, where they live in surroundings too horrible to describe. At- Aleppo 10,000 live in a dank, dark cave fit only for ?>ats. A GHOULISH STORY. Mr and Mrs Bryce found plentiful evidences of murder and torture, ana the most cold-blooded disregard of hie At I rfa, in Asia Minor, they heard a ghoulish story of the ejection from the town of the Armenian colony. The people were assembled, and ordered to mar oh along a snow-covered road. Those who murmured were bayonetted. Those who traversed the road were mowed down with machine guns. They saw victims of butchery, girls with noses and ears ami limbs iufc off. T hey learned how thousands 'of the women-folk of all ages were sold into slavery, or. if they possessed any charms, distributed amongst the harems. The majority of the men were butchered. Some were driven over precipices, and if they fell on their knees, asking for mercy, they wero thrown over on the points of bayonets. One Turkish governor, aghast at the fearful excesses, protested. He was summoned to Mo-sul, and on the way was ambushed and shot. There is no room in that country for humanity. TURKISH PROPAGANDA. Mr Bryce is satisfied that the stories that the Armenian is reallv not worth saving ,s so much Turkish ‘propaganda, j Ho strongly sympathises with them, r*- : garding them as a very desirable peo- | pie, who. if befriended by son:o of the stronger Western powers, would rapidly grown in strength and prosperity. They arc\ he says, as much a white race as any of the southern Europeans. even ginger with blue eyes. For a time it looked as though Armenia would be allowed to settle* in comparative peace in Cilicia, the northern part of Syria, which is exceedingly fertile. But in the maelstrom of politics Cilicia was returned to the Turks, and out went half a million Armenians to wander up and down the country, cursed and cuffed wherever they went. The life of an Armenian is not worth a paper mark. WILL AUSTRALIA TAKE BOYS? There are 100,000 orphans under the car© of relief organisations throughout the large towns of Asia Minor and surrounding countries. What is to become of them? America takes its quota of Armenian immigrants, and Canada has just accepted an experimental party of 100. Should Australia follow that lead? Air Bryce thinks it should, provided that the Canadian trial proves satisfactory. He is confident that it will be successful, because he considers that the Armenians are industrious, clever, and independent. They could be given the same treatment a. Dreadnought boys, and the whole expense of shipment to Australia would gladly bo borne by the American relief organisation. The only alternative to I the cutting or Turkish claws is to pro- • vide another country for these lads | when they grow into men. There would not be much point in making men or them to provide material for the Turk-