• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE ARMENIAN HERALD CONTRIBUTORS' COLUMN FOR MARCH NUMBER. Lord James Bryce, whose message we bee's views had been adopted at the publish in the present number, needs no Crimean War, probably this world con introduction to the American public. The flict would have been avoided and the name of the author of the American Eastern Question settled once and for all. Commonwealth is a household word throughout the United States and es Mr. Minas Cheraz and Mr. Archag pecially in University circles. Lord Tchobanian whose names appear in our Bryce has been in the forefront of the pages are widely known both in this Armenian cause for the last forty years. country and Europe. The first, as a mem He visited Armenia as far back as 1874 ber of the Armenian delegation to Berlin and is one of the few men who have in 1878 and as an eminent orator and reached the top of Mt. Ararat. His work writer, who addressed parliament of re on Transcaucasia and Ararat is a stan ligions in Chicago, has his distinctive dard work on Armenia and the Arme place in the pantheon of Armenian nian people. Lord Bryce has recognized thinkers, patriots, and authors of emi the true qualities of the Armenians and nence. Mr. Tchobanian needs no intro has greatly admired not only their past duction in these pages as Miss Kate history, literature and their accomplish Buss's sketch of him in our December is ment in their various walks of life but sue is a comprehensive portrait of one of also their parliamentary virtues dis Armenia's foremost men of letters and played by the speakers in Armenian na poets. tional and other assemblies. Ever since 1875 he has been the guide, and the Ex-Ambassador Henry Morgenthau friend of Armenians everywhere. "was at his post in Constantinople when the Greek war broke out. So he had an unusual opportunity of viewing the op Lieutenant Colonel Little, a represen eration of the grandiose scheme by tative to the United States Congress which Germany planned to dominate the from Kansas, was born in Ohio and edu world. Just as the first German mili cated at the University of Kansas. His tary onslaught was against Paris, so her activities have been many prior to his first great political intrigue centered on entrance to the congress. Among others the Bosphorus. In the accompanying he has practiced law, served as minister article Mr. Morgenthau tells, for the resident to Egypt under President Har first time, his story of the Armenian rison, and commanded a regiment in the horror— the greatest single massacre in Philippines. He was acquainted with the history of the world—which Germany the Eastern affairs through travels while could, but would not, prevent. It is of abroad of which he speaks in his speech. peculiar interest that Mr. Morgenthau, a We print the speech with deep appre Jew born in Germany, was, as American ciation to Colonel Little for holding the Ambassador, the chief protector of the attention of Congress for so long a time Christians in Turkey. Mr. Morgenthau concerning the Armenians. holds that the destruction of the military power of Germany, and the expulsion of Mr. A. J. Toynbee's last and conclud the Turks from Europe are essential to ing part of the remarkable study on the the progress of civilization." We have Turkey, A Past and A Future, which nothing more to add, in these introduc we are giving in this issue, should ab tory remarks, to this concise note by the sorb the attention of all well wishers of editors of the Red Cross Magazine from the Armenians and of the other civilized which we are printing Mr. Morgenthau's elements in the Near East. If Mr. Toyn article. THE ARMENIAN HERALD VOLUME 1 MARCH, 1918 NUMBER 4 A MESSAGE FROM LORD BRYCE. Message : "The most urgent needs of the Armenian people are two : Firstly, cordial cooperation between all the sections of the Armenian population in Trans-Caucasia. Every difference of opinion ought to be sunk in the common effort to repel the threatened attacks of the Turks, and to avoid any trouble from the side of the Tartars of the East. The Armenians and the Georgians are happily working together at present, having a common interest in maintaining themselves against the Turks, and in maintaining a stable government, which shall avoid the chaos and anarchy which, according to the accounts we receive, prevail over large parts of European Russia. The other urgent need is to provide food for the refugees who have fled from Turkish massacres into Trans-Caucasia, and for those Arme nians who have returned into what was Turkish territory south of the Russian frontier. Both these classes of people are threatened with star vation. Food, I am told, can be had from adjoining neighbouring dis tricts, especially Persia, if the money is forthcoming to procure it. We, in Britain, are doing all we can to send out funds to support those who are threatened with famine, and we have no doubt that Armenians in the United States are doing their best. Our common thanks are due to the splendid liberality with which the people of the United States have contributed to the cause of the Armenian relief during the past two years, when the need for help for the refugees from Turkish cruelty has been so urgent. I know that our American friends have shown the warmest sympathy not only with the sufferings, but also with the aspir ations of the Armenians for permanent deliverance from the yoke of the Turkish oppressor, and we earnestly trust the day of that deliverance is now at hand." ARMENIA AND TURKEY. BY EDWARD C. LITTLE Mb. Chairman, a quarter of a century has gone by since I lived in the Valley of the Nile, sailed through the Grecian Isles, sojourned among the hills of Palestine, and swam across the River Jordan. Then the Suez Canal was the key to world dominion. Cairo was the capital of world diplomacy and the storm center of world politics. From there Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and Turkey were maneuvering for position in the universal conflict now being waged. Most of the stars of statecraft, war, and prelacy, which illuminated the horizon of the Levant then, have been lost in the dark shadows of eternal night. The great world conflagration for which they so long watched with bated breath has finally come without their presence. If among the dying embers of the past I can breathe and kindle a little flame that may reflect some useful light upon the relations of the Turk, the Armenian and the Orient to this mighty cataclysm in which we are all involved, I shall feel that my service in this House has not been wholly in vain. About the time I was appointed Khedive Tewfik died and his son, the Prince Abbas Hilmi, a boy of twenty-one or two, came from a school in Vienna to mount the throne established by his ancestor Mohamet Ali, the greatest ruler outside Europe and America who has lived for 200 years. Supposing he inherited a kingdom that had existed for a century the boy, short, stout, stubborn, and dignified, promptly clashed with Cromer, the English power behind the throne, and named as his Prime Minister Fahkry Pasha, a tall handsome Circassian (by virtue of a mother and grandmothers for several generations from Cir- cassia). Cromer suggested a very pliant Egyptian friend of the Eng lish for the place, and the British Foreign Minister Roseberry cabled that he "would not be responsible" for what happened if their candi date was not selected. France and Russia declined to back the boy's plans and war was avoided. The young fellow was determined to be some measure of a king and threatened to commit suicide before he would accede to the English demands. Cromer "declined to accept the responsibility" of the revolutions and disturbances that might have followed among the Mohammedans, and they compromised on Riaz Pasha. A little, slender old man, a devout Moslem, an ardent Egyptian, ARMENIA AND TURKEY 173 a sturdy patriot, he satisfied the Egyptians ; an honest official, a sound business man, a capable executive, he satisfied Cromer. Eager, boyish in carriage, nervously counting the beads of his rosary, cautious, pru dent, determined in his methods, his character stood like a rock con cealed beneath the foam of his manners, which misled all who did not know him intimately. With some pride I remember he always said when the young man from Kansas came in, "Here comes our friend." Boutrous Pasha, the minister of finance, was a Coptic Christian, a descendant of the ancient Egyptians, a member of the church founded by Saint Mark in the sixtieth year of our Lord. Coldly logical in every thought and utter ance, I heard him tell Hardinge, Cromer's substitute (afterward gov ernor of Uganda and now, I believe, minister to Spain), that the Eng lish should desist from the pretense of allowing the Egyptians to rule and rule it themselves or get out. Carrying that to its legitimate con clusion when he became prime minister in after years, a fanatical Mohammedan and Egyptian patriot slipped a knife into him and killed him, just to demonstrate to the world that it takes a major premise and a minor premise and a premise of human nature to make a real syllogism, and ended the career of a very able man. The foreign minis ter, Tigrane Pasha, was an Armenian Christian, a cultured and accom plished diplomat whose resources and equipment compared favorably with those of any man in public life in Washington, and through him I first began to learn about the Armenian race from which he sprang.

Load more

  66

Copy Link