THE ARMENIAN HERALD CONTRIBUTORS' COLUMN FOR AUGUST NUMBER

Rene Pinon whose article, The Duty of Turk. He was in a position to review Neutrals to Armenia, appears in this the whole situation better than any one issue, is an eminent French writer, some else because he had serenity of mind and of whose works have been crowned by impartiality of spirit. the French Academy. He has specialized in International subjects and his works— Mrs. Bertha Sullivan Papazan, we are The Empire the Mediterranean, Eu of glad to repeat, is one of our regular con rope and the Ottoman Empire, Europe tributors. In this number she casts a and the Young Turks —have made of glance on the classic hymns of ancient him an undisputed authority on Near Armenian literature and finds that the Eastern questions. In 1916 he published poem of Professor Lelujian's, A in the Review des Deux Mondes a com Earth, contains the same prehensive article, on the suppression of Handful of elements of poetical technique and loft; the Armenians, which attracted consid spirit which characterise the ancient Ar erable attention and in which the author menian hymns. gave it as his opinion that the plan of deporting the Armenians was German in its essence, but that the execution thereof Mr. Aharonian's Homage to Thte, was Turkish. The present article is a which we present to our readers this translation from the original French and month, is another fine example of modern it first appeared in La Voix de VArmenie, Armenian prose. It is one of the bes of which M. Rene Pinon is the principal and most characteristic of his composi editor. tions. We shall continue to give to our readers, so far as space permits, other specimens of Armenian literature, for we Rolin-Jacquemyns' concluding part of are convinced that the reader is able to the masterly study on Armenia and In obtain from literature a more accurate ternational Treaties is published in this impression of the essential spirit of on issue. Although more than a quarter of race than he would be able to receive a century has elapsed since the eminent from other sources. We shall naturally jurist's papers appeared in the Belgian give preference to those pieces which, in Review on International Law, the facts addition to their literary quality, reflect and arguments therein have not lost a somewhat the present conflict. Aha particle of their strength. It was indis ronian's final appeal in the present work pensable to republish these articles for is being heeded at this moment in the the opinions of the disinterested jurist, Caucasus where the Armenians are still have great weight and authority, con defending themselves against the bar cerning the unreformed and incorrigible barities of the Turks and the Tartars. THE ARMENIAN HERALD VOLUME 1 AUGUST, 1918 NUMBER 9

TURKISH MACHIAVELISM

HAVING ruthlessly slaughtered about a million of the defenceless Ar menian population, annihilated a large section of the Hellenic race and reduced considerably the Maronite and Syrian inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turks, satiated with blood and plunder, are endeavor ing by methods best known to them to ingratiate themselves with Amer ica and the Entente Powers. They are straining every nerve to make them and the survivors of their innumerable misdeeds forget and condone their inhuman policy in the past. The banishing of a tyrant like Abdul- Hamid and the proclamation of parliamentary institutions were not of a nature to modify the course of history in the Ottoman Empire. Turkey was rotten to the core, and charters of liberty and "Reform Bills" were unable to modify in the least the Turkish soul and Turkish mentality. As the poet once said,

"While the world rolls on from age to age,

And realms of thought expand ; Turkey stands without expanse or range, Stiff as a dead man's hand."

More than a century ago a great French thinker and philosopher in an imperishable book, The Ruins, heralded the approaching fall of the Ottoman Empire, in these striking words : "The Hour of destiny has arrived; it strikes the ear; the catastrophe is about to begin." He predicted the uprising of all the subject races of Turkey—the Arabs, the Armenians, the Greeks and others. His descriptions of the condition of the Turkish Empire, the excesses of the dominant Turk, the sufferings of the conquered races, and the grievances of the latter against their un speakable 'masters' were as true in an aggravated form on the threshold of the present war as they were when the eminent philosopher penned them. Still the Ottoman Empire survived another century and its emas culation has been gradual. That tottering edifice would have been out lawed long ago but for the jealousies of the Great Powers of Europe.

467 468 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

For more than a century they clung to that exploded doctrine of the Bal ance of Power with which was so closely bound up the "Integrity of the Ottoman Empire." The events of the last four years, the participation of Turkey in this world war on the side of the Central Powers, and against those very powers, like England and France, who shed their most precious blood in the Crimean War to uphold the "Integrity" doctrine, the dastardly extermination of all the elements of progress in her realm, have once for all shattered, in the opinion of all those who have studied seriously Near Eastern affairs, all hopes for the regeneration of Turkey. The liquidation of Turkey is, we may assert, already absorbing the attention of the liberal and democratic nations. The Young Turks know this and are taking all due measures of precaution to ward off the im pending danger. They are camouflaging America to heart's content ; at least they believe they have succeeded in doing so. No one has defined the distinguishing characteristic of Ottoman diplomacy more accurately than the eminent Belgian Jurist, Rolin Jacquemyns, when he said that, "It is a facility in assimilating the administrative and constitutional jargon of civilized countries, consummate cunning in taking advantage of this aptitude to conceal, under deceptive appearances, the barbarous reality of great deeds and intentions ; cool audacity in making promises which there is neither the power nor the desire to make good ; and finally, a paternal and oily tone, intended to create the impression that the Turkish Government is the victim of unjust prejudice and odious calum nies." All the successive Turkish statesmen, be they old or new Turks, have been the embodiment of this Neo-Machiavelism which has been hood-winking Europe and America for the last century or so. But the deception cannot be prolonged. The Turks, however, have not abandoned all hopes of retrieving their fall. They have been sending emissaries to Switzerland, Sweden and other neutral countries to present the Turkish apologia, not only for the purpose of justifying their system of brigandage and carnage to shield the fearful character of the ruffians who style themselves Young /Turks, but also for making it appear that they are at heart pro-Ally and pro-American. Some Americans have been taken in by these demonstra tions of friendship and the Turkish volte face has been accepted as the genuine outpouring of a noble and repenting soul. The Turkish organs in Constantinople have also turned suddenly pro-Armenian and are pub lishing articles which in ordinary times might have influenced some can did souls and a few blind pacifists. But this is not all. We were recently apprised via Amsterdam that there was a vital disagreement between Turkey and Germany. A Turco- German rift. And thereupon one or two organs of public opinion were almost about to fall into ecstasies on hearing this. Of course it was too good to be true and no reasonable man could throw up his cap over the TURKISH MACHIAVELISM 469 reported break between Turkish Jannissarism and Germany. The En tente Powers and this grand republic of ours are not going to fetch and carry for the "unspeakable," nor are they in such straits as to pander to his indirect offers. It would be a crime against humanity and against those very lofty principles which they each and all have proclaimed from the housetops, if we were to allow ourselves to be influenced by this re ported change in the Turkish attitude. We do not believe that there is any real "divergence" of opinion be tween the German master and the Turkish servant. If Turkish diplom acy accepted the lead of the Central Powers it was because it considered that it could thereby carry out its inhuman policies towards its "subject" races without molestation and with greater impunity. It knows that Nemesis is at hand. The events in France, the turning of the tide in the plains of Champagne and Picardy, have doubtless brought to bear on the minds of the Pashas of Constantinople. The much advertised Turco- German rift may be due to this consideration rather than to the al leged disaffection brought about by the German Government's supercil ious treatment of the Turks at this juncture. The latter are splendid turn-coats and they know when to choose the auspicious moment to change front. Our readers should not be taken in by them. Kiamil Pasha, the late grand vizr,was a past-master in the art of proclaiming his anglophilism at the very time he was advising his august master Abdul-Hamid to "lean" on Germany and the Central Powers. He con sidered that a Turco-German rapprochement should be the corner-stone of Turkish diplomacy. Hamid and all his successors followed this policy. Sultan Hamid made it the political credo of Turkish statesman ship, for he considered that its adoption was essential to Turkey. He cherished the illusion that an alliance with a great military power like Germany would ward off British and French intervention in the "In ternal" affairs of the Sultan, who could thereby suppress more effica ciously all the non-Turkish elements of the Empire and create a "Turkey for the Turks." The Young Turks, after Kiamil, Hamid, Said and tutti quanti, became the ardent apostles of this political shiboleth and en forced it by fire and sword. The victories of the Allies on the Western front, the participation of the United States in the war, are beginning to tell in Constantinople. The day of judgment is hanging on the executioners of so many races like the sword of Damocles. They know this and realize that the day is not far distant when they will be haled before the Areopagus of the true democracies of the world to be dealt with as the worst of delinquents. And they are preparing the ground to secure an audience favorable to the cause of that Turkish wolf which has destroyed the womanhood, the youth and childhood of nations, by blasting civilization and crucifying Armenia. THE DUTY OF NEUTRALS TO ARMENIA

BY RENE PINON

The neutrals, during this war, are really too neutral; they close their ears not to hear and their eyes not to see ; the cry of the oppressed and down-trodden peoples leaves them indifferent. They are neutral between the executioners and their victims ; between the martyred peo ple and those who assassinate them. They are neutral to such an extent that they may awake some day to find themselves enslaved as though our magnificent soldiers were not there to save them in spite of them selves. The eloquent appeal of the Armenian National Delegation, published in a previous number, on behalf of the lamentable remnant of a people menaced to disappear from the face of the earth, for having commit ted the crime of standing in the way of the German-Turkish imperial istic expansion, showed, verily, that the world has never seen a more terrible machine than this combination of primitive Turkish, and the scientific, organized barbarism of the Germans. The little band of un scrupulous politicians, namely the Envers and the Talaats, who have hurled Turkey into this war, has resolved to bring about the extermi nation of the Armenians. By the massacres of 1915, these cut-throate had already half executed their fiendish program and are already pre pared to give the finishing touch to their work of destruction. The Ar menians, as a little Christian isle among the waves of barbarous popu lations, stand between the Turks of Asia Minor and those of Russia and Turkestan. Their fate hangs in the balance. With them the Georgians must also be done away with. Fearing, however, that the destruction of both peoples may be too difficult a task, the Turks seek to separate them so as to exterminate them more easily. A passage, in the Korrbureau of Vienna in its issue of April IS, enables us to fathom the intentions and methods of the Central Powers. It reprints with pleasure the following comments of the Turkish paper Terdjeman concerning the occupation of Batoum by the Ottoman troops: "The Mohammedan and Christian Georgians thus become com pletely the masters of their destinies. The Ottoman empire is ani mated with the best of intentions in regard to the Georgians. She de sires to see this nation free and independent. Let her know that there is

— a gov in Georgia a government favorably disposed towards Turkey

ernment that shall be capable of resisting a possible attack coming from

470 THE DUTY OF NEUTRALS TO ARMENIA 471 the North. The Ottoman government will always be ready to listen to such a government, to solve all pending questions, and to work in harmony with it. In a general way, we can say that the Georgians of the West and the Turks in the East are the masters of the destinies of the Transcaucasus. Between them Turkey, if necessary, will intervene as a mediator. But when the fate of the Transcaucasus is considered, we must not forget the millions of Mohammedans of the Caucasus who con stitute a national barrier against Russia. It is necessary to secure equally the independence and liberty of this country. The capture of Batoum places all these questions on the order of the day." The intrigue is clear. The Armenians are not even mentioned, They are already suppressed. Should the Georgians lend themselves to this game; should they submit to the Turkish protectorate under the form of a government favorable to Turkey ; should they accept an Otto man mediation between them and the Tartars—a mediation which will always favor the Tartars ; then the game will be played, the supremacy, and, by and by, the sovereignty of Turkey shall be established over the Transcaucasus which will in turn become a great Mohammedan State and extend to Turkestan. Thus the Germanized Pan-Touranism is realized.

The first article of the program is the suppression of Armenia ; the second article is the vassalage of Georgia. And the Bureau of Correspondence, which reproduces this information coming from Constantinople, has its seat in Vienna, the capital of Catholic Austria, whose glory, whose very existence in the past centuries has been due to the fact that she has fought against Ottoman invasion and crushed Turkish barbarism. Oh! What a fall! Happily, the Georgians are too sensible, too proud and too con scious of the danger that may befall them if they abandon the Ar menians to their fate, to let the Turko-Germans accomplish without re sistance their hypocritical and criminal designs. The Georgians united with the Armenians may resist the invasion. The Turks are in the meantime straining every nerve to separate the combatants. Our information is meagre concerning what is going on in the Caucasus, but it seems to us that the resistance of the Armenians in the region of Kars and of the Georgians in the north of Batoum may be very serious. The Turks, however, are more numerous and better organized. They count on the assistance of three turcophile tartar Russian regi ments; they organize Kurdish bands whose traditional vocation is to harass and rob the Armenians ; they arm the Tartars of the Transcau casus who promise them carnage, booty and money. The blood, as well as the booty, is Armenian, the money is German. Thus all the brigands, all the pillagers, all the slaughterers of Asia rush to take their share in the work of devastation and plunder. 472 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

Can the Georgians and the Armenians resist, for any length of time, the forces allied against them and threatening to encircle them, despite their heroic efforts ? We shall not stop here to bring to light the German prospects in Oriental Europe. They are monstrously contrary to the ideas of liber ating the peoples which the Government of Berlin has mentioned cyni cally in all its negotiations. They imply the suppression of the Chris tians of the Caucasus, the Armenians and the Georgians; they im ply, likewise the vassalage, the subjection of Ukrainia, of Roumania, of Bulgaria and of Turkey herself. Here is the substance of an article en titled The Route Toward Occidental Asia, written by the well-known professor, Dr. Ernest Jackh, and published recently in the weekly Deutche Politik. The author enlarges upon the success of the Turkish army. The Turks, he says, have defeated and emasculated Russia. This is a grand new fact, because for a century and a half Russia has been keeping Tur key in the back-ground. These successes are due to the policies adopted by such men as Enver, Talaat and Djemal. The bridge uniting Russia with Persia is cut off. "Mention is made, upon Germany's demand, in the treaty of peace, of Persia and Afghanistan, which indicates the possibility of an extension of the Ottoman victory and Turkish prestige as far as the heart of the Mohammedan world of Central Asia. The . December treaty mentioned Persia, that of March referred to Afghanis tan. Those who are familiar with the travels of the young diplomat. Von Hentig, who went through Persia and Afghanistan into China and Japan know that the inhabitants of these countries count on Constanti nople and Berlin. The expansion of Turkey will be in two ways —by the acquisition of territory and by the increase of prestige. Both are of a nature to benefit Germany, for the German route of penetration toward the East is thus enlarged. Germany first secured the narrow route of the Balkans across Bulgaria and Turkey. She now has a right of way through Lithuania, Ukrainia and Transcaucusia, thus enabling her to reach Central Asia. The inevitable result of this extension is that Roumania thus encircled would be brought within the Germanic sphere of influence, together with the Near East." Jackh predicts that despite Pachitch and Venizolos, Greece and Serbia will enter the Mittel Europa plan. He then continues : "The Euxine, like the Danube, will be freed from the Russian, French and English influences. Russia will no longer have access to these regions to trouble the Orient for the benefit of Eng land and France. The Euxine will be encircled by the Quadruple Al liance, first, by Turkey—largely extended —second, by Bulgaria allied to Germany, third, by Ukrainia and the Transcaucasus —all German pro tectorates —and finally, by Roumania entering the German alliance. The THE DUTY OF NEUTRALS TO ARMENIA 473 peace with Ukrania has been the lever by means of which Russia and Roumania have changed positions. The Danube and the Transcaucasus have established the peace of the Orient on a solid basis for the German route toward Occidental Asia." This is clear enough. We all know by whom the prophecies of these German professors are inspired. Their outspoken statements should be understood by all those whom it may concern. If the Bulgarians, the Roumanians, the Turks and the Ukranians cannot see what this implies, — viz.: the vassalage of their country, —then truly they do not wish to understand anything. Germany no longer gives herself the trouble of hiding her designs and, if she does not speak of the suppression of the Armenians, it is because their case has been disposed of by the German and Turkish leaders. There may be a few Germans who do not grasp that German interests require the annihilation of the entire Armenian nation. Ledebour's speech, in the Reichstag was a blow inflicted on the official Socialists, on the Catholics and on all the Germans who are accomplices in the crimes of their Government. The suggestion is frequently made: will the neutrals in the long run share a similar fate? The Armenian question is above all a humani tarian question. It has also a political aspect. Besides the menace of German imperialism and the aggressive Pan-Touranism of the Turks, which are weighing upon the whole world and of which the Armenians are the innocent victims, there is on the face of accumulated horrors, a feeling of humanity which needs to be aroused and vindicated. Here is a noble part to play, worthy of tempting a chief, a sovereign of a state, or a president of a republic, who believes it nobler to save the the victims than to flatter the executioners. May not the generous soul of King Alfonso XIII, who has already given so many proofs of his lofty sentiments, win the protests of America's Latin republics and take the lead in befriending a stricken race? We are anxious to see free Switzerland follow the noble impulse of her press which has so often raised her voice for Armenia. And, finally, Holland and the three Scandinavian Kingdoms would be qualified to step in and inter cede with Germany, who arrogates to herself the mastery of Oriental Europe and of Western Asia. An act like this on the part of the neutrals would be of the highest importance. It would bring about a rapprochement among their governments for the defence of the su preme interests of mankind and for the guarantee of the rights of small nations to existence. Such an initiative would have, besides, great and happy consequences for themselves and for the safeguarding of their own independence. The moral forces also may have a word to say by way of protest. The Socialist committee for the peoples' rights already has launched an 474 THE ARMENIAN HERALD appeal to the International committee in order to inaugurate a general movement in favor of Armenia. We expect His Holiness, Pope Bene dict XV, to renew and emphasize the words which he has already pro nounced and the efforts which he has already made in behalf of the Armenians. Christianity is menaced; Christianity, already stricken cruelly in the person of this martyred people, is menaced in its general in terests and also in its security by this new onrush of Turkish invasion, The times of the 16th century, when Christianity was saved under the walls of Vienna upon the call of the Holy See, by Sobieski, King of Poland, will perhaps return. It is a dangerous game not to keep the Turk under restraint. The Bulgars are already finding this out. They see that the young Turks are regaining with effrontery the territory on the right bank of the Maritza as the price of their entrance into the war. A Turco-Bulgar conflict is sure to ensue on the very day following the general peace ; perhaps the conflict will not be long in coming. Thus, the beneficient role of the Russian empire in the past ap pears to all eyes. Russia has abused this role by ignoring all the legiti mate rights of the people ; she has confused oppression with protection and in consequence has died of her own faults ; but no force so far has assumed in her stead her historic function of arbitrator and pacifier among the peoples of Oriental Europe. The European equilibrium de mands the presence of a great power in the infinite plains which ex tend to the east of the Carpathians between the Arctic and the Euxine. A Russian federation is necessary to maintain the liberty of the un fortunate peoples of the Caucasus surrendered by Germany to the ra pacity of the Turks and to massacre. The function creates the organs. Either the universal empire of Germany will extend itself over the globe, oppressing all liberty, stifling all independent life, or one or more states will emerge fully organized in Russia, the federation of which will secure to Europe peace with equilibrium and to the Oriental people safety and full liberty for their development. The subsisting anti-Bolshevik elements in Russia could be coordinated and brought into being. It remains for the great Allied democracies not to abandon Russia to herself in such a terrible crisis. They should inspire the Russian patriots with a feeling of confidence in their future. While the allies have the redemption of Russia to consider they have also an immediate task to accomplish. The Georgian and Ar menian battalions are fighting shoulder to shoulder with heroic ten acity to check the Turkish invasion. They need money, munitions, officers, and men. To help them, it would suffice to open the route of Persia to the English troops of Mesopotamia. A British detachment at Tabriz would galvanize the people of the Transcaucasus who are fight THE DUTY OF NEUTRALS TO ARMENIA 475

ing for their existence. To help them, it will suffice to organize means of transportation by way af Hamadan, Kazin and Tabriz in order to send to the gallant fighters mitrailleuses and munition. It will be their salvation and, at the same time, it will check the Turco-German march toward Central Asia. Every advance of the English troops, be it in Mesopotamia or in Palestine, weakens Turkey, exhausts her last regiment while it cheers the Armenians who have replaced the demoralized Rus sian troops. The salvation of Armenia depends upon the activity and the executive energy of the British War Council. In brief, the Armenians and the Georgians can be saved in any one of the following three ways. First, a word from Germany may pre vent her ally, the Turk, from exterminating the remnants of the Ar menians. Germany may not utter the word. In the second place, the immediate protest and intervention of the Neutrals may have success ful results for these peoples. And, finally, the Allied victory (meaning thereby a political victory) which will ensure the reorganization of a strong Russia and the military victory of the Allied armies in Asia, would bring about the redemption of these much harassed races. ^ ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES

BY G. ROLIN-JACQUEMYNS VI

DIPLOMATIC REMONSTRANCES

What have the Great Powers done to compel the Turkish Govern ment to keep its international engagements ? It would certainly be un just to accuse them of indifference to the terrible sufferings of which I have only sketched the principal features, and which are attested, dur ing the period from 1878 to 1881, by several volumes of Consular reports. I have already had occasion to quote several very strong notes from the British Ambassador, but I could not, without greatly extending the limits of this work, quote them all. They show a constant anxiety on the part of Lord Salisbury, as well as Earl Granville, to awaken the con science of Turkish Ministers, and to make them understand, if not the extent of their moral responsibility, at all events the considerable dan ger to which their perversity or their inertia was exposing the Empire. In November, 1879, the English Government went the length of ordering an English squadron to the Archipelago for the purpose of a naval dem onstration. The Turkish Government was greatly excited at this pro ceeding and, with a view to getting the order countermanded, made the fairest promises,1 pompously announced the despatch of Baker Pasha on a mission of reform, the appointment of Europeans as Judicial In spectors, officers in the Gendarmerie, &c. —all, of course, without any result. But England was not the only Power that was aroused. On June 11th, an Identical Note of the Great Powers demanded the execu tion of different clauses of the Treaty of Berlin, which had hitherto re mained in suspense. Amongst these clauses appeared, firstly, the recti fication of the Turco-Greek frontier ; and, secondly, the settlement of the Montenegrin frontier. After calling attention to these points, the Iden tical Note proceeds as follows:

"The attention of the Powers has finally been drawn to a third point. "By the 61st Article of the Treaty of Berlin of the 13th of July, 1878, the Sublime Porte undertook to carry out without further delay the improvements and administrative reforms demanded by local require

476 ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 4T7

ments in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the attacks and the violence of the Circassians and Kurds, and periodically to make known the steps taken to this ef fect to the Powers who are to superintend their application. "So far as the Government of are aware, nothing has been done by the Sublime Porte to make known the measure which it may have taken in order to meet the stipulations of Article 61 of the Treaty of Ber lin; nor have any measures been adopted by the Porte for the superin tendence to be exercised by the Powers. "All the reports furnished by the Agents of the Powers show that the state of these provinces is deplorable and the Government of cannot admit that the clauses of the Treaty of Berlin relating to the amelioration of this state of things should remain any longer a dead letter. They are convinced that only united and incessant pressure on their part will induce the Sublime Porte to fulfill its duties in this re spect. The Government of , therefore, as one of the Signatory Powers of the Treaty of Berlin, must demand the complete and immediate execution of Article 61 of that Treaty, and call upon the Government of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan to state explicitly what the steps are which they have taken in order to fulfill the provisions of this Article. "In bringing these views to the knowledge of your Excellency, I consider it my duty to call your most serious attention to the grave re sponsibility the Porte would incur by any fresh delay in the execution of the measures which the Powers agree in considering to be essential to the interests of the Ottoman Empire and of Europe.'"

An interesting detail, which is revealed in the dispatch in which Mr. Goschen, the British Ambassador, sends the text of the Identical Note to Lord Granville, is that the conclusion of the latter was drawn up by the French Ambassador, Mr. Tissot, and that all the Ambassadors were unanimous in adopting it. All, therefore, were agreed on these im portant declarations, viz: that the interest of Europe, as well as that of the Ottoman Empire, requires the execution of the 61st Article of the Treaty of Berlin, and that the joint and incessant action of the Powers can alone bring about this result. On the fifth of July, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Abeddin Pasha, sent the following Notes in reply to the representatives of the Powers :

"Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, —I have the honor to reply to that por tion of the Note of June 11th which refers to the stipulations of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty, which stipulations are stated in the last para graph of the same clause. "In spite of the anxieties and difficulties of every description which 478 THE ARMENIAN HERALD resulted from the war, the execution of these clauses has always bee: present in the mind of the Ottoman Government, which has sent to a] parts of Kurdistan and other vilayets several competent officials, fo: the purpose of studying the most efficient means of ensuring the se curity both of the Armenians and the other faithful subjects of His Im perial Majesty the Sultan, and, finally, to show the method of applying these means by executing themselves some measures coming withir their jurisdiction. Besides these Commissions, it is well known thai in a short space of time the Ottoman Government has decreed the sepa ration of the Nizamieh tribunals from the executive power, in con formity with the European system ; that it is still endeavoring to give them an improved organization, and to make the necessary experiments for the creation of a new system of collecting taxes and tithes, in order to ensure the peace and tranquility of the populations and, finally, that it has begun to establish Gendarmerie and Police in certain localities, en trusting several special native and foreign officers with the duty of submitting plans for these two institutions, and considering everything which might contribute to their success. "It appears from these inquiries, that amongst the reforms best adapted to the character and necessities of the populations, those now admittted to be the most urgent and efficient are the organization and distribution of the Nahies (parishes) and the creation of Courts of Assize. "I therefore deem it expedient to go into a few particulars relating to these two points, which are destined to thoroughly ensure public order and security. "Each district—caza —will be divided into parishes or communes, comprising groups of villages bordering on each other. The communal councillors will be elected by the inhabitants, and the Government will appoint one of the councillors Administrator of the commune, invested with certain powers connected with the Executive; these Administra tors will be under the orders of the Sub-Prefects —Kaimakams, and will also exercise municipal functions. They must profess the same re ligious creed as the majority of the inhabitants by whom they are elected, and in that case will have assistants who profess the creed of the mi nority. They will be assisted in the discharge of their functions by a mixed council, consisting of from four to six members, elected by the suffrages of the population. The above mentioned communal adminis trators and councils will be elected for the first time only by the adminis trative councils of the sub-prefectures, which councils have to select them from the inhabitants of the respective localities. "Each Administrator will have under his orders a body of Gen darmerie, the number of which may be increased in proportion to the real requirements of the locality. This armed force will be entrusted ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 479 with the duty of maintaining order and security in the commune, ar resting bad characters and vagrants, and protecting the inhabitants from all violence and annoyance. Each brigade of Gendarmes will be entitled to summon the help and co-operation of those of other com munes, so as to act together and engage in the pursuit of brigands. . "Besides the above-mentioned policemen, there will be formed in each province, in accordance with a special regulation, a corps of provin cial Gendarmerie, the officers and soldiers of which will be selected from all classes of the subjects of the Empire, and which will be placed under the orders of the Governor-General —Vali, to be placed at the dis posal of the Prefects —Mutessarifs —and Sub-Prefects —Kaimakams. It will be commanded by experienced officers, and will give aid and as sistance, whenever required, to the Gendarmes in the communes. "It would be impossible within the limits of the present Note to enumerate all the advantages which will be derived from the foregoing organization. It must suffice for me to say that it will at once be an efficient means of increasing the number of communal schools, pro moting the progress of agriculture, and improving the means of com munication by the medium of the communal administrators and councils. A similar experiment in one of the districts of the vilayet of Salonica produced the best results, to the great satisfaction of the local popu lation. The principal effect of such a measure will therefore be to es tablish public and individual security on a firm basis. "Another powerful means of ensuring this security is, as we have said, the institution of Assize Courts. These tribunals will be held suc cessively in each district where their presence is required, to try crimi nal causes. This mode of procedure presents considerable advantages, as inquiry and judgment can be conducted with greater facility on the spot than if the case were brought before stationary criminal courts in the sandjaks ; for it always happens that persons whose evidence is in dispensable refuse to appear before the latter, and even to come for ward as witnesses, on account of the long distances, difficulties of com munication, loss of time, and considerable expense —all of these things which necessarily obstruct the course of justice. "The Ottoman Government has already admitted to public employ ment capable and honest persons, without distinction of creed. Hence forth this principle will be still more widely applied, and the Ottoman Government will take care that it is carried into practice. "Another matter quite as important is occupying the attention of the Imperial Government, viz.: that of watching attentively the prog ress of education and public works —the principal cause of a country's happiness. Consequently, setting aside the revenue from the customs, the salt and tobacco taxes in each vilayet, as well as those from the Pious 480 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

Foundations —Evkaf, the administration of which is entrusted to the communal councils, one-tenth of the remainder of the expenditure de voted to the administrative service of the same vilayet-expenditure which is provided for by the other general revenues of the same vilayet- shall be reserved, and, from the commencement of the next year, be placed at the disposal of the vilayet for the purposes of education and public works. It is needless to say that this special allowance will be augmented as the State revenues increase. "A number of regulations concerning the vilayets —regulations which are based upon experience and inquiries made upon the spot- are under consideration. They will shortly be put into force throughout all the provinces of Asiatic Turkey. The powers of the Governors- General will also be extended, and their positions secured. "Such are, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, the chief features of the special regulations which are going to be put into force. "In bringing the foregoing to your notice, I regret to have to state that whenever misdemeanors —which naturally occur in every country in the world —happen to be committed in Armenia, some overzealous people appear to take it upon themselves to invent imaginary crimes in addition to the real offences, and to represent them before the eyes of Europe and the Consuls on the spot as having actually occurred. "In conclusion, I think it my duty to state plainly and accurately to your Excellency the following result of the official census taken of the Armenian populations of Van, Diarbekir, Bitlis, Erzeroum, and Sivas: the proportion of Armenians is 17 per cent., of other non-Mussulman communities 4 per cent., and of Mussulman inhabitants 79 per cent., of the population. "I consider it needless to state that the Sublime Porte will advise the other Signatory Powers of the Berlin Treaty of the steps it has taken for the gradual introduction of reforms in the provinces of Kur distan and Anatolia, inhabited also by Armenians."

I have thought it advisable to give this document in its entirety, in spite of its length and small real value, because it appears to me to com bine in a remarkable degree the distinguishing characteristics of modem Ottoman diplomacy —namely, great facility in assimilating the adminis trative and constitutional jargon of civilized countries ; consummate cun ning in taking advantage of this aptitude to conceal, under deceptive appearances, the barbarous reality of deeds and intentions; cool au dacity in making promises which there is neither the power nor the de sire to make good (as, for instance, the application for educational pur poses and public works of revenues already pledged) ; and, finally, a paternal and oily tone, intended to create the impression that the Turk ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 481 ish government is the victim of unjust prejudice and odious calumnies. The sentence respecting the imaginary crimes invented by the Ar menians is a perfect model of this kind. As soon as the reply of the Porte was received, Earl Granville sent copies to the British Consuls in Anatolia, inviting observations thereon. Eight detailed replies to this request' are published in the Blue-Book, Turkey, No. 6 (1881). They concur in a crushing condemnation of the Ottoman Government. Their conclusions may be summed up as follows : The reforms which the Porte asserts have been commenced are fal lacious. The Commissions have done nothing. The separation of the Nizamieh tribunals from the executive power has only resulted in evil. There is nothing real in the asserted improvement in the system of collecting tithes and taxes nor in the organization of the Gendarmerie. Baker Pasha has inspected a Gendarmerie which had no existence. As regards the so-called "imaginary" crimes, although it is true that Con suls, particularly in the East, have a difficulty in distinguishing truth from falsehood, it is their duty only to report matters considered by them as proven, and that is what they do. The reforms so pompously an nounced in the Porte's Note would not have any real effect, admitting they were realized, unless there is a real reform at the centre in Con stantinople.' A number of indispensable reforms do not seem to be even contemplated by the Porte. These conclusions, moderately ex pressed in diplomatic terms, are reflected in the Collective Note, dated September 7, and sent on the 11th of September, 1880, to the Sublime Porte, by the Ambassadors of the Great Powers. The following is the exact English text:

"The Undersigned have received the note, dated July 5 last, by which the Sublime Porte replied to the paragraph contained in the communi cation of the 11th of June last respecting the improvements and ad ministrative reforms which the Ottoman Government engaged them selves under Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin, to introduce into the provinces inhabited by the Armenians. A careful study of this docu ment has proved to them that the proposals made by the Ottoman Gov ernment do not meet either the spirit or the letter of the Article. The Powers represented by the undersigned are not aware that the Otto man Government have sent two Commissions into the provinces inhabited by the Armenians ; but they have reason to think that these Commis sions have arrived at no result ; nor has the Sublime Porte communicated them to the Powers, as stipulated in Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty. "There is no evidence to prove that any amelioration has been ef fected in the administration of justice. On the contrary, numerous Con sular Reports show that the present situation, as regards the independ 482 THE ARMENIAN HERALD ence of the civil or criminal tribunals, is as bad as, if not worse than, it has ever been. "As regards the Gendarmerie and the police, the note of the 5th of July states that the Porte has charged several special officers to pre sent projects of reform for both these services. The Powers have no knowledge of these projects, nor does the Sublime Porte allege that they have been presented to it. "The Undersigned cannot admit that the reply of your Excellency disposes in any way of the complaints made by them in their note of the 11th of June. They consider themselves to be all the more justified in reducing to their true value the efforts made in this direction by the Ottoman Government, inasmuch as the Porte, to judge by its reply, hardly realizes its position and its obligations under the Treaty of Berlin, "Even the language which the Sublime Porte uses in speaking of the crimes committed, or alleged to have been committed, in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, shows that it refuses to recognize the de< gree of anarchy which exists in these provinces, or the gravity of a state of things which, if permitted to continue, would, in all probability, lead to the destruction of the Christian population of vast districts. "In the note of the 5th of July no serious proposal is made for put- ing a stop to the excesses of the Circassians and Kurds. Their excesses, it is feared, cannot be checked by the simple action of the ordinary laws. Exceptionally rigorous measures can alone put an end to outrages which, in several parts of the provinces mentioned in Article 61, are a continual source of danger to the property, honor and life of the Armenians. "Under Article 61 of the Treaty of Berlin, the Porte engaged itself 'to carry into effect without delay the improvements and reforms re quired by local wants in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians.' "The Undersigned regret to observe that in the general project of reform specified in the note of the 5th of July none of the 'local wants' spoken of in Article 61 are taken into account. "The Powers will, doubtless, see with pleasure the introduction of large reforms into all parts of the Turkish Empire ; but they are speci ally concerned to see that full effect is given to the engagements of the Treaty of Berlin, and they cannot admit that the Porte should consider that the engagements it undertook under this head have been fulfilled by proposing a system of re-organization in which no mention is made of the special reforms that were stipulated for in favor of the provinces named in the Treaty. "The peculiar characteristic of these provinces is the preponderance of the Christian population over large areas of the territory in question; if this preponderance is not taken into account no real reform would be effected. ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 483

"The Undersigned consider that it is necessary to take another pe culiarity of these provinces into consideration. The Porte appears to wish to apply the same Keglement both to the Armenians and to the Kurds. It is indispensable, however, to distinguish between them in the Administration as far as it is practicable, in view of the absolute im possibility to govern a settled population and semi-nomadic tribes in the same manner. The communes and administrative groups should con sequently be so divided as to unite as many homogenous elements as possible, the Armenians, or, when necessary, the Armenians and the Dsmanlis being grouped together, to the exclusion of the Kurds. The nomadic Kurdish element, that lives in the mountains and descends into the plains inhabited by Christians only in order to create disturbances, should not be included in the census by which the majority of the in habitants of each village will be determined. "It may be assumed that the Sublime Porte sees in the constitution of communes as proposed in the note of the 5th of July the means of cre ating administrative units in which the great majority of the inhabi tants will belong to the same religion. There is nothing, however, in this document to show that the Porte engages itself to follow this princi ple. "The Undersigned notice with satisfaction that in the proposed or ganization the Mayor of each commune is to belong to the religion of the majority; but the absence of a similar provision in the case of the higher functionaries proves conclusively that the 'local wants' of the provinces mentioned in Article 61 have not been sufficiently taken into account in the proposed reforms. "The Ottoman Government declares 'that honest and capable per sons have already been admitted to public offces without distinction of creed, and that henceforward this principle will receive a still wider application.' This declaration is extremely vague, and the Undersigned think that it is the more necessary to lay stress on this point, as the Ar menians contend that in the provinces where they exist in very large numbers there is scarcely a single Armenian functionary. Their com plaints on this point seem to be well founded, as it might be possible for the Sublime Porte to appoint Christian Governors-General, without giv ing additional security that the Armenians would meet with greater justice or equity of treatment. "Measures of much broader character than those proposed in the note of the Ottoman Government are necessary for the Porte to carry out the engagements made at Berlin. "The general inadequacy of the proposed reforms is such that it seems useless to comment on the defects of the project presented by the Porte, but the following observations offer themselves: 484 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

"By declaring, in the first place, that the Administrators of com munes are to be Government functionaries, nominated by the central authority from among the elected members of the Communal Council, instead of being elected by the Communal Council itself, the Sublime Porte retains the principle of centralization even in the smallest adminis trative unit. "Moreover, the Sublime Porte omits to state, as regards Adminis trators and members of the Communal Councils, whether they will have a permanent or temporary tenure. Nor is it stated, either, with whom, in case of their unfitness, rests the right of dismissing them. Will this right belong to the Prefectoral Council who appoints them, or to some other authority? "Again, as regards the Gendarmerie of the commune, it does not appear to be distinguished from the provincial Gendarmerie, either in its recruitment or in any other respect, except that it is under the orders of the commune, and not of the provincial commune. It is not recruited locally among the inhabitants belonging to the majority in creed, and no guarantees are given that it will be what it ought specially to be- namely, a local defensive force. "Nor does the organization of the provincial Gendarmerie meet the local wants of the provinces specially mentioned in Article 61, the clause

according to which both officers and men are to be recruited 'from all classes of the Sultan's subjects' being of the vaguest character. Both the officers and men of the Gendarmerie of the province should be re cruited from the Gendarmerie of the commune, that is to say, from among the rural constabulary, chosen by the communes themselves.

The rural constabulary, whose duty it would be to defend the villages against Kurdish incursions, would furnish to the Gendarmerie of the

province a contingent in proportion to the population of each commune.

The principle of election would, if substituted for the arbitrary pro vincial administration, in itself constitute a strong guarantee for the effective organization of the forces intended to ensure public safety. of "The value of the provisions as regards the creation of a Court

Assize will, in the first place, depend on its constitution, with regard to

which the note of the 5th of July is silent. Looking to the predominance of the Armenian element in certain provinces, special provision appears in to be necessary in order to give to that element a proportionate share the new judicial organization. "Here again certain questions present themselves, to the solution of which the Ottoman note gives no clue. Are the judges to be irre

movable, or to be nominated for a fixed term? Which code of laws are

they to execute? Will it be the Sheri, or some other code? How are the Courts of Assize to make the Kurds, who are semi-independent or ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 485

quite wild, obey their verdicts ? This last question proves conclusively how necessary it is to exclude the Kurds from the reforms intended for the population of Armenia, and to give them a separate administration suitable to their warlike and primitive habits. In treating this ques tion of the relations between the sedentary and nomadic populations, the Undersigned must express their conviction that the burthens and forced labor imposed by the Kurds on the Armenians should be abolished; they do not exist by any right, but are an abuse of long standing. "They also consider that the benefit of the reforms agreed to in favor of the Armenians should, in common justice, be extended to the numerous Nestorians who inhabit the central and southern parts of Kurdistan—caza of Joulamerk. "It is to be regretted that the paragraph in the note relating to a certain sum to be set aside for local purposes, such as the maintenance of schools and the execution of public works, is not more clearly ex pressed. It may be admitted, however, that it includes the germ of a financial principle of some value, and this principle, the Powers think, may be laid down in the following terms : "The taxes will be divided into two branches. The one branch, including the Customs and the salt tax, will be applied to Imperial pur poses. The other, derived from the revenues of the vilayet, will be ap plied in the first instance to meet the administrative service of the prov ince. Of the balance, a portion would be retained for local purposes, and the remainder remitted to Constantinople. If this is the correct in terpretation of the proposal contained in the note of the 5th of July, it corresponds more or less with Article 19 of the draft Organic Statutes for the provinces of European Turkey, presented by the Sublime Porte to the Eastern Roumelian Commission for examination. So far as it establishes the principle that the provincial expenditure is a first charge on a portion of the taxes, the reform is certainly valuable, but the princi ple would require to be surrounded by the same safeguards as those that have been elaborated by the Commission for Administrative Reforms. "The Undersigned must, moreover, remark that such revenues as have been already hypothecated cannot be applied to other purposes. "The principle of decentralization, which is especially necessary in provinces inhabited by a population of a different creed from that of the central authority, is not treated in a satisfactory manner in your Ex cellency's note. No effectual reforms can be expected until the position of the Governors-General is thoroughly changed. It is true that the note admits that their duties will be extended and their functions guaranteed, but assurances of such a general character leave the question quite un solved. Unless the increase of power and responsibility, which is ab 466 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

solutely indispensable to a proper discharge of the duties of a Governor- General, is clearly defined, unless formal guarantees are given to this im portant functionary as to the tenure of his office, no opinion can be formed of the value of the proposed reforms. It is clear that the Gov ernors-General should have some definite understanding as to the period during which they will hold office, and they must be released from the constant interference with the minutest details of their administration which has hitherto paralyzed their action. It is needless to add that, if this increased independence of the Valis is desirable everywhere, it is absolutely necessary in the case of the provinces inhabited by the Ar menians. "The Powers are therefore of opinion that the proposals of the Ottoman Government are inadequate to their object; that greater at tention must be paid to the local wants of these provinces; that a greater development must be given to the two great principles of equality and decentralization ; that more effective arrangements must be made for the organization of the police, and for the protection of the populations exposed to the molestation of the Circassians and Kurds ; and, lastly, that the tenure of office and extent of the functions of the Governors-Gen eral must be clearly defined. In this way, and in this way only, can full satisfaction be given to the rights and expectation created by the 61st Article of the Berlin Treaty. "The Sublime Porte seeks to modify the bearing of this Article by quoting the alleged percentage of the Armenians and of the Christian population in general on the whole population. The percentage quoted by the note differs so widely from that given by other authorities that the Powers are quite unable to accept it as accurate. "The enclosed figures* of the population, supplied by the Armenian Patriarch, will show the wide difference that exists between the various estimates. The note of the 5th of July only gives the proportion of the Mussulman and Christian populations. The Powers would wish to know the basis on which this calculation is made. They consider it essential that an approximative census of the respective numbers of the Mus sulmans and Christians inhabiting the provinces mentioned in Article 61 should be made with as little delay as possible by an impartial Commis sion, the composition of which will be hereafter determined. "It must be distinctly understood that the Porte will accept the result of a census, made under circumstances that would guarantee its being thoroughly impartial, and frame the organization of the provinces accordingly. "It will probably be found on adopting this plan that, in order to meet all the local wants, the present geographical limits of the various vilayets will have to be recast. ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 487

"The Porte cannot take advantage of the delay occasioned by the taking of the proposed census for putting off the execution of meas ures of an urgent character. "It is absolutely necessary to carry out, without loss of time, the reforms intended to secure the life and property of the Armenians; to take immediate measures against the incursions of the Kurds ; to carry out at once the proposed system of finance; to place the Gendarmerie provisionally on a more satisfactory footing; and, above all, to give to the Governors-General greater security of office and a more extended re sponsibility. "In conclusion, the Powers once more recall to the Sublime Porce the essential fact that the reforms to be introduced into the province in habited by the Armenians are, by Treaty engagements, to be adapted to local wants, and to be carried out under the supervision of the Powers. "The Undersigned, &c. (Signed) "Hatzfeldt "Corti "NOVIKOW "TlSSOT "G. J. GOSCHEN "Calice"

A great deal might be said about this note and certain objections raised to the plan of reforms which it suggests. The intentions of the Ambassadors are no doubt excellent, and the general tone of their re monstrances is one which becomes the representatives of Europe towards a State in whose internal affairs they have a right to interfere. But between the lines of this long dissertation it is easy to detect the weak point of the position assumed by these protectors of Armenia. Agreeing with each other as to the object to be attained, they are far from unani mous as to the means to be employed in case Turkey should persist in ignoring her obligations. If the Powers had come to an understanding on this subject, if they could have given a practical sanction to their right interpretation of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty, they would cer tainly not have wasted time in discussing at such length the more or less serious character of vague promises, and in proposing in their turn so lutions of questionable efficacy. They would at once have told the Ottoman Government what some day they will certainly have to say, viz. : "The time has come for Europe to demand the execution of the 61st Article of the Berlin Treaty, not words but deeds. Is Turkish Armenia in posssession of the promised improvements and reforms? Is se curity from the Circassians and the Kurds guaranteed? If the reply to these questions is in the negative, it makes but little difference whether the cause is inability or unwillingness; the execution shall be effected of our own accord —that is to say, the representatives of Europe, 488 THE ARMENIAN HERALD constituted as an International Commission, will exercise direct inter ference in the appointment and control of the upper officials, the staff of the higher courts of justice, and the officers and inspectors entrusted with organizing —if requisite, with European elements —the Gendar merie and local Police." As these forcible words could not be uttered, and the main recom mendation of all the Consuls —"not men, but measures" —appeared to be forgotten, the result could be foreseen. The language of the Powers had been strong enough to revive the hopes of the populations, and make them feel the wretchedness of their present position more bitterly ; but it had not been sufficiently strong to give the Porte the impression of being exposed to any immediate danger in consequence of its indolence or unwillingness. Consequently, on the 3rd of .October, 1880, without making the slightest reference to the censures which had been addressed to it, and even appearing to completely ignore the Collective Note of the 7th of September, the Porte, assuming a haughty tone, merely noti fied the Powers of what it intended to do. This is the document, note worthy for both what it promises and what it does not promise :

"Reforms in Districts Inhabited by Armenians "The Ottoman Government having pledged itself, in virtue of Arti cle 61 of the Treaty of Berlin, to carry out without .delay the reforms necessitated by local requirements in places inhabited by Armenians, to ensure their security against the Circassians and 'Kurds, and periodi cally to communicate the measures to be taken with this view $o«.the Powers who are to watch over their application, it had, on the "conclu sion of peace, dispatched inspectors to the

The colonels of the Gendarmerie —Alai Beyis —will be named by the Im perial War^Ministry. The choice of the remaining officers will be left to the Regimental Councils, and their nomination will be confirmed by the War Department, on the proposal of the Governors-General. The latter will be authorized to distribute the police agents throughout their prov inces to local requirements, and on their advice the Minister of War will recall those colonels and officers of Gendarmerie who may be found in capable of exercising their functions. 4. The mode of organizing the communes formulated in the Note of the Sublime Porte dated the 5th of July last will be completed in the space of four months, and in the in terests of tbe State. 5. With the exception of the Customs and indirect taxes, all the remaining revenues of the provinces indicated will be first of all applied to the requirements of the provincial budgets, which com prise the other important expenses. A tax of 10 per cent, will be raised on the surplus of these same revenues for local requirements, such as education and public works; and the remainder, including the surplus which may result from the said assignment of 10 per cent, will be sent to Constantinople. 6. The selection and nomination of the provincial ju dicial functionaries will take place in conformity with the existing special regulation; and as to the administrative functionaries, they will be named in virtue of an Imperial ordinance issued on the proposition of the Governor-General, supported by the unanimous agreement of the de partments with which they are connected. The Governors-General will have the right, in carrying out these regulations, to dismiss and ap point the administrative functionaries of their provinces, with the ex ception of the Prefects —Mutessarifs, the Directors of Finance —Def- terdars, and Secretaries-General —Mektoubjis. In the selection of these functionaries, merit and integrity will alone be considered. All subjects of the Empire will be eligible for public appointments by the terms of Article 62 of the Treaty of Berlin, as well as in accordance with the provisions of existing Ottoman laws, provided they combine the neces sary qualifications mentioned. 7. The Nizamieh Courts will apply the Ottoman Code —Medjelle —and the other laws in force in the Empire."

In spite of the conciliatory appearance of this document, its real meaning could not escape a sagacious diplomatist. Mr. Goschen did not hesitate to call the Turkish Note "aggressive." The Porte, in fact, did not even deign to reply to the Collective Note of 7th of September. To all intents and purposes, it gave the Powers to understand that if it consented to carry out Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty, it would do so in dependently, and in its own way. The Powers had merely to thank fully register the vague promises which it was pleased to give them. Mr. Goschen regretfully remarked, after the lapse of some weeks, that 490 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

Europe had not so far uttered a word of protest against this attitude, so contrary to the real spirit of the Treaty of Berlin. It is true that at the moment the question of the settlement of the Montenegrin frontier had just entered into an acute phase. It was at the time that the Al banian League was forbidding Turkey to cede Dulcigno, and when the combined fleets were engaged in a demonstration which only made the Porte give way in the month of December. Mr. Goschen was fain to admit that it was essential to settle this complication before reverting to the Armenian question. But he observed with uneasiness that an other idea commenced to take root in certain States, to the effect that when the difficulty of the moment had been surmounted, it would be ex pedient, instead of demanding from the Porte the execution of other engagements, to grant it a respite. "I cannot," wrote the British Am bassador, "too strongly express my profound conviction of the dangers of such a course. . . Precisely as in European Turkey the Ottoman authorities will take no steps which would offend the Albanians, so in Asia Minor it is hopeless to expect that they will do anything which might offend the Kurds." Mr. Goschen therefore asks whether the time has not come for England to summon the other Powers Signa tories to the Treaty of Berlin to unite with her for a combined effort to ameliorate the state of things in Asia. "If they refuse, or give only lukewarm support, the responsibility will not lie with Her Majesty's Goverment.'" An effort of this nature was all the more urgent, as all the reports from Armenia depicted the condition of the Armenian provinces in ever darker colors. It appeared that in many respects the patience of the people was exhausted. The hope of promised reforms had given way to profound discouragement and smothered irritation. The so-called re form in the formation of communes and appointment of Mudirs, was be ing carried out in a really ridiculous manner.' "The absurdity of the scheme," writes a Consul, "is becoming each day more manifest." Moreover, the way in which the scheme was be ing carried out only served to make its defects more apparent. The numbers of the Mussulman and Christian populations, which were to determine the predominating element, were completely altered. The selection of Mudirs or Administrators was wretchedly conducted. Thus, in the district of Passin, only one Mudir out of seventeen could read and write Turkish; two or three Armenian assistants could read and write in their own language, and the remainder were totally illiterate.' Not only was no notice taken of the protests which these appoint ments evoked, but the Turkish authorities affected to consider such protests, and, as a rule, complaints of any description, as perfectly con temptible and ridiculous. Moreover, there was no improvement in the ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES staff of upper officials, nor in any branch of the administration. Com paring the state of the country at the end of 1880 with what it was in 1879, Mr. Everett considers it worse in every respect. "If a year ago," he write, "there was little security for life and property, now there is still less; if there was poverty, it is greater; if there was injustice so there is at present ; while the crimes of oppression and corruption have in creased proportionately with the impoverished state of the Empire."" Consequently the population is exasperated, and, without there being any plan or premeditation, it happens oftener than formerly that even among the inoffensive Rayahs —who, having borne the yoke for several centuries, are, as a rule, patient to excess —particularly shameful acts provoked disturbances and local riots." Far from searching for a remedy for these evils, the Government appears to be preoccupied with only one idea—that of keeping Armenians down by favoring the Kurds." It gets Martini guns distributed amongst the latter, whilst it forbids the Ar menians to carry arms, even for their personal defense.1' In a Circular of the 12th of January, 1881, Earl Granville instructed the Ambassadors of Her Majesty at Paris, Berlin, Vienna, St. Peters burg, and Rome to call the attention of the Governments to which they were accredited to the state of affairs in Armenia. "The way in which the Porte is dealing with its offer of reforms," the Circular said, "would appear to furnish ground for remonstrance on the part of the representa tives, and Her Majesty's Government would be glad if the Govern ment would instruct their Ambassador at Constantinople to join with his colleague in a representation to the Sublime Porte on the subject."" Had the British Government any hope of obtaining an affimative reply to this proposal? or, being certain in advance of the result of its action, was it particularly anxious to free itself from responsibility by showing the refusal of the other Powers Signatories to the Treaty of Berlin to take action? It appears to me that what renders the latter hypothesis probable is the scant energy which England displayed in her demands, and the absence of any hint on her part as to giving material sanction to the fresh remonstrances proposed. There was no question even, as in "879, of a naval demonstration; and, therefore, how could it be expected that an Oriental Government would be induced, by mere reasoning and eloquent appeals to law and humanity, to shake off its traditional indolence ? If any Power at that time had considered it com patible with its interest to reply frankly to the English proposal, it would have said to Earl Granville: "Our isolated demands have not been lis tened to; our Identical Note was answered evasively; our Collective Note has not been answered at all—in fact, no notice has been taken of rt. is if The situation such that Armenia does not at once rebel, it is because the reign of terror and extermination which oppresses her de 4*2 THE ARMENIAN HERALD prives her of the strength to do so. What, therefore, do you expect from a fresh Collective Note, if the Turkish Government is not convinced that in case it continues to act in violation of Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty, Europe will carry it into effect of its own accord? If, as is right, you ask for deeds and not words, begin by proving yourself that you are ready to pass from threats to action." But no great Power used this language, probably because it would have implied on the part of the one that did so an intention to take action of some sort, and because at that time, as on so many occasions, Chris tian and civilized Europe was more occupied with its intestine quarrels and jealousies than with its collective duties. So there was nothing but a diplomatic comedy. Russia replied that she was ready to join in the platonic proceeding proposed if it met with the assent of the Powers Signatory to the Treaty of Berlin.1" Italy sent a similar reply." The Austrian representative at Constantinople was instructea "to communi cate with his colleagues, and to call the attention of the Porte to the ques tion in concert with them, but not by collective representation, for which he does not think there is sufficient occasion."" Mr. Barthelemy Saint- Hilaire, on behalf of France, replied to Lord Lyons, rather verbosely as follows : i

"I recognize the importance of the object you propose to us, and I shall have no objection to prosecute it in concert with the other Powers; but from the indications I receive from our Ambassador at Berlin I fear that there may be a difficulty in arriving at an agreement among the Cabinets to this effect. M. de Saint-Vallier informs me that on Lord Odo Russell transmitting to the German Chancery a suggestion an alogous to that with which your Excellency had the goodness tt ac quaint me, Prince Bismarck expressed the opinion that there would be serious inconvenience in raising the Armenian question before the defi nite settlement of the Greek question, and that by so doing there would be a risk of bringing to an almost certain check the efforts which the Powers are now making to settle the Turco-Hellenic difference. "I shall be obliged if you will be good enough to inform me whether the Government of the Queen, notwithstanding the objections raised by the German Government, still considers the present moment oppor tune for the line of action they recommend to us at Constantinople.""

Perhaps it would have been better for the French Minister merely to reply like Italy or Russia, than to entrench himself behind the refusal of Germany. The final result would, however, have been the same, con sidering the plainly expressed opinion of Prince Bismarck that it was better to concentrate the representations of the Powers on one question ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 493

at a time, if it were not desired to supply the Porte with a plausible ex cuse for fresh delay. "When the Greek question is over, then will be the moment to begin the Armenian question.'"' No doubt it suited the political aims of Prince Bismarck to make this reply. It is none the less true that from the point of view of the execution of the Berlin Treaty there resulted this extra ordinary consequence, that Turkey was in some degree encouraged to lend herself with the greatest possible reluctance to the execution of Article 24 of the Berlin Treaty respecting the new Greek frontier, in order to de lay by so much the execution of Article 61 relating to, the Armenian * provinces. However that may be, the immediate consequence of the attitude of Germany and France was to indefinitely postpone any fresh collec tive action of the Powers on behalf of Turkish Armenia. England, on her part, no longer reported in her Blue-Books the manner in which her "proteges" and those of Europe were treated. Did they delude them selves with the hope that by refusing to listen to the complaint the suf fering would be alleviated? Or that the Turkish Government, doing violence to its habits and tastes, would spontaneously and sincerely ef fect those reforms which unanimous diplomatic pressure had been un able to extract from it? A slight consideration of notorious and sali ent facts during the period which extends from 1881 to the present time, would at once show the fallaciousness of any such hope, if it ever existed. Since the foregoing was in print, the Government, after a long sus pension of diplomatic information on the subject, have laid before Parlia ment a Blue-Book on Armenian affairs. We extract from it the follow ing dispatch addressed to the Foreign Office by the late Mr. Clifford Lloyd, H. M., Consul at Erzeroum. This important document is but of yesterday, and it speaks for itself. While naturally disposed to take a lenient view of the conduct of the Porte, Mr. Clifford Lloyd is clear as to the need in which the Armenians stand of protection, and as to the necessity for general reforms." He says :

"It is admitted by everyone that a change is necessary in the system of government now being applied to the Christian population of Arme nia, i.e., the Armenian people. Their sufferings at present proceed from three direct causes : 1. The insecurity of their lives and proper ties, owing to the habitual ravages of the Kurds. 2. The insecurity of their persons, and the absence of all liberty of thought and action (excepting the exercise of public worship.) 3. The unequal status held by the Christian as compared with Mussulman in the eyes of the Government. 494 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

"As regards No. 1, putting aside isolated instances of depredation, there has been pillage on the most extensive scale, with much slaughter, by Kurds in various parts of Armenia during the past few months, as will be observed from my dispatches dated the 21st of August and the 1st of October, 1890. This year the record is an exceptionally large one, but the position of the defenceless Armenian peasantry with reference to the Kurds, who are all armed, varies only in degree, and looked at from any point of view, is one calling for immediate relief. "There are two courses open to the Turkish Government in its desire to protect its Armenian subjects —one to actually and completely sub jugate the Kurds by force of arms, and the other to adequately protect the Armenian peasants from Kurdish aggression. The former would entail a large expenditure of money, and in all probability bring about a general massacre of those for whose benefit it was undertaken. Many reasons exist for not suggesting this course, not the least of which is that, under any circumstances, the Turkish Government could not be in duced to adopt it.

"It is, however, the first duty of every Government to protect its

subjects, and in this instance duty and self-interest both demand it The Armenian peasantry are unable at present to pay their taxes, owing to the ravages of the Kurds, and from the same cause are reduced

to such a state of discontent that they are willing even to forsake their

homes, and it is said also their religion, if relief could thus be obtained.

"A better organized force of police than exists, supported by ju diciously placed detachments of troops, would afford all the desired pro tection, provided the officers responsible were satisfied of the intentions of the Government. Much would depend upon the personal characters of the Governors-General, who, while being held responsible for the ade quate protection of the inhabitants of their provinces, should be given full executive liberty of action in providing it, which at present they do not possess. A Governor-General has no power to move troops without orders from Constantinople, but the duty devolving upon him renders it

necessary to give to him this power, with whatever restrictions it may of I be thought necessary to impose from a military point of view. am opinion that this question of protecting the Armenian peasantry from

the attacks of the Kurds is of much greater importance than any

other, and that if the Christians were shielded from the ever-existing

apprehension of being pillaged and killed, they would become a com paratively contented and prosperous people. Though all sections of the Armenian people are ever desirous of bringing their grievances to the

knowledge of Her Majesty's Consul, yet during the past year I have had

no serious complaints, excepting in connection with the disturbances in Erzeroum, which were not directly due to Kurdish aggression. In the ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 495

valley of Alashgert, for instance, where there was much distress this spring, and when an attempt to emigrate to Persia was made on a large scale, the Turkish officials discerned a revolutionary movement, and their consequent acts gave legitimate cause for such discontent. But the Christians, having been reduced to a state of poverty by the action of the neighboring Kurds in plundering and burning their harvest with impunity, were unable to pay their taxes or to provide for the following season's agricultural requirements, and, no attempt being made by the Government to punish the Kurds, or to afford protection against them in the future, some hundreds of persons started for Persia, where they had made arrangements to be received, but were arrested on the frontier by Turkish officials, and brought back to their homes. All the Chris tians asked for was protection, but this was the one thing the Turkish Government failed to provide. Time was offered for the payment of taxes due, and loans of money for the purchase of seeds ; but, notwith standing my advice, given on the subject repeatedly, no protection was afforded, the answer always being that authority for the movement of troops had not been received from Constantinople. The result is that this summer the valley has been again overrun by the Kurds, who here, as in other parts of Kurdistan, openly declare that their action meets with the approval of the Turkish Government. I am fully justified in recording my opinion that during the past year, had the Armenian peasantry been given security to life and property, their grievances in the provinces would not have been of that serious nature which now attracts to them the attention of Europe. "As to the second ground of complaint above mentioned, I need not go into any detail to show that the Turkish Government gives no individ ual liberty to the Armenians, and denies them any freedom of thought or action. In my dispatch dated the 28th of June, 1890, 1 fully explained the policy which was locally adopted in this respect. I believe that the idea of revolution is not entertained by any class of the Armenian people in these provinces, whatever may be the aims of those outside of them. An armed revolution, beside, is impossible. Discontent or any descrip tion of protest is, however, regarded by the Turkish Local Government as seditious, and a policy, as I described in my dispatch alluded to, is pursued, depriving the Armenian subject of every liberty to his person, and for which no justification exists. This materially aggravates the existing discontent, and produces a feeling of animosity between Mussul man and Christian which would otherwise die out, or which would at least lie dormant. A policy, on the other hand, of trust and conciliation would bring forth, in my opinion, results highly conducive to the inter ests of the Ottoman Empire, for among its subjects there are none more capable of contributing to its financial resources than the Armenian people. 496 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

"The third cause is the inequality of justice and consideration shown to the Christian inhabitants of this country, both by the Executive Gov ernment and by the Law Offices. This is well known to every one con versant with the condition of Kurdistan ; but, as an instance, I may men tion the fact that in all crimes of violence of which the Christians have been the victims during the past year in the province of Erzeroum no one has been punished, nor, with very few exceptions, has any effort been even made to bring the offenders to justice. "On the 20th of June of this year a Mussulman mob attacked un offending Armenians in the streets of Erzeroum, killing and wounding many, and, at the same time, pillaging their homes and shops, but up to date no steps of any kind have to my knowledge been taken to prosecute the guilty persons. In one case an Armenian shopkeeper applied to the Governor for redress, and was referred to the Procureur-General, to whom he detailed all the facts, giving the names of the offenders and eye-witnesses to the attack and robbery. The offenders were arrested, but next day released ; since then no further action has been taken. On the other hand, Christians have been arrested, and detained in prison for long periods without any charge being made against them. "As I found in Egypt in 1883, so it is in this part of Turkey; the laws are not to be condemned as bad, many being excellent in theory; but it is the application and administration of the law by officials that leave room for so much improvement. It is generally admitted by English officers of experience, such as Colonel Chermside and others, that the Porte has made successful efforts during the past ten years to purify the administration of the law and of the general service of gov ernment, and gladly bear evidence to having personally observed proofs of an existing desire to do so. At the same time much remains to be done. "The circumstances under which this country is governed, its dis tance from, and the difficulty of, communicating with Constantinople; the discordant elements within it; the serious risks of internal misgov- ernment producing external agitation and political complications; the absence of any means of expressing the local public opinion of any class or division of the people; all indicate the immense power for good or evil wielded by Governors-General in these outlying frontier provinces of the Empire, and special qualifications necessary in those appointed to fill these high offices. Second only in importance to the post of Gov ernor-General is that of the Procureur-General, upon whom the adminis tration of the law depends. He has opportunities of contaminating at its source the fountain of justice, while, if free from the taint of cor ruption himself, his position enables him to almost secure purity in its ARMENIA, THE ARMENIANS AND TREATIES 497 various channels. The selection of this officer, therefore, requires as much care as that of one to fill the higher office of Governor. "The adoption of a policy based upon the considerations I have en deavored shortly to indicate would, I believe, meet all the present re quirements of the country, and would produce an immediate ameliora tion in the condition of the people, both Mussulman and Christian, for trade and the prosperity of both classes depend largely upon the well- being of the latter. Whatever other reforms may be desirable, they are not of the same pressing necessity as immediate measures for the pro tection of the lives and properties of the people. The agricultural por tion of the Armenian people plead not as rebels but as subjects of His Majesty the Sultan for this protection; but, in the words of the Note presented ten years ago to the Sublime Porte on this same subject, the Local Government at Erzeroum seems 'to refuse to recognize the degree of anarchy which exists' in this province, or 'the gravity of a state of things which, if permitted to continue, would in all probability lead to the destruction of the Christian population of vast districts.' "At present also more radical reforms would meet with determined, if only passive, opposition on the part of the Moslem community, which is largely in the majority. If the policy I advocate was adopted in sin cerity and proclaimed by the Porte, the influence of the British Govern ment should alone suffice to secure its local application. "It has been said in the House of Commons that the British Gov ernment does not carry influence at Constantinople. I have to acknowl edge the support and confidence extended to me by Her Majesty's Am bassador, and, in refutation of the statement mentioned, to remark that since the country has been in a disturbed state (June 20, 1890), out of six measures of the first importance for the adoption of which by the Porte I asked Sir William White to use his influence, four have already been fully adopted and carried out, and a fifth is in course of execution, owing, I must presume, entirely to his Excellency's influence. I there fore see no reason to doubt that if the equitable policy I so strongly reccommend be approved of by Her Majesty's Ambassador and the Mar quis of Salisbury, and adopted by the Porte, the influence of the British Government will be adequate to its proper local application." (Signed) "Clifford Lloyd." "Eraaroum, October 2, 1890." ■ 498 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

NOTES

DIPLOMATIC REMONSTRANCES

'See dispatch from Lord Salisbury to Sir A. H. Layard, giving an account of u interview of the English Minister with the Turkish Ambassador. (Blue-Book, Tur key, No. 4, 1880, page 121). 'Blue-Book, Turkey, No. 9 (1880). 'These revenues, in so far as they formed a part of what are called the six in direct taxes, had been expressly assigned in the preceding November, in pursuant of an agreement between the Turkish Government on the one side and the Ottomai and other banks on the other, to a syndicate of bankers, and were handed for this purpose to a special body. The latter did not fail to protest against the misappro priation announced in the Note, and confirmed by a Circular of the Minister of Fi nance. But the Minister hastened to reply that the protest was unnecessary, o« t! was doubtful whether effect would be given to the arrangement. Thus, at toe very time the promise was made to Europe, an evasion was already in contemplation! See Mr. Goschen's dispatch to Earl Granville. (Blue-Book, Turkey, No. 6, 1881, page 75). 4See Blue-Book, No. 6 (1881), pages 80 (report of Consul-General Wilson), 8? and 181 (Bennett), 91 (Chermside), 107 (Trotter), 112 (Stewart), 156 (Clay ton), 185 (Everett), 221 (Biliotti). Dispatch from the Ambassador, Mr. Goschen, to Earl Granville, 30th of A* gust, 1880 : "All the Consular agents of Her Majesty in Asia Minor repeat over anc over again that nothing can be hoped for the provinces unless there is a real refora at the centre in Constantinople . . ." 'Vide the Comparative Table on the last page of this chapter. 'Dispatch of the 16th of November, 1880, from Mr. Goschen to Earl Granvilk. Blue-Book, Turkey, No. 6 (1881), page 242. "Captain Clayton calls it "a perfect farce." Dispatch of the 16th of November, 1880. Blue-Book, Turkey, No. 6 (1881), page 288. •Dispatch from Captain Everett of the 16th of December, 1880. Ibid, page 293. "Same dispatch, page 294. "See an illustrative story of one of these riots provoked by the exactions and brutalities of a Major —Binbashi —on a journey, in a dispatch from Captain Clay ton. Blue-Book, Turkey (1881), pages 209, 291. ""I should not be surprised if the leniency of the Turkish authorities in dealing with Sheik Obeydullah, and the Kurds generally, were due to an idea that they might be useful in keeping down the Armenians." (Blue-Book, Ibid, page 292). "In reference to this act, and for a description of the state of things in genenL see the petition of 900 Armenians of Van in the same Blue-Book, page 288. In the dispatch which accompanies this petition, Captain Clayton says that he guaran tees the accuracy of the facts alleged: "I entirely endorse what is stated in this paper." "Blue-Book, Turkey, No. 6 (1881), page 290. "Note from Mr. de Giers to Earl Dufferin, 20th of January, 1st of February, 1881. Blue-Book, Turkey, No. 6 (1881), page 320. "Note from Count Mofferi to Sir Paget, 1st of February, 1881. Ibid, page Sfl "Dispatch from Sir H. Elliot to Earl Granville, 25th of Jan., 1881, Ibid, pap 313. "Note from Mr. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire to Lord Lyons, 29th of January, 1881 Ibid, pages 314-315. "Dispatch from Lord Odo Russell to Earl Granville, 28th of Jan., 1881, Blw- Book, page 313. "Blue-Book, Turkey, No. 11, (1890-1). A HANDFUL OF EARTH'

BY BERTHA SULLIVAN PAPAZIAN

In bringing to your attention A Handful of Earth, — that tragic poem, both elegy and prayer, —written by the late Professor Donabed Lulejian of Euphrates College, Harpoot, Turkey, as he sat upon a hillside covered with the decaying corpses of his murdered compatriots in the year of grace, 1916, 1 would first of all have you keep in mind the general fact that the Armenians are famous as hymn and prayer- makers. So true is this that, speaking of their ancient literature, Mr. Archag Tchobanian, the distinguished critic and poet, has said: "Ar menian classic literature is not romantic ; it is not epical ; it is not dra matic. It is a hymn." And any book dealing with this literature, any encyclopedia, even, will tell you the same thing. But what neither the bare recitals of literary history, nor even translations have been able fully to convey, is the living sense of that unified beauty of thought and form which constitutes the actual glory of these old masterpieces, so utterly dependent is it upon the tonal effects upon which they have been builded in the Armenian tongue. One classic prayer, or hymn, treasured by all Armenians as a great national possession, is a conspicuous example of this musical technique. It is built upon a complicated scheme of alliteration, and was written by St. Nerses, the Gracious, who lived in the 12th century. It literally de fies translation. Upon the frame of his harp, so to speak, this ancient writer has strung the thirty-six letters of the Armenian alphabet, and upon each letter he plays three times successively in one phrase with varied effect, before passing on to the next letter upon which he again plays in like manner. An alliteration not only of initial letters but of the initial letters of second and third syllables, accompanies his praises of God and his abasement of self. The effect is richly and wonderfully resonant. So is it also with the prayers of St. Gregory of Narek, who wrote two hundred years before Nerses. His prayers are full of elaborate and ingenious musical motives which rise to magnificent crescendos and which cannot well be translated. "Traduttori traditori," say the Italians. Perhaps this is so in all cases, but where, as with these prayers, the form, equally with the spirit, is the result of an intense devotion, translation unavoidably becomes betrayal. This, undoubtedly, accounts for the fact that the task has been so rarely attempted.

499 500 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

But I would not here lay stress upon the form of these ancient prayers except to indicate the racial tendency to devotion. It was that ardor of religious faith, that adoration of Universal Love, which in the European Middle Ages found fullest and most beautiful expression in Gothic cathedrals and in inspired paintings, that in Armenia found perhaps happiest outlet in these prayers and hymns, through which, as says Tchobanian, the language of the ancestors, illimitable in its harmonies, delicious in its suavities, spread its sonorous purple.' The im mediate consciousness of God was the source from which they sprang, and always throughout the centuries that consciousness has survived, no matter how bitter the circumstances, no matter what the form in which the singer has chosen to write. Even the withering arraignment of earthly injustice, the often acrid appeal to heaven, which one finds not only among the modern, but even among the earlier poets,—what is it but a righteous protest against Evil, suffered to triumph, and a tortured testimony to unbroken faith in the justice and potency of the Ideal? In spite of its tender beauty, Professor Lulejian's poem and prayer is of the latter sort. In form it is far removed from the ecclesiastical gorgeousness of the writers I have cited. It is of what one would call an Hebraic simplicity, were not this simplicity, too, as truly native to the Armenians as to the Jews. Beauty for ashes he has given us, in the cleansing fire of truth. We, who have never known torture or terror, let us think of the ordeal through which this man was passing even as he wrote this document of his suffering and his faith. He, a refined scholar, a college professor, with the years spent at our own colleges, Yale and Cornell, transfused into his soul, the head of a hopeful and happy household, had been fallen upon mercilessly by the worse than bestial foe :. had been separated from his children, had been thrown into prison and, there tortured and his body severely and painfully mutilated, and had, at length, escaped only through the kindness of some Kurds who had lent him Kurdish dress in which to disguise himself. And now, ill and in agony of spirit, himself still in the valley of the shadow of death from which he was not to emerge, after four months of hiding, in a. dark stable, he comes forth to continue his flight to Russia only to see before him a new and terrible reminder of the fate of his race, —a valley filled with the slain bodies of hundreds of his compatriots! And .yet, even then, his soul masters the circumstance, and, incurably the thinker and the poet, trembling with emotion in that dreadful valley, he translates his agony into majestic and beautiful words, apostrophizing the. God upon whom he still relies even while he laments the fate of the abandoned "A HANDFUL OF EARTH" 501 dead. What a testimony to the unconquerable power of a noble human spirit! The poem follows. It was translated from the Armenian by Mr. Garabed H. Papazian and first appeared in The New Armenia published in New York.

At least a handful of earth for these slain bodies, for these whitened bones! A handful of earth, at least, for these unclaimed dead! We bury the dead: we keep their memory sacred: the grave is holy to us: we place our dear ones into its bosom, and we imagine them always to be there. We dislike to fancy obnoxious sights be neath the earth ; we dislike to fancy the bodies of our dear ones worm- ridden; their eyes, their lovely eyes, filled with worms; their cheeks, their kiss-deserving cheeks, mildewed ; their pomegranate-like lips food for reptiles. We dislike to fancy the ruin, destruction, annihilation. Our heart is there under the earth with the embalmed dead, waiting to rise in the glorious dawn of the resurrection. With a handful of earth we cover the scene of death and decay. With a handful of earth we cover our dear ones. But here they are in the mountains, unburied and forlorn, at tacked by worms and scorpions, the eyes bare, the faces horrible, amid a loathsome stench, like the odor of a slaughter-house, —a dreadful spot from which we flee. We flee from those we love: we abhor those for whom we would give our lives. A handful of earth, a handful of of earth to cover this frightful scene! There are our women with breasts uncovered and limbs bare: a handful of earth to shield their honor! There are our boys, naked and torn, with bullets in their hearts and in their heads: a handful of earth to cover them! There are our brides, disemboweled, hacked to pieces, with babes yet unborn: a handful of earth, only, to screen from our eyes this sorrowful scene! There are our young men with feet cut away and heads battered against the stones: cruel fiends hacked them to pieces, ferocious Bushmen, wild Kaffirs! A handful of earth to shut from our sight this heartrending scene ! A handful of earth, God! Sprinkle a handful of earth so that Thine eyes, through the stars, may not see the immolation of these weak and defenseless creatures, the piteous sacrifice on "the altar of Thy wrath. Throw a handful of earth upon them! A handful of earth, at least! Let the drama end, the age-long drama of Armenia's torture. Let the Armenian become a fossil. Let him be the disgrace of the civilization which tore him to pieces, cruelly and without mercy. Let him be the curse of the religion which aban 502 THE ARMENIAN HERALD I doned him and left him without succor. A handful of earth, that he may become a fossil inscription to reveal to the man of to-morrow the story of Armenia's woe. Give, God, the handful of earth re quested of Thee!

Surely no poem of the War as yet written has come to birth under such appalling circumstances. And none that I have seen surpasses this in power. A spontaneous outpouring, written at one stroke, un- revised, it has, none the less, all the elements that make poetry great. Delicacy and depth of feeling, imagination, sincerity, moral fire, rhythm, proportion, and climax, —all are here combined, and with an elemental purity and honesty which recalls the Hebrew prophets and psalmists. The long choir of Armenian singers begun in the years before History was written, and sustaining its song of joy and praise through out long ages of oppression is well-nigh silent in these awful days of havoc and doom. Siamanto and Varoujan,—where are they? Let the murderers of Constantinople and Berlin answer. To our infinite loss, too, the voice of Donabed Lulejian will not be heard again in this world, for his song was death-born. And the music which comes to us from Aharonian is as the music*****of a funeral bell. What can we Americans do to atone for this great wrong? What to render less menacing to all civilization this irreparable loss? For in place of the poet and the scholar we have the murderer and the plun derer,—sorry material out of which to reconstruct a world. We shall need to think and plan well to safeguard the future so shamefully and cruelly despoiled. We shall need earnestly to continue the struggle until we are sure that the power to crush and kill has been taken forever from those foes, not only of the Armenians, but of all mankind, —the Prussian empire-seeker and the Ottoman Turk. HOMAGE TO THEE

BY AVEDIS AHARONIAN

[Although Mr. Aharonian does not mention Armenia in this lofty tribute to a martyred race, it is clear to every Armenian or to any one who is familiar with her past and present history that Armenia is the object of his homage. The fact that the word Armenia does not appear in the entire composition makes its appeal uni versal. — Translator.']

Homage to thee, 0, martyred race ! Who has ever fathomed the abyssmal depth of thy affliction ? What mournful swan has ever entered thy soul to ruffle its deep pools of intense grief, where turbid waves seethe with murmuring curses ? Thou alone knowest the greatness of thy uncommon grief ; thou alone steerest thy rudderless and tempest-tossed bark toward unknown horizons, O thou wandering, suffering mariner, thou everlasting mate of the tempest, homage to thee ! Thou hast walked through the blood-stained mist of thousands of years resolutely, stubbornly, and nobly toward a supreme, a marvelous aim—magnetic as the beacon, bewitching as the virgin's smile. Thou art walking still, though breathless, wounded, tormented, bearing on thy gigantic shoulders a load, under the weight of which so many races have been crushed to death and have vanished, as the clouds of dust driven by the hurricane. Homage to thee! Immense boulders in the course of thousands of years are nibbled away gradually by water dripping from great heights and are diffused into the whirlpool ; mountains are crumbled to dust under the fiery an guish of ages, while thou, O martyred race, thy head pelted with infinite blows, still walkest on with granite steadfastness, through the merciless deserts where serpents lick thy blood-stained heels with their poisonous fangs, and where thorns tear thy soles into tatters; thou walkest on driven by thy unexampled fate toward a spot where, who knows, what glories or what new struggles still await thee ? Homage to thee ! For centuries the acrid and dark smoke of thy burned huts, laden with the blood of thy slaughtered children and with the curses of thy mothers, has risen to darken the firmament of heavens where the sun has tired of circling about thy bloody horizon, and the moon tremblingly has drawn her pale gleams away from thy bloody sight, and thou, with sobs stifled and gigantic grief chained to thy breast, alone and prese

503 504 THE ARMENIAN HERALD cuted, advancest along straight and gloomy paths, always gazing into the distance where the dawn is veiled, but which will surely rise some day. Homage to thee! A thousand hands arrest the impetuous flight of thy soul, a thousand claws tear asunder thy rosy dreams of freedom; thy life hast been nought but illusions and thou hast never abandoned thy faith in the dawn which thou believest will some day illumine thy gloomy counte nance; time after time have the blooming roses of thy hope withered from heat and wind, but thou art not tired of planting new ones, 0 thou gloomy and silent gardener ! On thy dark and stifling path, unseparable from and fast-bound to thee, shines Evil, a thousand-headed dragon, and in the fields all about thee howl the hungry beasts ; the forests alone, during the black nights, accompanied by the wandering winds, wail thy immense grief. Homage to thee! Thy sons have been kept separate from one another by bronze and iron boundaries in order to crush the unbounded impetus of their spiritual life, the flight of their creative genius. Thy arms and feet are bound fast by steel chains to check thy upward flight. The crimson crime has descended on the wings of a double-headed eagle ; it has come, unrestrained and mad, to envelop thy tormented body, to stamp the mortal kiss on thy thoughtful and weary brow; boundaries are erased, Grgour and Nepat, from Massis, Varag and Siephan, from Aragatsag; fields and valleys pant through the bloody mist; crime laughs in the sky above, and still thou walkest on. Homage to thee! Tell us, 0 living martyr, who has placed in thy soul that wonderful flame which is the fountain of thy vigor in these days of grief and gloom ? Who has planted in thy breast that immense tree of deep faith on which have perched so many mournful birds ? Why didst the kind God tie to thy heels the howling races and the mobs of the scorching deserts which are unable to comprehend thy dreams of beauty and of goodness, the ardent desires, which have intensely inflamed thy soul? The Mother Land, unable to bear the greatness of thy anguish and grief, fallen prostrate at thy feet, raves sorrowfully. Listen to her, O suffering and martyred nation! Her moans and sobs contains bitter note of revolt. Thou plowed her soil for centuries to enrich her breast, but the criminals defiled her. Lend an ear now. Each ground husk, each crushed flower, complains of thee, complains of thy calm, self-denying virtue, which no one around thee comprehends, no one ever did comprehend. Leave that virtue to the gods, however noble it may be; stand up and strike, strike with all thy might, —the whole world strikes. Woe to him who thinkest not of virtue as defiant, who liftest not his arm to strike at the blood-thirsty, merciless enemy! HOMAGE TO THEE 505

Once more homage to tb°e; homage to thy blood, to thy grief, to thy sobs and tears; homage to thy colossal patience, which served as

thine armor during the black days ; homage to thy great faith in the ulti mate triumph of goodness ! Enough. Let every age bear its own burthen. The enemy is far too cruel, too brutal, too felonious; that patience may remain virtuous, stand up and strike; strike vigorously that the bones of the dead of thousands of years may tremble from the thunder-bolts of thy strokes. Strike when thou art persecuted; strike when thy glorious advance is arrested ; strike when thy outstretched hands are refused and spurned ; strike incessantly, till the loathsome jeering of crimson crime is stifled, till the noble work of justice and truth triumphs. And then, O martyred race, have faith that thy blood-thirsty enemy will kneel before thee and exclaim, "Homage to thee."

Translated from the Armenian by Aram Torossian ARMENIAN DOCUMENTS

VI

We continue the publication of Mrs. Esther Mugerditchian's story, the first part of which appeared in our July number. We hope to complete it in our September issue. Statements like her's are often more convincing than are reports eman ating from persons who have not been on the spot and who simply compile them from outside sources. Mrs. Mugerditchian's story is a circumstantial account of ha tribulations and of what she actually witnessed during the deportation period it Turkey. We have reasons to believe that her story will appear in our Sunday papers for larger circulation.

FROM TURKISH TOILS

BY ESTHER MUGERDITCHIAN

THOSE WHO DIED OF THE FLOGGING

Armenag Tervizian and Garabed Tashdjian were so cruelly flogged that their bodies were all swollen ; they were taken to the Turkish hos pital in a pitiful condition, and a pretence of performing an operation on them was made. They died within two days. Mrs. G. Tashdjian, who was pregnant, was hung up by her arms and beaten for four hours to make her tell where the rifles were kept. Shekvi Bey, the Captain of Gendarmery, strangled fifteen young men in their beds, binding them to each other. It was a heartrending scene when they took Professor M. Vorperian to prison with a night shirt on, at midnight, while his wife and children made pitiful lament ; and his old mother-in-law, weeping and lifting ni her arms, cried alound, "Come down, Oh God Who hast created us, conn down !" The policemen took not the least notice of their cries. After a while the Reverend V. A. was taken to the prison. Hadji Hagop Fermanian was flogged in front of them until he fainted; then water was sprinkled on his face to rouse him, when they continued the flogging even more cruelly . This they repeated three times in order h, make him disclose the place where the rifles were kept. At the same time they threatened the other people saying: "If you do not bring and hand over the rifles of the Armenians by to-morrow, you will suffer worse torture than this," and they pointed to the tortured body of Fer manian.

(Continued from the July Number)

506 FROM TURKISH TOILS 507

Professor Vorperian was delirious the whole night, and on the da> following he was taken to the American Hospial at Mezre in a car, accompanied by two policemen. The Reverend V. A., after remaining in the prison for eight days, became very ill. They showed Professor Tenekedjian to the people in his altered con dition, saying: "Here is your enemy." Not satisfied with the ordinary tortures, they whipped him on the hands, burnt his hands and feet, and flayed him alive. False information, signed by themselves, was sent every day to Con stantinople, with pretended revelations about the revolutionists, and pictures of so-called rifles (the use of which is forbidden) were taken, all of which were intended to incriminate the Armenians. To give a clear idea of the information sent to Constantinople it is sufficient to mention the following. Mardiros Muradian who had been driven mad through the severity of the flogging, was taken to his house to show the place where the rifles were kept. The wretched man, who had no rifle at all, pointed out certain places as the "places where the rifles were kept." They dug the places out and found absolutely nothing, but they reported to Constantinople as though a great quantity of arms had been found.

COLLECTING THE RIFLES.

The people terrified by the atrocities committed on well-known per sons, had cleared their houses of everything which could possibly arouse suspicion. We had burnt even the school textbooks. Any book on chem istry, etc., might be sufficient reason for denouncing the owner as a student in bomb-making. A town crier went round for days and days announcing that every Armenian was obliged to hand over the rifles that he had to the Government. Men were imprisoned one after the othc- on a charge of possessing iifles. The licensed gunsmiths were all thrown into gaol and heavily nned. Many of them, owing to the tor tures they underwent, sent to tneir houses to tell their families to buy rifles from the neighbourhood and hand them over to the Government, hoping to save themselves in this way. The houses were searched; the suspected places were dug up to a

depth of three to six feet ; the walls were demolished and the floors were pulled up under the false pretext of finding rifles. Everything that met their eyes during the search wa» carried off. The Government was not satisfied with the things collected. Some of the Turkish officers and Mr. Ehemann often declared on oath that all the imprisoned people would be released, providing that all the rifles 508 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

were handed over to the Government. Mr. Ehemann, taking an oath in

the name of Christianity, gave an undertaking that no harm would be done to any person. So the sporting guns too were handed over to the Government. Once rumours arose that the imprisoned people were to be released,

but the day following it was said that 70 bombs were discovered in Mezre. The people were terrified.

EXILE.

There were rumours on June 20th, 1915, that all the imprisoned people would be transferred to Mezre in order to be interrogated by a German Court and that they were to be released if they proved to be innocent It was obvious that the Germans had decided to exterminate the Arme nians in their country. It was rumoured that the German Consul in Erzeroum was the first to kidnap a beautiful Armenian girl. The Ger mans behaved everywhere as cruelly as the Turks towards us Armenians. The relatives of the imprisoned people petitioned to be granted per mission to see their loved ones for the last time. It is impossible to de scribe here this interview —their last. They were not allowed to ex change a word. The tears were running down their faces, and all were reduced to the likeness of skeletons. A father, Malyemezian, was al lowed to kiss his child of nine years old, to whom he said in an audible voice: "My dear, they tortured us like Jesus." The same night they were all transferred to Mezre. On Wednesday, June 23rd, at midday I returned in terror to my house from the neighbours, gathered my children round me and prayed, having no other means of consolation. Araski, my girl, said: "Mother, your tears and pale face denote that the Armenians are living through criti cal hours." In truth, a terrible massacre was hanging over us. Before the exile the prisoners were searched, and everything found on them was taken as a precaution, leaving nothing for the Kurds. Those who were badly flogged were sent off first of all, in carts, but the carts returned empty within half an hour. The daytime on Thursday was as silent as the night ; nobody was to be seen in the streets but young boys bringing home the blood-stained clothes of their relations. On June 24th it was announced by a town crier that it was the women and girls' turn to be exiled. The inhabitants of Mezre had to leave on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the direction of the Arabian deserts. A small caravan was sent off on July 1st, and on the 3rd 1,000 families of richer class. Heaven and earth were full of their cries and moans. It was said that they were to be transferred under guard and in security. i

FROM TURKISH TOILS 509

On July 4th all the Armenian inhabitants at Husseinig, without ex ception, were sent off, but at a little distance from the city they separ ated the males from the females and killed them with unheard-of tor tures. The good-looking women and girls were ravished by the Kaimakam, the Major, and some other Turkish officers, while the ugly ones were exiled towards Deir-el-Zfir. On July 5th the town crier announced to the people that they were to be ready to start for Arabia. Few of the men were sorry, hoping by this means to be saved from Turkish atrocities. So all who were hidden came out of their hiding-places and all were sent to exile, even those of 15 years of age. The same evening the Turks announced with joy that 100,000 of the enemy had been massacred. "We have massacred our enemies ; our enemies have been massacred." We saw Armenian women wandering about and climbing up the hill, with a parcel of bread, crying : "Taken away, taken away !" These were maddened mothers and women trying 10 get near to the caravans, which were surrounded by gendarmes. The caravans consisted of people who were marched along in rows of four. All were killed the same day.

On July 7th even the old and sick were not spared ; they were beaten and mauled about the streets. Among them were Menneyan Hagop and Kalnian Sarkis. After a while the town crier announced again that there was nothing to be afraid of; everything was over, so those who were hidden came out of their hiding-places, but they were soon taken away and killed. While the inhabitants of Kharpout were getting ready, some of those exiled from Erzinjan and Erzeroum arrived and urged the people not to move at any cost. The people were aware now of the atrocities com mitted during the journey, so on one occasion they rushed to the Govern ment house, shouting: "Massacre us here and not in exile." The Government issued a document called a vesika, the bearer of which was permitted to stay in the town. This permit was for a short time only and the vesika, could only be procured by means of bribes. The following were allowed to remain in the city: 1. Those who had young children. 2. Boys under thirteen years of age. 3. Artisans and their families. 4. Pregnant women whose day of delivery was very near. 5. Families of medical officers. Those who had obtained the vesika, were not allowed to appear at all ; otherwise exile and death was likely to be their fate. The American missionaries put their buildings at the disposal of the Armenians to keep their effects in, but the Government prevented this 510 THE ARMENIAN HERALD by placing the building under guard, to avoid anything going in or com ing out. Mr. Riggs, Dr. Parmely, and Miss Harley wanted to accompany the people in their exile, but were not allowed. Dr. Parmely went from house to house distributing drugs to be used during the journey. They did whatever they could. Mrs. Henry acted truly like an angel. Some women came to ask my opinion about accepting the faith of Islam. I am glad to announce that nobody did so, all preferring to die as Chris tians.

THE EXILE OP OUR FAMILY.

While these things were happening and indescribable cruelties and severities were being practised, your friend V. sent to assure us that there was no danger at all; but I did not pay the least attention, pre suming that a Turk was always a Turk. Having ascertained everything myself, I applied to V., informing him that I did not wish to go into exile, and at his suggestion and with the help of your friends V. and M., suc ceeded in getting a vesika. Some days later thirteen men of the gendarmery made the following proclamation through a town crier: "Everybody is to open his house door and let us sell all his effects and property. We shall tomorrow seal all the houses and nobody will be allowed to take anything out of them." The doors were knocked at one by one; we opened our door in our turn and everything in the house was sold at a ridiculously low price. Later on Turkish women rushed in to ransack our property. One day they wrote on our door : "Exile." When our vesika was shown to them by my young boy, they replied: "The Sultan has given more recent orders." Nothing was left in our house, so that our Turkish friend said : "Now Turkish people will not be interested in you."

IN THE COSTUMES OF KURDISTAN.

Mrs. A., Derghazarian, and Mrs. Filibosian called me in great haste. The mother-in-law of the latter had told them that the men of Kurdistan were of the Syriac Church. So they had appealed to this Church to have themselves accepted as members. Only the family of Filibosian were approved as Syriacs, while the others were refused. I told V. and K. that, when the Armenians were massacred twenty years ago, the Turks at Mezr6 protected the Armenians there and in the end they themselves were benefited by them. The Kaimakam had lightened the tortures, and the exile of the inhabitants of Kharpout was delayed fifteen days, when the notice : "Exile," was put on our door. FROM TURKISH TOILS 511

Accompanied by Mrs. A. and our Arsen, I went to the American Hos pital at Mezre, and from there applied to the Kaimakam, asking him if there was a means of getting free. "It is necessary to adopt the religion of Islam," replied he proudly. But when I refused his proposal, saying that it was impossible for me to change my religion like a shirt, and that I could not deceive God, his wife, moved by a feeling of pity, asked her husband to propose something else to us. The Kaimakam demanded a sum of £100. I returned sorrowfully to the hospital, because for all our property, worth £400 or £500, we had received only £15, and we had al ready bought a donkey for the journey. Dr. Atkinson admitted my girl to the hospital as a nurse, and at my request Yervant was admitted as a druggist, and Zenop as an orderly. I myself hastened back to Kharpout. It was necessary to send them to Mezre before dark. Our departure was as sorrowful as death. We were all weeping. At the last moment the idea occurred to me to try to satisfy the Kaim akam with a sum of £50 if possible. I asked Dr. Atkinson to advance the said sum and he would get it back from you. As soon as I received the money from the kind-hearted doctor, I called immediately on the Kaimakam. He took it with satisfaction shining in his eyes and said that he would feign ignorance of our presence, and that we must hide ourselves in a place away from the city. Our joy was unbounded. We had intended to go with Arsen to the hospital to hide ourselves there. We got the indispensable things and disguised ourselves as much as possible. We had never expected that our situation would end so favourably. We were to spend that night, too, all near one another. Before our flight from Kharpout it was necessary to hide all our photos. We placed them under the ground floor. Yervant and Zenop were all the time concealed in the house, hiding themselves by day, in a hole three to six feet deep, only coming out by night to breathe fresh air. Araksi and I had to managed the household affairs. By means of a dirty tarbush or a torn zebun (long Turkish dress) it was possible to assume the appearance of a typical Kurdish child. Yer vant put on a short zebun, as suggested by V., to prevent him being taken for an older person. Arsen was altogether disguised. All his exertions manifested his endeavour to save a whole family, as he went to the Kaimakam or the Police, applied to the Vali, etc. Your child acted your part so skilfully that he filled the place you left. 512 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

FIFTEEN DAYS IN THE HOSPITAL.

On Saturday, July 16th, two days after our removal to the hospital, I called, with my two girls and Arsen, at my sister's to see her husband the Reverend A. E., who was living in the German Girls' Orphanage under the care of a German-Swiss missionary (Tante Katarina) to avoid being sent into exile. The Reverend A. E. was very glad of this arrange ment, but, alas ! it was for a short time only. Mr. Ehemann, the German missionary, four days after our arrival, sent to say that "he could not undertake the responsibility in case a search was made for Mrs. Esther and her six children by the Government." So we were compelled to leave. The Reverend Asadur wept like a child at our departure. Dr. Atkinson cordially welcomed us. Our little children were admitted as playmates for his little ones. The hospital was soon crowded with Armenian refugees, women and girls. The doctor kindly admitted the crowd, which totalled 200 persons. There were besides about 200 wounded Turkish soldiers. The doctor appointed the Reverend A. and me as overseers to these 200 persons, who remained there as hospital orderlies. Nobody dared to leave the hospital for fear of being seen. Zenop was working in the cellar with the doctor's child; Yervant as the assistant to the druggist ; Arsen was employed in bringing water on a donkey, so we all were busy and had something to do. On Sunday, July 18th, the exiles from the upper town of Kharpout passed along the road north of the hospital. Many watched their parents go by for the last time, in spite of strict orders from the doctor forbidding all to watch them. The American nurses, who watched the procession from close at hand, told us that the women had veiled their faces and put on shalvdrs. Many were on foot, and some, having no other means of transport, were on donkeys. The young children stood still on the road, weeping and crying:

"Mother, we are tired" ; but the stern faces of the gendarmes and the blows of their whips compelled them to go on until they fainted and fell down. The lady teachers of the Euphrates College had veiled their faces. When asked by the nurses who they were, two of them replied that they were Zaruhi Benneyan and Mariam Tashdjian. During the week the exiles from the other districts of Kharpout passed along the same road. The attention of the Turks was then directed towards the Armenians in the hospital. In order to protect the lives of the young men there, Dr. Atkinson assigned them a large room in his house. Later the hos pital was surrounded. Miss Campbell, at my request, gave me the key of her dormitory and ordered us all to be transferred there until the arri val of the news which she was expecting from the Armerican Consul. I FROM TURKISH TOILS 513 was looking after my children when Henry entered breathlessly, saying that Yervant and Arsen were hidden in a very safe place and that we had nothing to do but to go to the place assigned to us. It was late at night when Miss Campbell came in and told us to get ready to go to the American Consulate. Within ten minutes Dr. and Mrs. Atkinson, my children and I, and Miss Campbell were ready to go, accom panied by a Turkish sergeant-major belonging to the hospital. On the way the sentries stopped us more than once, but the Turkish sergeant-major whispered to them, and they let us pass. We passed the night on a carpet, seven of us under one bed-cover. In the morning, when we opened the windows, the wind blew the smell of the corpses towards us and made us feel quite sick. Our three children and Professor Luledjian remained hidden by day in a room in the upper story and could come down to breathe some fresh air only by night. The professor told me how he and his family were saved from the massacre and exile. Miss Campbell was Scotch, but the Government recognised her as an American. She declared to him that she loved his brother Levon and so she would try and save the whole family. "Please allow me," she said, "to become engaged to Levon, not with the idea of getting married, but to have grounds for protecting you by pretending that he is my betrothed. I cannot, though I love him, force Levon to marry me; I am ten years older than he. I want to make him my betrothed so as to save him. He can afterwards marry anyone he likes." This lady, in truth, saved the whole family, accommodating them in her own or her lady friends' houses. Later, an opportunity presented itself and they fled to Dersim. Let me tell you a fact that should be mentioned here. Professor Soghigian had been flogged in the prison and transferred to the military hospital three days before the exile. After he had somewhat recovered he was sent back to his family, but his experiences had left their mark and he ultimately died, though a natural death. A few days after our taking refuge in the American Consulate rumours were circulated that 200 Armenians had taken refuge there and that the Consul had been placed in a very difficult position. The Capitulations had been annulled and his attitude was uncertain. Dur ing this time Dr. Atkinson proposed to our elder girl that she should work in the hospital (she sometimes played the piano for the patients). The same day Yervant also was admitted as druggist. The doctor took Alice and Armine to his house, made them playmates for his little ones, and even taught them English. The American Consul was troubled by the large size of our family. So Arsen passed a month in the Swiss-German Orphanage. Zenop and I remained in the Consulate and so we were separated from each other 514 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

for twenty-three days, but we were tired of idleness. Zenop was ap pointed later an hospital orderly and I acted as cook in the kitchen of the hospital. Arsen could not bear the life in the orphanage-, so we took him to the hospital, where he was employed as a carpenter's apprentice. We were all together now, and devoted whole-heartedly to our work, being the only family in the Kharpout province which had been saved frorc exile and massacre. In the human slaughter-house of Kharpout the Armenians brought down from Erzeroum and Erzinjian were pitilessly killed with axes, spades, knives and bayonets. The military authorities were masters of everything. The Kavass of the American Consul told the following story of what he had witnessed one day during a walk: "To the south of Mezre, one to one and a half hours' walk away, very many mothers had been cut to pieces and lay swimming in their blood; wounded children were screaming; little babies of eight to nine months old hung on the breasts of their mothers; hundred of corpses were scattered everywhere, from among which came moans and cries of agony, some were calling: 'Water! water!' Mr. Picha [?], an Austrian, the Director of the Ottoman Bank, overcome by the scene wept like a child and galloped away. Mr. Davies also accompanied us." On one occasion a child of fifteen years old, Hrand Mughalian, was brought to the hospital with five sword-wounds in his hand and two bullet wounds in his loins. The kind-hearted doctor attended him and restored him to consciousness. When he had to some extent recovered he told the following story : "Four hours away from Kharpout they led the caravan of exiles, which consisted entirely of members of the Shaghalian and Mughalian families down into a valley and there fired on and bayoneted them. I fainted and fell down. They examined the corpses to ascertain if they were all dead. A few hours latter, when I had recovered consciousness, I fled in terror from the valley. My feet were not wounded but they were not strong enough to carry me. A little farther on I met an old man who allowed me to ride on his donkey and brought me here to the door of the hospital and told me to go in." Some of the Armenians who had remained in the German Orphanage asked Mr. Ehemann to send a telegram to the Missionaries in Urfa to find out whether their relatives had arrived there. Here is the reply given to the telegram : "The exiles have not arrived here, and will not arrive either. That is the fate intended for them." More than ten persons, who were wounded during the exile, were brought to the hospital, among them a child seven years old, shot in the head, with the bullet still in his skull. A carpenter from Habusi named Brother Marsub, who had received forty-three bayonet wounds, was FROM TURKISH TOILS 515 hardly able to drag himself to the hospital. The doctor healed him. This is what Brother Marsub related : "They bound us and took us to a place far from the village, where our graves had been dug. We had no means of defending ourselves. The gendarmes bayoneted us one by one and pushed us into the graves. After several blows I fainted, and, when I recovered consciousness, found myself covered with earth. The Turks established an orphanage for the young children in the village, but later, thinking it unnecessary to feed them, put them in carts, took them off and killed them with swords and axes. Itchme was also subjected to a massacre. The males of Habusi were killed in a building near the church of Itchme after being tortured for ten days. Mr. Aramsaradjian was one of them. The village of Mor- enig, where Turkish deserters were hidden, was burnt, and it was said that they were Armenian Fedai (revolutionaries), and those who at tempted to flee from the fire were shot. After a short examination it was found that they were Turks. We could see the burning villages clearly from the windows of the hospital. Mr. Setrak Zulumian had volunteered to try and get through to Russia with his two friends and tell them of the miserable state of the Arme nians, but the Turkish soldiers killed them near Habusi. All the holy places were burnt and ruined. Harutun of Palu, a young boy twelve years old, related that his friends of the same age were taken away, tied together in fours, and killed by having their heads crushed with stones.

(To be concluded in the September Number) REVIEW OF THE MONTH

ARMENIANS AND ZIONISTS

The progress of Zionism throughout the world is watched with deep interest and sympathy by all those who believe in the imperishable doctrine that small nations, whether dependent or otherwise, should have their right to existence and free development safeguarded. The relations between Armenians and Zionists since the commencement of the international conflagration have been cordial and are strengthened as time proceeds. There is an identity of purposes, and a community of interests and ideals that should bind together Zionists and Armenians at this terrible crisis of their fate. Their close co-operation is essential at this juncture. They have friends and allies in the liberal nations of the earth and common enemies whose machinations they must de feat. The Zionists have already sent their legions to fight on the Pales tinian front. They are giving an excellent account of themselves. Jeru salem, the ancient capital of Judea, is no more under the heel of the abominable Turkish regime. Under the benevolent British administra tion it is making strides in the path of progress and we doubt not that when Palestine is completely redeemed Zionism will flourish and the Jewish nation will be able to fulfill its civilizing mission unhampered and untrammelled in the concert of free nations. These views are eloquently set forth in speeches and addresses by prominent Zionist leaders throughout the world. Dr. C. Weizmann, the leader of the Zionist Commission which recently visited Jeru

salem, made a remarkable address in that city in the presence of its

principal notables who were invited to meet him. He said, "We do not come to Palestine, we return to it." And he proceeded to ex plain why:

"We return to this sacred country which our forefathers he roically defended to link up the glorious traditions of the past with

the future in order to create once more a great moral and intel a lectual centre, whence, perhaps, a new word will come forth to a sorely-tried world. This is for me the innermost meaning of

national home. But such a centre must have real props, must have its roots in and derive strength from the soil of Palestine. We Zionists desire therefore to create conditions under which the moral and na tional development of those of the Jewish people who have freely

516 ARMENIANS AND ZIONISTS 517

chosen to come to Palestine will be rendered possible. This develop ment will not, and must not, be detrimental to any of the great com munities established in the country. On the contrary, it will be to their advantage."

After affirming that Zionists do not believe in the international ization of Palestine or any form of dual or multiple political control over Palestine whose integrity must be protected by one just and fairly responsible guardian, the speaker expressed deep sym pathy for and profound interest in the struggle for freedom which the ancient Arab race is now waging against Turkey. The scattered Arab forces are being cemented with the sympathies of the Entente and the freedom-loving powers. He welcomed the regenerated Arab political organism which, he hoped, will revive the glorious traditions of Arab science and literature. Then regarding the Armenians and their future Dr. Weizmann uttered these memorable words:

"To the north the Armenian nation, which at the present moment is paying the bloodiest toll to a cruel enemy, will rise triumphantly to claim justice and the right to live in peace on the soil which is being drenched with the blood of its best sons. To this nation our hearts go out, and we feel that these three nations —Arabs, Jews, and Armenians — who have suffered most in the world, have perhaps, of all nations, the highest claim to a life of their own, to a life of freedom and peaceful development. Destiny has chosen these three nations to guard the classic gate into the ancient world against Turanian hordes, which, armed with the deadliest of modern destructive weapons, are being organised by their task-masters. "We Jews are already feeling the effects of the new menace. The Armenian massacres in the Caucasus and fresh Jewish massacres in Turkestan should serve as a warning to all of us. They should teach Arab, Jew, and Armenian to stand united in order to resist by all and every means in their power the forces of darkness and oppression which now threaten to overwhelm the civilised world."

Dr. Weizmann does not stand alone in his expressions of sympathy for the Armenian Cause. A host of other Zionist leaders never miss an opportunity to advocate the claims of Armenia in eloquent terms. Justice Brandeis, Dr. Stephen Wise and others in the United States have done yeoman's work in this direction. Let us say here that these eminent services of our Zionist friends and allies are heartily and grate fully acknowledged and reciprocated by Armenian leaders and asso 518 THE ARMENIAN HERALD ciations (whether in Paris, London, or in the United States) both in the press and in public meetings. The Pittsburg Zionist convention, held on the 23rd of June last, which witnessed a most enthusiastic gathering of 15,000 Jewish men and women, afforded a fitting opportunity to the Armenians of the United States to give expression through their accredited representative to the sentiments with which they are animated towards the patriotic movement and struggles of the Zionists. The Armenian National Union delegated its chairman, Mr. Miran Sevasly, to address that historic meet ing. His address was duly reported in the Pittsburg and other papers and the Boston Post, in its issue of June 24th, 1918, published a sum mary thereof. He said:

"I come to convey the goodwill and the congratulations of the Armenian National Union of America to the convention and of all the Armenians scattered throughout the States. The causes of Armenia and of Palestine are closely bound up. Both Jews and Armenians have been persecuted peoples and both are entitled to separate national existence. They have both survived the other na tions. They have persisted by reason of their spirit of solidarity, their lofty idealism and their culture and civilization in the East. "I am against a separate peace with Turkey. A separate peace with Turkey would presuppose that Turkish hegemony will continue to exist and that the historic, progressive and liberal races like the Armenians, the Greeks, the Arabs and the Jews will continue to be under the heel of the most abominable regime. It was due to the Zionists that the movement for a separate peace with Turkey has been nipped in the bud. It is a disgrace to humanity that the Turkish caliphate should remain at Constantinople, and I advocate that the sultan and his minions and his 1,000 wives should be relegated to the interior of Asia to the ancestral home of his race. "I hail the new Jewish flag which I hope to see soon unfurled on the ramparts of Jerusalem and Mt. Zion, and predict that the new Jewish state and a future free and independent Armenia will work together for the progress of humanity in the Near East and be free and secure to dis seminate the ideas and the doctrines of the great and imperishable American Republic."

The address was cheered to the echo by the immense gathering of Zionists assembled at the Memorial Hall and the name of Armenia was made the occasion of a tremendous ovation, —the whole audience stood, cheered, and waved their flags for several minutes. Justice Brandeis, to whom the Zionists paid a mighty tribute, Dr. Stephen AN APOSTLE OF LIBERTY 519

Wise, Dr. Haas, Judge Julian Mack and others were on the platform. These manifestations of reciprocal sympathy and support between two historic races in the East are, we are firmly convinced, the forerunners of better days for both Jews and Armenians. Their national aspira tions will certainly find a favorable and lasting solution at the coming Peace Congress at the close of the present war.

* * *

AN APOSTLE OF LIBERTY

"There are centuries which beget great men, just as there are great men who beget centuries" is the Armenian phrasing of a truth universally recognized. Lucy Stone, the mother of Alice Stone Black- well, who, for a quarter of a century has been the leading spirit among American Armenophiles, was of the latter order. The thirteenth of this month saw celebrated all over the United States the one hundredth anniversary of her birth. Everywhere she was hailed as the creator of a new era. The revolution which she so largely helped to effect is so profound and so various that it would be impossible in this brief space to more than glance at its outstanding features. Her personality, and the strik ing events of her life, are in themselves inexhaustible material for com ment. To her work and to her life historians of the future will turn with something of the unending reverence and wonder and delight which we now accord to Joan of Arc. Her story has the same pastoral be ginning as that of Joan. She has achieved an equally high accomplish ment. To her, as to the Maid, God spoke. It was the Voice in her soul which sent her forth to seek liberation for all womankind. At the beginning of her career, the noble doctrine of the Rights of Man had been extended to woman only by courtesy. When women tried actively to exercise those rights, either on their own or others' behalf, they discovered that that "courtesy" had little sanction either in law or in custom. The right to the higher education, the right to enter the trades or professions, the right to speak in public, the right of assembly, the right to control wages or property, the right of ownership in the per son, the right to equal guardianship of the children, the right to vote,— all these at that time were universally denied to women. Specifically, we have Lucy Stone, and her few brave sister pioneers, to thank for much of the labor which has struck these shackles, social, legal, and po litical, from one half of the human race. For the victorious woman movement, even as it has swept the world, owes incalculably to the work done here in America. 520 THE ARMENIAN HERALD

But it is to her enlargement of our whole concept of human liberty that I would pay especial tribute. Her ultimate glory lies in the fact that she challenged a partial interpretation of the philosophy of the Rights of Man, and proclaimed the great intellectual and moral truth that liberty is as essential to the human soul as air is to the lungs, or as sun is to the plant. The fact that to-day, we, a heterogeneous people, not only stand ready to fight with all our power the despots oversea, but that we are so unified in our aims and ideals that every one of us understands, in some measure, the philosophy of the whole conflict, is due in large degree to the fuller understanding of human liberty which she and her colleagues did so much to foster. They kept alive, and still keep alive, the active discussion of and examination into our country's institutions. They have preached a full and perfect liberty from every platform and street corner and crossroad in the country. In and out of season, they have decried the hideous doctrine of government by force, and of male superiority, —theories which to-day find their best exemplification in the political and social systems of our foes. Reversing the judgment of centuries, they have placed the mother and the child above the war rior as assets to the state. And not until the child is safeguarded by the joint powers of both parents, not until men and women everywhere stand up together free, will their work find its full fruition. Let us remember, solemnly, that the colossal murder of the Arme nian people, of the Serbs, and of the Belgians, and the enslavement and degradation of the girls and women in all the outraged countries are the frustration of the constructive efforts of countless generations of mothers, and that it all inheres in the vicious doctrine of the subjection of woman which this heroic personality has done so much to overthrow. B. S. P.