BLACKWELL FAMILY
ALICE STONE BLACKWELL      SUBJECT FILE      ARMENIA, PRINTED MATTER reCROSS REFERENCE SHEET
Name or Subject    Alice Stone Blackwell Awards
                               Order of the Melusine                 File No.

Regarding                                                                   Date

Awarded by the Armenians to Alice Stone Blackwell

See article from May 1897 Munsey Magazine in
              Armenian folder  (Prince de Lusignan)
              about the history of the "guerdon"POLITICAL PERSECUTION

ARMENIAN PRISONERS OF THE CAUCASUS

[A PAGE OF THE TZAR'S PERSECUTION]

By
E. AKNOUNI

Author of "The Wounds of the Caucasus," "On to Battle," Etc.

1911 NEW YORKPOLITICAL PERSECUTION
ARMENIAN PRISONERS OF THE CAUCASUS
[A PAGE OF THE TZAR'S PERSECUTION]
By
E. AKNOUNI
Author of "The Wounds of the Caucasus," "On to Battle," Etc.
1911                                  NEW YORKTranslated from the Author's Manuscript
by A. M. and H. W.

AN APPEAL To the Intellectuals of America.
With my weak pen, and unflourished words, I appeal to
you, intellectuals and writers of the Great Republic - to your
tongue, to your pen, and especially to your heart.
Do not regard as boldness this step of an Armenian writer
unknown to you. It is not my modest past, or my weak pen, that
entitles me to address you publicly, but the fact that I belong to
a persecuted nation, perhaps, alas, the first among the human
victims of history, - a nation, small in numbers, but great in
suffering; insignificant in its political standing, but worthy of respect
for the victims it offered to the altar of civilization and
freedom.
It is the grief and the sorrow of the wound-covered and
persecuted Armenian people that prompts me, as well as the
whole class of Armenian intellectuals of to-day, whose modest
soldier I am, to speak, - grief and sorrow that made even the
stones cry, and that in the days of unsuppressed rage roused the
civilized world from Rome to London, from Paris to New York,
and moved even those who have breast, but no heart; head,
but no mind.
Raise your voices, you who have hearts and minds, and as
citizens of a free fatherland are duty bound to voice  your protest
in behalf of "innocent convicts," who, crushed behind prison
doors, are anxiously awaiting for signs of sympathy, for a just
protest in the name of their ever-tortured people.
I was often told, both in Europe and in this country, that it
was useless to appeal to America, that the hope of the persecuted
was in vain. It was reiterated to me again and again :
"America is not the land of succor, but of money. The great
American press is not the soldier of justice and ideal, but it
serves Mammon, and through Mammon, again to Mammon."
You know better than I how true this sad accusation is !
But I, who traveled this Republic from one end to the other,
from city to city, whatever I saw and observed keeps me in my
conviction that America is not merely "the land of factories,"
but that it is also the land of great ideals.

4

Yes, a land where the memory of Washington and Lincoln is held so sacred; where the monuments of revolution, independence, and liberty rear themselves side by side with factory chimneys; where universities and libraries and erected by the side of big stores and pleasant parks; where the democratic spirit demolished the restraining prejudices of the Old World; and where, in the harbor of its Metropolis, burns every night the torch of universal Liberty, - such a land must not and can not desert the Great Ideal.

The Nations of the East do not ask you for "intervention." No, it is not necessary to mix up with the "family quarrels" of other nations. But your Great Citizen, if he was risen from his grave could not pass by a dying sufferer without kneeling by his side; could not witness without just anger the cruelty of an executioner who flogs the bleeding victim. 
No intervention, but protest, when a whole nation or people is slaughtered; protest in the name of man, whose worship is so great with you; protest in the name od liberty for which you gave so much of your blood in the days of the Great Battle; protest in the name of human community, without distinction of race or religion, the pet idea of your Wonderful Fatherland. 
I know, I feel, you are very far from the Grief-valley of historic Ararat, from the place of tyrannical rule, where so dominant are the knout , the yataghan, and the prison. But now, with my ineffective lines, I will essay to bring before you the pale image of horrible tragedy, one page only, one small page of the deep horrors, which are perpetrated behind Closed Doors, whence for years ring the screams of prisoners, and with them the wrath and the protest of all the persecuted. 
Listen to that voice, hear that wrathful scream; hear and answer what your mind, what your heart, suggests.
Put some of your heart in your voice, in your protest, in your pen, and strike with thunder.

Use your pens, writers of all nations!
Use your mouths, orators of all lands!
E. AKNOUNI.
April, 1911,
New York.

5
THE WORLD OF CHAINS.
Searching by night!
Imprisonment by day!
This was been the "political life" in the Caucasus since 1908, where, by the regulation of Tzarism, the Armenian people are pronounced dangerous, and out of the pale of law's prosecution.
Prison, searching and exile hhave been of frequent occruance in the domains, where the knout of slave [[slave]] despotism is dominant, but what has been taking place in the last few years, even after the Octoberian Manifesto of the Tzar, is exceptionally novel.

What a bitter irony!
While in St. Petersburg speeches flow from the worthy and unworthy mouths of the members of the Duma in the name of political liberty and security, in Poland, Finland, and the Caucasus tongues are tied by the orders of the police, pens are crushed in the office of the censor, and all good citizens, physicians, lawyers, teachers, officers, farmers, and lead to prisons - political grave-yards, to atone for sins which they have not committed, to suffer tortures which they do not deserve. 
And sitting behind blosed doors hundereds of prisoners, subjected to many tortures and deprivations, are wondering and asking themselves:
"What is our sin?"
And the unworthy officer of the Russian Court, called Legine, who is actuated more by caprice than justice, and who takes his orders from the Minister of the Interior, answers them brutally:
"Your sin is that you are Armenians. You are responsible for everything that occurs in the Armenian life. It is necessary for us to bury the roaring fire under ashes, to uproot revolutionary movement, to exterminate political parties, and engulf life and energy. Do you want proof? Our caprice is the proof. Do you want documentary evidence? The documentary evidence is the police report.
6
And Stolypin, the president of the unconstitutional ministry,
a policeman, and not a statesman, detective, but not a
man of law, is instructing with word or consent :
"Crush, persecute."
And they are crushing!
And they are persecuting!
-
It is night.
As soon as the lamps burn in the streets which are filled
with soldiers, the terrorized "subjects," rich and poor, run
home like frightened birds from an imminent, threatening tempest.
Since 1906 when the black terror was organized in Russia,
by the efforts of the police, when the criminal-minded government
armed the dark element, the mob, in order to cover
the awakening land with the veil of terror, then nobody could
feel safe in the night. Every man was hastening home to be
locked behind double-bolted doors, and latticed windows.
That is the signal of political  insecurity.

The bell rang.
Everybody is shuddering inside the house. The bell at
a late hour! That is a sign of misfortune. And so it is.
"Open the door," yell the gendarmes commanding, threatening.
The doors are opened, and in rush officers, fifteen or
twenty, the Chief of Police, his assistants, the prosecutor,
spies in multifarous uniforms, several "witnesses" gathered
from the street, drunken and vulgar, to identify papers that
do not exist, and to sign records which they cannot read.
This is the police tactics practiced in the land of prisons.
The order is given, and lo! the doors are closed. The
head of the family is put under arrest, and the searching begun
and carried on in all the rooms, in the corners from the
kitchen to the sleeping room.
"My wife is in bed, permit her to dress before you enter,"
observes the victim, humbly.
"We have no time!" roar the police ironically.
And the searchers rush into the bedroom of the terrified


7
woman, and overhaul everything with the curiosity of scoundrels
and obscene jestures.
Here is the whole proceeding. Huge axes are produced
and the drunken people, dressed in the police uniforms, the
poor victims of demoralizing officialdom, are beginning the
work of destruction. The axes dart toward the ceilings, toward
the wardrobes, toward the floors, wherever a hiding 
place is imagined to be. They smash the doors, tear up the
floors, open  the walls and spread upon the floor the dresses of
the women with obscene remarks.
The whole night performing that act of "legal" ruin,
rest at morn, tired and proud, and collecting all the books
beginning from the Bible to  the "Cookbook", all the letters,
love letters or business letters, even the papers in which not a 
word is written, the children's exercise book, and new shaped
knives, suspicious "machines," even the boiler for sweets, go
out of the house taking with them the head of the family,
who with tearful eyes murmurs to his  children: "Don't be
frightened, I will soon be back."
And behind him ruin, tears, mourning.
That is the searching.
-
They are in the street. 
The prisoner, surrounded with the dreadful soldiers, does
not know where and why he is taken.
"Where are you taking me?" he inquires.
"To the Chief of Police," answer the officers of law indifferently
and calmly.
And they are taking him to the Chief of Police, and then,
in a closed carriage to an unknown office. Everything is unknown
and obscure. The "citizen" is moving like a shadow
without resistance, speechless and struck with terror.
Behold an office. What a sight! Already many prisoners,
some known to each other, some strangers, all waiting disposition
and instructions. The doors open, and the order is
given. Then begins a new search, which is called the "personal
search." They search the pockets of the prisoner, the heels
of his shoes, his hats and even his beard,
The "personal search," also, is finished. Now he must8

be taken away. But where? To which prison? That is known
only to the police.
          The exodus begins. The exodus is different for different
men. Sometimes, for the purpose of terrorizing the people,
the prisoners are conducted in groups in the main streets of
the city, surrounded by Cossacks and mounted officers. The
mob retreats from the right and from the left. Who dares
approach or stand by? The omnipotent lance is ready to be
thrust into the loins or the legs of such a bold person. Often
they are taken by night, secretly, from their parents and
friends, in closed wagons, through byways. Nobody knows
where they are taken, how they are taken, or with whom they 
are taken. A week passes, then a second, friends and relatives
are exhausted from waiting at the door of the prefect in the 
hope of getting some intelligence from the victims. Are the
prisoners dead or alive? The same answer from all lips: "It
is not known."
          And quite often the prisoners are led from station to
station, from prison to prison, even from city to city, barefooted,
under the rain and snow, subjected to grave dangers.
One day two prisoners were led through a muddy street in
Tiflis. One a young Armenian writer, the other a gray-haired
old man, a rich land owner. It was a rainy day, cold and 
damp; the way was long and tiresome. The old man, unaccustomed
to hardship, was exhausted and tottering, unable
to walk.
          The young prisoner observed the condition of his aged
companion and saw that he was nearly exhausted. So he said
to the soldiers:
          "Brothers, I can walk because I am strong, but pity this
old man and allow him to ride in a carriage. He is exhausted.
He, too, is a man. Pity his old age."
          "Walk, dog," roared the solder and raising the butt of
his gun, "walk and hold your tongue."
          And they walked.
-
Behold, also, the prison!
With an august calmness is opened the famous castle,  by
the hand of its unavoidable and eternal guardian, and after a


9

minute a new one is added to the "living dead!" After that
moment he is no more a citizen or a man, but a number who 
will move when they order him, will stand up when they
command,entitled to one right only—the right of silence. From
the surrounding iron windows which look on the inner court
hundreds of eyes watching the new comer—the eyes of 
the political hero who faced death for liberty, the eyes of the
criminal who, perhaps, had killed his mother, the eyes of the
thief, the incendiary, the drunkard, because in that "world" 
there is everything, greatness and meanness, martyrs and murderers.
          They registered his name and led him inside.
          He is already behind the closed doors. He must sit there 
and wait. Has he bread? Has he clothes? Has he any place
to rest his head? Are they considering his case? Is he subjected
to tortures or to cross-examination? Is he dead or
alive? Nobody knows.
          The doors are closed.
10
SOME HISTORICAL FACTS.
-
The "political" imprisonment of the Armenians in the
Caucasus has a history of fifty years behind it.
The first important political prisoner was the famous Armenian
publicist and poet, Michael Nalbandian, in 1863. He
had committed the crime of writing some soul-inspiring poems
which were dedicated to liberty and national regeneration, and
while in London, of cultivating friendship with Gerzen, the
illustrious Russian leader. Under the infernal conditions of
the prison the Armenian prisoner became consumptive, and 
when the prison authorities saw that death was inevitable - the
desire of the police - set him free, that after having "lived" 
in prison, he might die in "liberty."
And after a few months Nalbandian died, faithful to his
famous words:
"I will be true to thee till death;
Yea, even upon the gallows tree; 
With my last gasp, with dying breath,
I'll shout thy name, O Liberty!"
Almost fifteen years elapsed more or less quiet.
From beyond the Turkish frontier reached the ears of
the Armenians in the Caucasus the shocking news of the crime.
They cry of agony of the Armenian people, languishing under
the shameful yoke of Hamid, and the smell of blood reached
the plains of Ararat notwithstanding the unsurmountable obstacles.
It was during that time, 1877, that Alexander II
declared war against Turkey in the name of Eastern Christianity.
But that war did not justify the hopes of the Christians
in Asia Minor; and when the Russian soldiers, after the
Congress of Berlin, evacuated the Turkish soil, Hamid decided,
and intrigued, to avenge his defeat on the Christian Armenians.
The yataghan shone. Armenia was transformed into a sea
of sorrow and blood.
The bloody political catastrophe shocked and moved the
Armenians in the Caucasus. Prompted by the sentiment of
fraternal assistance, they began to send money to the victims, 
arms to the defenseless, and men for help. But the government
of the Tzar, which had declared war in the name of


11
Christianity, suddenly changed its attitude toward the Christian
Armenians in Turkey, and opposed every effort to help
them. It not only failed to help the persecuted Armenians in
the dark days of massacre and terror, but began to punish
the Caucasus Armenians, who desired to stretch a helping hand
to their suffering compatriots.
-
The blow was dealt in 1884.
In Erivan, to the great surprise of the whole city, houses
were searched in groups. That slumberous city of the Orient
was upset entirely. For several weeks, especially the nights,
many residences of the citizens became a scene of terror. All
classes of the Armenian population were affected, and lawyers,
physicians, merchants were arrested, men and women.
After "expiating their sins in the prisons" they were banished 
to remote parts of Russia, where they died without seeing
their country.1
That was the first arrest in groups.
The next scene is removed to Tiflis. Imagining a "political
bond" between the Armenians of Erivan and Tiflis in
undertaking to help the Armenians in Turkey, the police and
the gendarmerie searched minutely the residence of Grigor
Arzrouni, the famous Armenian publicist, and the founder of
Mschak, the Armenian daily paper in Russia. The police search
lasted three days. All his papers were sealed and taken to
court. The same fate fell to Raffi, the illustrious Armenian
novelist, and one of the editors of Mschak. The insensate
police force seized the manuscripts of his novels as "documents
to prove" his political dangerousness.
That was a menacing sign.
After searching the effects of these two popular and highly
respected journalist, the police force began, unchecked, to
do the same thing in the towns, and from that date on the
officers of safety adopted another office, the office of searching,
which became the cause of an ever increasing terror among
the patriarchal population.
-
1 Among those were Vartanian, a notary; Egiazarian, a lawyer; Mrs.
Matakian, principal of the Girls' School; Matakian, an officer; Ter-Zakarian,
an officer; Mherian, an agent; Chalalian, an attorney; Tigranian, a physician.12
The severity was increased tenfold in 1890.
When the news from Turkish Armenia became extremely
horrible and unendurable, a band of young Armenians, students,
teachers, artisans and peasants, prompted by the desire
of an immediate assistance, organized and armed themselves in
order to go to Turkey and protect peaceful people against the
Kurd and Hamidian murderers. But before crossing the
frontier they were surrounded by the Russian soldiers, and
fifty of them arrested. They were chained and thrown into a 
dungeon under the most rigorous regulations. Then they were
tried as "political agitators and as demanding freedom for the
Armenians." That band is known as the band of Gougounian,
by the name of the leader, Mr. Gougounian, a student at the
University of St. Petersburg. Some of the prisoners died before
the conclusion of their trial, and the rest were sentenced
to hard labor for twenty years in Siberia. Some of the young
men died before they arrived in SIberia, and the rest were
driven to that bleak land to condone their sin in chains and in
caves - the sin of desiring to sacrifice their lives for their 
brothers.

Gradually the severity of the police force increased, not
only against those who desired to help their "living brothers,"
but against those, alas, who wished to bury their "dead brothers"
with due honor. Even burial became a political crime.
We had the proof of it in 1892. 
Grigor Arzrouni died. The Armenians of the Caucasus,
sad-hearted and affected, desired to show their appreciation
of the work of this most popular Armenian publicist. There
was a great commotion and preparation for funeral services.
From all over the world Armenians sent delegates and delegations,
four hundred and eighty floral tributes and thousands
of cables and telegrams. There was requiem and mourning
everywhere,
It was December 27th. A human ocean was heaving in
the Kolovinski street of Tiflis. Sixty thousand people were
following the coffin, sad and with low heads. The popular
mourning expressed itself in a manifestation of popular respect.
The people were silent and respectful. .  . . Then suddenly the
mounted police force and the infantry appeared and ordered:


13
"Turn back, and go through the other street, you cannot use
this street." The mourners explained to the police that they
desired to pass by the family house of the deceased, and as a
last respect offer prayers for his soul. They asked and explained,
but in vain, the police stood unmoved. Then the
patient people pushed forward, the soldiers drew their swords.
The officiating Armenian bishop fainted from that unexpected
demonstration. . . . But the mourners penetrated the
chain of the police and soldiers, and advanced to the cemetery,
and the body of the great publicist was laid to rest. . . . 
But the despotic government did not respect this fresh
grave, and the same night arrests and searching started from
one end of the city to the other. Terror was added to sadness.
The delegates departed immediately to avoid imprisonment.
And the same night dozens of writers, professors, officers, editors, 
painters, specialists, were driven to prison as the authors
of demonstration against the government, and as dangerous
agitators.
It is incredible, but it is a fact,
-
Let us also consider the year 1985, which was the carnival
of prisons and cruelties.
Again the news from  Armenia assumed a gloomy aspect.
Under the blows of revolution, and under the European
pressure the Nero of Yildiz agreed to the reforms called "the
Scheme of May," but just then, when the agents of the assassin
autocrat went, under the command of Shakir Pasha, to
Armena to execute the orders of "reform," when the Bishop
of Erzroom, encouraged by the promises of the English Ministry,
was announcing the birth of "liberty in Armenia, under
the bond of slavery," then rang the alarm of wholesale massacre.
Sultan Hamid became reckless more than ever. His
bloody hands were indirectly strengthened by the Tzar's Minister
for Foreign Affairs, Lobanoff, who wished "Armenia
without Armenians." The yataghan was drawn with an unprecedented
ferocity. . . . And when these massacres
shocked the whole civilized world, the government of the Tzar
hastened to close the frontiers against the Armenian refugees,
and censored the whole Russian press to prevent the Russian
Armenians from hearing the death agony of slaughtered people,
and from attempts of help or protest.14
The severity was boundless. After a while the Armenian
press not only had no right to protest against the monstrous
crime, but even to print the words "Armenia," or "Turkish
Armenia." A huge wall was erected between the Armenian
compatriots of the two empires. Not a relief fund. Not a
weapon. Not a sympathetic action. But wholesale imprisonments
in Tiflis, Baku, Erivan, Shoushi, Ganzak. The imprisonments
spread to the villages to silence the protests of the 
revolutionaries. All the Armenian leaders of importance and
influence were put under arrest, numbering more than a hundred.
Many of them were banished to the remote districts
of Russia. The rest fled the country. That was a black period
of persecution and tyranny in the political annals of the Caucasus. 2
This lasted until 1896, when the despotism of St. Petersburg
realized with pleasure and triumph that the Armenian
nation was wounded so seriously that it could not survive.
An American missionary, who had lived in Van for a long
time, told once: "When we saw the heaped corpses, the sea
of blood, the unutterable horror, the mad flight, we thought
the Armenian people was no more!"
1895-96 was the grave of Armenia. And the "spade of
the Tzar" stood foremost.
What a black honor!
-
2 Among those arrested were 22 pedagogists, 7 authors, 10 students, 8
government officials, 20 commissioners, 4 clergymen, 21 artisans, 8 merchants,
12 professionals.


15
THE PRISONERS OF 1908.
-
The new days made us forget the old.
The former imprisonments dwindle into insignificance as
compared with the policy initiated in 1908.  The wholesale,
perpetual and universal arrests, which were inaugurated in
1907-1908 were unparalleled in the annals of the Caucasus Armenians,
and, perhaps, of the Russians. There has been forcible
arrests among the Russians, Poles, Jews, Finns, astonishing
arrests, but it was never seen, even under Tzarism, that
a whole nation, an entire people, with warring classes should
be accused as revolutionary, dangerous, and should be tried as
such on the bench of criminals.
But it was so. The arrests of 1908 did not respect any
class. People were searched indiscriminately, the office of the
Armenian Catholicos the head of the whole Armenian Church;
the author who preached a new life and new thought; the most
ignorant peasant who cannot even read; the millionaire who
enjoys life; the laborer who toils; the merchant who does
not recognize any world outside his store; the professor
whose activities are confined only to the classroom; the clergymen
who heartily pray for the permanence of thrones; the
student who is the ensign bearer of revolution; the physician
and the lawyer who have free professions; the mayor and
the official who are the servants of the government; men and
women, the rich and the poor; the countryman and the immigrant,
the civilian and the farmer; in short, the whole Trans-Caucasus
from one end to the other, and the Armenian people
living there, every man, every class.
That is the characteristic line on this "adventure."

The first sign was given in December, 1908, in Tiflis, and 
in the beginning of 1909 reached its highest point. The number
of people searched was nearly a thousand. Five hundred
were arrested and imprisoned in the Caucasus and in other prisons.
Among the prisoners were included eight authors, twenty-two 
Armenian physicians, lawyers and specialists, twenty-four
professors and teachers, thirty-four officials and attendants,16
forty-five merchants, seventy artisans, and peasants, laborers,
clergymen, women and even students.
More than three thousand people were under suspicion.
Those under suspicion - thanks to the fact that Russian officials
sell their secrets - take refuge not only in Europe but, imagine,
even in Turkey and Persia, the despotic countries of yesterday.
Doubtless, the numerous prisons of the Caucasus, with their
hundreds of cells, would not be able to contain those thousands
of "guests."
The distressing part of the arrests was not their quantity
but their quality. From the viewpoint of right and law the
whole business is corrupted and even based on false data.
Why? For the simple reason that those arrests are not
the result of legal searches and visible proofs, but that both
the searchings and the arrests are formerly decided and suggested
by the central government for political purposes.
When in St. Petersburg the central government decided
for definite political purposes to persecute the Armenians of 
the Caucasus, it simultaneously sent orders to the Caucasus to
unearth an Armenian plot, and to begin the attack. In the
Caucasus, as well as everywhere, there still exists proudly the
type of Napoleon's Police Minister, "who always carries in
his pocket a scheme of any conspiracy." And those ever ready 
agents, police, soldiers, prosecuting judges, who understand
well the signals of the central government, as well as each
other, came together and planned and began. The people,
two months and two years ago recognized as peaceful, loyal
and law-abiding, were declared anti-royalists, revolutionists,
and fomentors for Armenian independence. And the blows
were showered right and left.
We have already described the terrifying picture of
searchings. It was not sufficient, however, to search and intimidate;
it was necessary, also, to save the honor of the government
by "manipulating some proof," and the officer of the 
court himself manipulates those proofs and gives them to spy
agents for realization.

17
Some examples:
Searching had started in Erivan. On an ill-omened night
the soldiers were surrounding one  of the houses. The owner
of the house, innocent and ignorant, asked: "But what is my
crime?" And behold, the police found in the basement a very 
dangerous leaflet as an accusing proof. After many, many
bitter days only, a very "dangerous leaflet" was thrown into
the basement by the police chief.
Another night the police entered into the modest house
of a man named Kalousdian. They pulled him  out of his
bed and punished him with a knout, and demanded: "Where
is the box, show it. Where did you hide it?"  "What box?"
murmured the innocent victim; "spare me, I have not seen any
box.: Only after several weeks it was found that the whole
proceeding was the result of a criminal misunderstanding.
The spy informed the detectives that there was a dynamite
box at Kalousdian's house. The police rushed and arrested
Kalousdian, and then it was discovered that he was not the 
one they were looking for.
Another event, again in Tiflis, the capital of the Caucasus.
A sudden order was given to search the house of the
poet Isahakian. And what! They find in the court great
quantities of cartridges, then his guilt is certain. But this time
the author of the crime had performed his work very poorly.
The plot was uncovered. The whole of Tiflis heard it, but
was  not astonished. Is that not usual?
Proofs of that sort are numerous.
On account of this wicked and criminal "policy" there
was confusion, which was and which will remain the eternal
condemnation of the Russian Courts. It is unprecedented in
the annals of trials. Innocent ones are arrested instead of the
accused. One suffers for the other. The chief of the detectives
plans to arrest certain Armenians. They cannot find
them, then Legine causes the arrest of altogether innocent
men who accidentally have the name or the patronym of the 
suspect.
18
Let the proofs speak.

1. The police were looking for a revolutionist whose
pseudonym was "Prince," and then one day Prince Arghoutian
was arrested and imprisoned in Erivan because, as can be
seen, he bore the title of Prince. The man protested, but in
vain. Several months later it became known that the "Prince" 
who was sought was out of the Caucasus, and was known in
Van as a political leader. The "Prince," who was in Van. 
regards it a moral duty to inform the investigating judge,
through the Russian Consul, that he is in Turkey and that
it is unjust to arrest someone else, but Legine persists in his
error and Prince Arghoutian has been suffering in prison for
two years - and who knows how long yet!

2. Another day they arrested Malkasian, a teacher of
the Nersessian School. Not only was he not a revolutionist,
but an opponent of revolutionary methods. But he was kept
in prison for several months because his Christian name bore
resemblance to that of a suspected man who was sought by
the police. What is the difference, if it be this man or that man?

3. A man named Kevork Ordoyan was sought in Tiflis.
Not being able to find him, the police arrested another Kevork,
Kevork Arakelian. The relatives of the former testified that 
Kevork Ordoyan had been killed by the Persian legation. But in
vain. The authorities desired to imprison an Armenian, whose
name was Kevork. "If Kevork Ordoyan is dead, let Kevork 
Arakelian serve the former's term," decided the officer of
justice. And for three years Kevork Arakelian with an excusable
confidence is waiting in the prison . . . . for justice.

4. In Batoum the police were looking for an Armenian,
Hrant Sarafian, a shoemaker, from Trebizonde, Turkey. He
could not be found, as he had departed from that city long
ago. But there was not another Armenian named Hrant, in
Batoum, thought the investigator? With an unfortunate coincidence
the son of the Priest Melian was called Hrant.
They arrested and imprisoned him. Any why not? Student,

19
named Hrant, and the son of an Armenia priest! The
justice of Liegen did not care that this man is Hrant Melian,
and not Sarafian; student, and not shoemaker; from Batoum, 
and not from Terbizonde. It sufficed that his name was
Hrant. Let him languish in prison. The world will not be 
the poorer for it.

5. The wretched cemetery of Erivan had a guard, old,
weak, as harmless as the cemetery. He was named Hagop
Avedissian, and born in Caesarea, Turkey. One day that poor
old man was dragged to the police court, and then to
prison. He could not understand what was happening. He
was crying and knocking his head against the wall, and trying
to wrench the iron bars off the window with his boney hands.
He was repeating all day long: "what is my crime, what 
have I done." And the innocent guard, of course, could not
imagine that he was arrested for another Hagop; Hagop 
Gotoyan. The latter was from Mouch, and not from Caesarea,
young and not old, a soldier, and not a cemetery guard. But
why these "unimportant" details! He was a Hagop, that sufficed.
The poor guard lost his senses, but he is in jail yet.

6. With the same justice and manner Vram Vahanian
of Terbizonde was arrested and imprisoned for Vahan Papazian, 
of Van, now a member of the Turkish Parliament.
Karekin Kevorkian was cast into prison for Karekin Mirakian;
Levont Melconian, of Ganzak, was imprisoned instead
of Ardashes Melconian, of Tiflis; four men whose first names 
are Nicola were imprisoned in Baku for Nicola Der Hovannessian
who was sought by the Government. They had different
patronyms, different trades, came from different quarters;
but as their first names were Nicola, that proved their
guilt!

And these cases are innumerable and endless. It is only
necessary to have heart to record the sad incidents which have
plunged many families in unfathomable suffering and
lamentation. But enough is mentioned to give a just idea
of what mad  proportion these ridiculous persecutions have
assumed and which persecutions are disguised under the vizor
of court examination.
20
IN THE CELLS.
Injustice characterized the search - irregularity the
method of arrest. But that was not the end.
The cells themselves were remote from prying inquiry,
removed from investigation, dark and hidden as their secrets,
an inaccessible world, where no eye can penetrate and no
voice reach. And in that "autocratic kingdom" where police
tyranny is not only countenanced but encouraged, the torture
to which the Russian prisoner has been the slave for so many
years, continues.
"Every means is permissible" was the order of the magistrate
and the intention of that official, though criminal, was
to encourage the unhappy prisoners to hatch plots to their
undoing and thus magnify "the political affair."
"The Armenian prisoners in Novotcherkask and Rostove,"
writes one of the prisoners, "are teeming with inspeakable
conditions. It is a lie to say that there is no torture
in Russia. Yes! It exists. Twenty-five to thirty men are
placed in one cell that hardly holds six or seven. There are no
bedsteads, not even bedding; and the miserable inmates aleep
on the bare ground, huddled under a single blanket, dirty as
the filth in which they are compelled to lie. Nor do they give
enough foo even to the unfortunate, who are able and willing
to pay. One slice of bread and some water daily. Reading
and writing is forbidden and communication with the outside
world prohibited. Should a prisoner, by doctor's prescription,
be permitted to have an extra piece of bread, some boiled
eggs or a box of cigarettes, the loaf is cut open and the eggs 
broken to prevent the chance of smuggling even a scrap of
paper. . . . In the cold cells a loathsome smell prevails and
despairing barrenness. The guards are as immovable as the
rocks, stern and forbidding, menacing as the lightning.
We cannot cry - we are ashamed. We cannot rage and roar.
They permit no sound - what shall we do? The walls are
thick, the bars strong, and the world remote. What can we
do? We are but waiting----"

21
No sanitary precautions are taken, no care offered. Even
the sick beseeching for warmth and clothing are refused.
In 1910 Restove was wholly infected with cholera, and 
throughout the district the "subjects" were dying like flies.
Soon the news of this plague reached the prison and deep
horror prevailed within its walls. It is not difficult to picture
the situation of those who realized themselves helpless and
shackled in the midst of this pestilence, devoid of air and
light, with virtually no medical attendance or proper disinfection.
Desperate and impotent they could but protest unavailingly
against their tragic plight. "What will happen,"
they cry with one accord, "should the pestilence invade the 
prison as well?" The authorities were silent and the prisoners
as well as their loved ones at home at last became convinced
that Legine, the inspector, connected with the gendarmerie,
with diabolical cunning, was deliberately inviting
this method of suppressing "the political evil," the life of the
prisoners, by means of "the irresponsible evil" - pestilence.
What a horrible conviction!
I wonder if it requires great power of imagination to picture
the horror of those days and nights spent by the unhappy
prisoners behind those iron barred windows when cholera
was reigning outside as the sword of the jailer within the
locked portals.
The following year another misfortune befell.
In the first part of January, 1911, typhoid fever made
its appearance in the prison of Novotcherkask, and soon
assumed threatening proportions. That vile dungeon, miscalled
a prison, was built to accommodate two hundred and
seventy inmates, yet the number crowded in it at this time
exceeds eight hundred and fifty people. This condition,
coupled with the total lack of sanitary precaution, would
naturally hasten the spread of a disease, such as typhoid
fever, and, indeed, in March, 1911, the number of the infected
exceeded one hundred and the dead twenty.
Early in March the Medical Director visited the prison.
Let us now listen to the words of his report.
"The cells of the prison are overcrowded beyond their
capacity; the air vitiated and loathsome. In the cells, wooden


22
boxes, called parashes, are placed for natural necessities of
the prisoners; and these are making the atmosphere more unbearable,
which was already unbreathable enough. Besides
these boxes are placed the wooden vessels containing the
drinking water for the unfortunates. The prisoners' underwear
is dirty, seldom changed oftener than once in three weeks.
"Before this, in January, the prison physician wrote to
the Governor of the prison, telling him that typhoid fever
has appeared in the prison. The Governor, however, faithful
to  the instruction of Taube, the head of the district, forbade
the doctor to communicate anything concerning the disease 
to the Medical Director, and for this reason, in the accounts
of the prison, nothing was said of typhoid fever and,
in fact, it was said that the prisoners had been ill with maleria.
"In spite of repeated demands from the doctor to impart
to the Board of Health the necessary information regarding
the typhoid fever the director of the prison, obstinately and
deliberately concealed the existence of the malady."

This criminal official "secrecy" horrified the relatives of
the unfortunates shut in this jail at Novotcherkask, and they
prepared the following telegram and sent it to the Minister
of Justice:

"In the Prison at Novo Tscheegask, there is now
raging a terrible pestilence. More than a hundred
prisoners as well as the prison director, three assistants,
ten supervisors, six clerks, the prison physician and three
assistants are sick. Mortality is assuming alarming proportions
and among the dead are two of the overseers;
the sanitary conditions are unbearable. The prison built
to house only two hundred and fifty inmates now contains
in excess of eight hundred inmates. The building is
located on the lowest ground in the city where fever prevails.
The floors of the cells are asphalt. Those held as
accused of the 'Affair of Dashnaktsoutun' are already rounding
out their third  and fourth years of confinement and
all are of impaired health. Most of them seriously affected
by consumption, others with diseases of bones, nervous disorders
and eye trouble. Some are affected with palsy and
two have lost their hearing and all are now exposed to the
dreadful typhoid fever. It is easy to understand how their

23
impaired constitutions are unable to withstand the ravages
of that terrible disease."
"Taking all this into consideration, we request your
Excellency to release them on personal recognizance or
light bail; for they being economically as well as physically
ruined, are unable to provide large sums of money. The
preliminary investigation of this 'Affair of Dashnaktsoutun' 
is already completed and the families of the prisoners
are almost beside themselves with terror at the peril
to which their dear ones are now subjected." 3

Silence alone from the minister!

This was but the natural horror due to natural conditions
alone, and yet the agents of tyranny are not satisfied and add
to it the artificial, the scourges, the straps and other varied
instruments of torture!

Let the facts alone speak!
It was in the prison of Baku, that the agents of investigation
determined to hear secrets, to have G--M--utter words
of things not existing. The youth resisted with constancy
and continued mildness--the order was given and his head
compressed between clamps until he fainted. This was resumed
again and again, while the tortures repeated the fateful
words: "You cannot be rid of us, until you confess your
guilt."
In another prison in Tiflis, the poor prisoner G--D--M--
was subjected to continuous flagellation with straps for two
weeks, while his poor body was covered with the swollen
welts, and yet his cruel tormentors would not cease. They 
were exacting "Confessions!"

[*3 In consequence of this telegram, so ominous in its portent of disaster,
one of the St. Petersburg papers, "Rech," published the following:
"The condition of the prisoners is indeed appalling and wholly desperate,
one cannot imagine how they incarcerate for years, poor wretches wasting
with the disease in an overcrowded and wholly unsuitable place, casting fifty
into a cell and making them sleep on the bare, icy floor. In one corner
where Armenians from Hashdaekhan are, the place is called "Blacktown" 
on account of the darkness so great that even during day time the inmates
cannot see each others' faces without striking matches. Many in this cell
where Armenians from Hashdarkhan are, the place is called "Blacktown"
entered the prison healthy and strong and now many have their constitutions
ruined forever, and this is not the punishment of a sentence, but
merely preliminary imprisonment before the actual trial which frequently
proves them innocent. This is nothing less than the execution of those
not yet convicted. It is not a preliminary incarceration, but a frightful
ordeal and a slow and gradual execution and, therefore, far worse."*]24
The prison of Rostove was the scene of more serious
cruelties. There was one victim, Mednikian, a lawyer who
protested his innocence, demanded investigation, asked for
trial. For trial, they gave him the whip, and for investigation, 
revilings of  the foulest language. The unfortunate man, horrified
and discouraged, went mad--and is now a helpless imbecile
wailing his grief. No one cares--"He is mad," they say, and
pass him by.
Insane is his neighbor, too, an exhausted old man, lean as
a skeleton, guardian of a cemetery, with no thoughts of this
world save the grave. They have arrested him also. He does
not know his guilt; they have thrust him into a cell, he knows
not why, and they lashed and tormented him day after day.
Why? God only knows--he scratched the walls with his nails
and roaring, raging and screaming, at last lost his mind. Now
when with tearful smile he demands his liberty, the jailer points
the whip to him. Is he not insane?
Here is another victim: The Reverend Nicholas Solomonian, 
a priest, from the village of Ganzak. They arrested,
stripped and tormented him, so that the grief-stricken Father
died without even knowing of what he was guilty. The poor
priest in his death agony, moaning and sobbing, told his fellow 
prisoners who were the unwilling witnesses of his torture, that
he would soon pass away in death; wept, begged for fresh air,
and uttering his wife's name, wished to kiss his children for
the last farewell--these young, inexperience children who received
their father's dead body could not and never will realize
why he was arrested and tortured to death away from them in
a prison cell.
There were two deaths in the prison of Erivan. The victims
being young men from Igtire, who died with their glazing
eyes fixed on space, and their mute lips questioning "why?"
In the prison at Vladicaucus, a prisoner in his agony
roused his failing strength and said, "I know that I am soon
to die, but before I do I wish to know of what I am guilty."
He died, as did many others, with the question unanswered,
and such will be the sad fate of many more.
And the survivors! Unfortunate witnesses of these unearthly 
tragedies, viewing with fearful hearts the removal of

25
the dead bodies from the prison and vowing vengeance, are
murmuring dejectedly:
"Perhaps tomorrow they may carry out our dead bodies,
and why?"

And one day the corpse was carried out. It was in front of
the door of the prison. A great multitude had swarmed around
since early morning and were now impatiently waiting, people
of every class and condition having hastened there.  The old
village priest, who had come to see his son, the county woman
coming on foot from a distant village to enjoy at least a few
minutes with the son she had not seen for eight months, the
student, who with difficulty had obtained a license to see his
brother; all of them pale, exhausted and weak with the scorch-
ing sun. Their hearts and minds all centered on the discolored
stones of the prison walls, and all with the same vain hope in
their breasts to see the beloved prisoners at least once, and to
hear from their lips one hope inspiring word.
And now the doors are opened.
The crowed with throbbing hearts moved like a rolling
wave and presently fell back as if struck by a bolt of lightning,
absolutely petrified as there appeared a funeral casket, which
was placed in position by order of the priest who recited the
prayers, and all eyes were turned to him.
Who was lying there dead in the casket?
"My son! My son!" screamed a woman from out of the
multitude, and the old woman threw herself on the bier like
a flash of lightning, with her bony arms embracing the casket
and kissing the cold face of her beloved dead son, now raising
her head and turning to the people around her then with
yearning eyes turned heavenward, only to repeat her caresses
on the dead face before her, the climax of a mother's immense
and infinite grief—her cry "my son!"
That son whose she had come to see and enjoy, and now
only his dead body!26

THE REASONS.

I. - Internal.
Why so great severity, and why this gnashing of teeth 
against a people who, although crushed in the talons of Oriental 
despotism for untold years, has always been the pioneer of
Russian advancement, and the firm rampart on the two frontiers 
against Mohammedan tyranny?
Seek for the explanation in the Metropolis of the North, 
where the jewels of State impudence are found guarded by 
the agents of the central tyranny.
When the Russian throne came out unscathed of the devouring 
flames of the Pan-Russian Revolution, the government 
of the Tzar, instead of hearkening to the cries and needs of 
the people, resorted, on the contrary, to a policy of deceit and 
persecution. 
The deceit is the Duma. 
The persecution is the period of unlimited oppressions 
under the pretence of the Duma, the like of which were unknown 
even in the days of Pobiedonostzef under the reign of Alexander III.
Persecution against individuals under the accusation of 
being "Revolutionists."
Persecution against nations, under the suspicion of being 
"Separatists."
Prison! Exile! Gallows! These were the only means of 
smothering the liberty-inspiring breath in the North, where so 
many hopes died unrevealed, and on the shores of the Volga, 
which became the silent witness of the greatest crimes, at the 
foot of the Caucasian Mountains where once inspiring songs 
were written devoted to the White King Gaisson, and in the 
cities of Poland, the overwhelming grief of which has furnished 
material for long ages of history. 

Finland, that knightly and quiet region, was one of the 
first to suffer persecution, and in spite of the royal promises 
the Finnish Constitution was abrogated and trampled upon. 4

[*4 We regret that the scope and plan of the booklet does not permit 
our giving at least a brief sketch of these crimes and horrors of which 
Finland, Poland and Central Russia were the stage.]

27
The Tzar had taken oath to be faithful to the Constitution,
and "he now retracts his promise," said the Prime Minister
of the Tzar, after which he was obliged to use a handkerchief
to wipe off the moisture from his brow, spat upon.
Then came Poland's turn! Who does not remember the
unchronicled terror for three years which scorched and seared
this doomed land, and buried in oblivion the date 1863 chronicled
in history--crimes of which no gendarmerie was cognizant.
After silencing these two distant parts, the present agent
of autocracy, Stolypin, extended his bloody hand over all Central
Russia--the heartstone of revolution.
What crimes unheard of! The sight of the Russian idealistic
youth, fresh and revolting, hushed the storm and the
earth was reddened with their blood.
Once it was only St. Petersburg that had Petro-Povlovsk.
What an honor! Now every city shares that honor by the Imperial
sacred edict.
There was a time when execution, by bullet, was reserved
for exceptional "sins against the State." Now it is 
the usual method for the execution of the lacos.
Once women were exempt from the tortures of imprisonment,
but now the women also are surrendered to the Cossacks'
knout, kotard and spor.

The center was silenced and the Jews learned their "lesson";
then St. Petersburg turned its leopard-eyes towards the
South, the foot of Ararat and Kasbik, whence came the ringing
sounds of the song of freedom, the brotherly echo of the
great song of the Pan-Russian Revolution.
Caucasus, that beautiful cradle of political love and
hatred, the scene of long ages of great Mohammedan and
Christian encounters, where Ararat, the historic domain of
the Biblical Ark, long awaited but as yet was denied to enjoy
its dream of the emancipation of nations.
In that country of many languages and races,5 the gov-

[*5 In the Caucasus live these nations and races: Georgians, Armenians,
Russians, Tartars, Greeks, Kurds, Tats, Assyrians, Utis, Lesgies, Oses,
Abaz, Nogei, Avar, Lak, Potlich, Metz, Chechen, Apghaz, Lezgy, Circassians,
Germans, Moldavians, &c., aggregating ten millions of inhabitants,
of which six and one-half millions live in Trans-Caucasus, of whom the
principal elements are Georgians, Armenians and Tartars.]28

ernment endeavored to follow a special programme, mean and really criminal.

At first it endeavored to alienate the Georgians from the Armenians. To that effect, promises were made to the Georgian aristocracy, which unfortunately exerts considerable influence on the people, and they received all sorts of political privileges. As soon as the Georgian community, encouraged by these "special favors," started a small movement in Kauria in the name of liberty, the "friendly" and "co-religious" government immediately flooded the unfortunate district with regiments of soldiers and Cossacks, commanding them "to suppress this movement y every means, sparing neither life nor property," which command was effectually carried out with fire and ruin, gun and sword, which killed the small movement in this little unfortunate country completely. After the ruin came exile, and all throughout Georgia arose the wail of horror.

Then came the turn to the Armenians!

The Armenian inhabitants of Caucasus were the object of the special enmity of St Petersburg for a long time previously. The Governor-in-Chief, Golitzen, a peculiar type of the unbridled Tchinovink, haughty, "causak" and tyrannical (this was from 1987 to 1904), carried out the scheme; he armed all the Caucasus against each other and disseminated the seeds of enmity among the different nationalities, and, with the willing aid of Von Pleve and Stolypin, succeeded in convincing the central government that the chief controllers of the Armenian movement and revolution were the Armenian clergymen, and that the furnace which furnished the fuel was the Church--a very foolish and unwise idea worthy of its author. The conclusion reached was that it "was necessary to confiscate the property of the Church and thus weaken it."

On June 12th 1903, came the supreme order to "confiscate the riches and property o the Churches and turn them over to the government."

No petition, no protest, on the part of the Catholicos and the people was of any avail--the tyrant was immovable! An extra military force was ordered to carry out this base edict and well they did it, breaking in the doors of many churches

29

and robbing them of their treasures. Even in the religious centre of Etchmeadzin, they broke open the safe of the monastery. Many clergymen were imprisoned.

This vandalism, however, was ere long confronted with indignation and bad revolts. The church yards with their moss-covered walls were transformed into battlefields. Blood flowed and corpses piled up around the monasteries, and the spirit of resistance soared above the Armenians. 

The tyrant was forced to yield!

Before the end of the year, the property of the churches was returned. The autocrat, however, did not forget his defeat, but kept it fast in his mind. "Who are these people who dare to resist the soldiers of the Tzar? They must get their 'lesson' and they will."

They were waiting for the opportune moment.

-----

Two years  passed by.

The fire of revolution had surrounded the Russian domain and the government of the Tzar had hastened to crush the Armenians as an important factor, so as to render them helpless towards the general revolution now anticipated.  In effect, they put into execution a disastrous plan and conspiracy to bring about an Armeno-Tartaric collision, by arming the Tartar hordes and instigating them against the Armenians, thus gaining the favor of the Mohammedan people and on the other hand forcing the Armenian element to self-defense, so that they could no, if they would, join the movement, even with the smallest share.

This fiendish plot was prepared through the suggestions of Von Pleve, and was entrusted to the agents of the criminal Minister of the Caucasus to be fully carried out. 

On a quiet day in Baku the Tartars, inflamed with the Mohammedan spirit, attacked the Armenian quarters without cause or reason. 

This was on February 6th, 1905.

General astonishment prevailed. Notwithstanding the supplications and applications for help made by the Armenians, the police remained both indifferent and inactive. Instead of preventing the bloodshed the police, on the contrary,30 

encouraged the Mohammedan Beys and the mob, and the clash of battle extended from one end of the Tran-Caucasus to the other. After Baku, came Erivan, Nakhitchevan, Shoushi, Ganzak, to be the said scenes of unimaginable misfortune and calamity.

Once more the blood flowed.

The cities were reduced to ashes. The roaring of guns filled the villages. The conflagration consumed whole quarters. The scythes of the quiet villagers were discarded for swords. On every side ruin and desolation reigned supreme. 6

Once more, however, the bullets failed; again with self devotion defensive ranks were formed. Side y side stood the brave people. More than fifteen thousand men sallied out from their generous bosom and enlisted under the flag of resistance to teach their lesson to the Tartaric invasion. Force, united, with the great idea, carried forward its great role of warning. The conspiring government "held its tongue in leash," while all their sombre forces tried their utmost to drench the quiet fields of labor with the blood and tears of their foes, but when vanquished they became as humble as infants and as soft as a summer breeze,--this was their lesson of the revolution.

After this sad, fratracidal conflict was over the sealed lips were free and even from among the Tartars themselves, there came out fearless men and good citizens who had the courage to speak out the truth boldly. 

On June 10th, 1906, the governor of Goutsak Alftan went out to visit the ruine places and when in the city of Khozah,
-----
6 In the years 1905 and 1906 at the sad conflicts of the Armenians and the Tartars 286 villages were sacked and ruined of which number 128 were inhabited by Armenians, 158 by Turks. The number of injured families was 14760. Of these 7265 were Armenians, while 7495 Tartars. 

The destroyed cities were Baku, 176; Shushy, 126; Ganzak, 132; Hin Nakhitchevan, 55. The villages around Shushy, 160; Minken, 198. The villages of Ganzak, 212. The villages of Nakhitchevan, 114.

The number of Tartars killed was still greater, but we have no statistics because the Mohammedans, according to some strange custom, conceal everything pertaining to the number killed and other such informations.

31

among the crowd gathered on a public square, a Turkish Bey came forth and addressed the Governor in the follow words:

"Your Excellency is viewing the city of Khazah, which was orderly and populous, seven or eight months ago, but now it is destroyed and ruined, for which we are not responsible; but the arbitrary Judge Orlov, now standing by you; was the one who induced, nay, forced us, to massacre the Armenians, unsparingly, without distinction of age or sex, telling us that it was the wish of the government."

In a more severe and scathing language spoke another Tartar, Representative Ziatkhanov, in one of the sessions of the Duman; June 12th, 1906.

He said:
"The Officers of the government ruined Georgia, that beautiful country,; through their soldiers they provoked the Mussulmans and the Armenians, inciting them to massacre each other.

"I declare from this pulpit that there never had been any enmity between Tartars and Armenians on economical grounds alone, we had been living together as good neighbors and liked each other, there had not been any armed collisions, and if cases of murder happened they were single exceptions, and never assumed any great proportions.

"Our officials and generals have proved their incompetency, for two entire years we have been literally swimming in a sea of blood up to our knees, and walking over carcasses.

"Make them retire, and quit their posts immediately; we have seen enough of the flames and conflagrations, and we have seen enough of the sad picture of falling bodies and listened to the mourning wails, and sobs, of unfortunate mothers. More than enough!"

What an awful sentence of condemnation!

Did the government chief blush? Did his criminal hands tremble,--those hands which signed the decrees of death? No! No! Furious in his defeat, the tyrant roared:

"It is necessary to beat down that force, to bridle that arrogant people."32
II.—External.
Beginning with 1907, to the internal reasons were now
added the external. Political and important changes beyond
the frontier in Persia and in Turkey.
The wave of liberty and a constitution at last reached the
doors of the palace of Shahinshah! The slumbering people
for ages were now awakening, rebels appeared against the mon-
arch of Teheran. The government of St. Petersburg, disturbed
by the unexpected awakening on the soil of Persia, sent troops
to Salmast, Tauriz and Racht, and events to Teheran to keep
the road of his invasion open to Azerbaijan, on which its eyes
had been fixed for a century. Meanwhile it endeavored vainly
to check the liberal movement, the echo of which was heard
with great joy in the mountain chains of the Caucasus.
In Persia also where the melody of liberty was ringing
from the cleft citadel of tyranny, now strong, then sad, there
stood against the triumphant soldiers of the Tzar, side by side
with the sons of Iran, the Armenian, flag in hand, and with
his breast bared to the bullet.
The Armenians of Azerbaijan, although small in numbers
and in strength, considered it unworthy of them not to par-
ticipate in the movement of freedom, and they sent what aid
they could to the army of the constitution. The Armenian
revolutionists, with the Mohammedan and Georgian soldiers of
liberty from Caucasus, gave not only their money and property,
but their very life and blood, and their body to the pedestal
of this great monument of Freedom. And even in Teheran,
the leader of the Constitutionalist soldiers is a modest Ar-
menian, named Eprem, who with the aid of Armenian war-
riors is resisting the reactionary army and the foreign in-
vaders.
"Armenians again!"
The tyranny of St. Petersburg exclaims in a wild fury,
and full of venomous hatred: "They must be destroyed until
not a trace of them remains!"
"The Armenians here also!"
Reports the Russian ambassador of Constantinople, shame-
stricken and devious of the fact, that, while on the shores of
33
the Neva the Duma is but a shadow, in the hands of Cossacks,
on the shores of the Bosphorus, yesterday's fortress of the
Ottoman Nero, the song of liberty is resounding since the 
month of July, 1908, and Yeldiz has fallen a captive in the
hands of the awakened people.
Yeldiz has surrendered! The Parliament is open! There
is liberty of speech and of the press. The criminal is in prison
and beside all this, new hopes and labor thrive in the name of
the new tomorrow and regeneration. These are facts that are
unendurable for the rotten bureaucracy, monarchical, and
despotic, to their very marrow.
The agents of this bureaucracy, some in Constantinople
as ambassadors, others as consuls in Asia Minor are insisting
obstinately that it is the Armenians who are directing the
new regime. It was the Armenian revolution that harmonized
all of the various elements and deposed the monarch, and
especially it is the Armenians who are propagating and dis-
seminating an anti-Russian spirit in the Ottoman Empire.
Imbued with this detestable conviction the agents of the Tzar,
sinse 1909, have spared neither money nor medals, to carry out
there plots to rouse the ignorant Turks and Kurds against
the Armenians, thus hoping to strike a blow at the infant con-
stitution.
In Caucasus it is the Armenian! In Persia the Armenian!
In Turkey the Armenian! It is the diplomatic nightmare of the
deplorable government of the North, which exists by "non-
existent facts," and which desires to be revenged by destroy-
ing and crushing the Armenian heart and mind—the Armenian
who has no sin on his head nor responsibility for the past.
What a change of role!
In Constantinople, the cradle of the Hamidian Crime,
the stammering voice of freedom is ringing out, while the
fatherland of Bushkin, Gertsin, Tolstoi, and Karaev, the scence
of their struggles, is reduced to the place of torture where
the prisons are as full as the temples are on festal days.
In Turkey, yesterday's land of dungeons, there are no
political prisoners, while in Russia there is not a single prison
that has a vacant cell or corner. Once it was in Caucasus
that the Armenians of Turkey sought refuge! Now it is in34

Turkey and Constantinople that the Caucasus Armenian seeks 
shelter to be free from prison and torture; from exile and 
Siberia.
There was a time when from St Petersburg and Caucasus 
went forth protest and contempt against the Ottoman 
Neroism, and now it is from Byzantium that protest is heard 
against that crime which means torture and persecution for 
the Armenian and shame and insult for the Russian mind and 
name.
Unfortunate Russia!
Turkey, that had no credit and benighted Iran, are both 
constitutional countries and have their own parliament! The 
Sultan and Shah are exiled, while great Russia is but the 
realm of tyranny.

What an insult! and it is the "different elements of various 
races" that are to expiate that insult. 
That is the explanation and also the reason in its brief 
outline.

35

The Investigation.

The premeditated "political" system made one predict that
this great affair will not be based on serious judicial investigation
within the limits of law and conscience, but, on the contrary,
it will be managed from political viewpoints according
to the instructions given by the supreme secret police.
This happened!
The "affair" was committed to Legine.
Who is Legine? He is the representative type of the Chinovnik,
having but one purpose, to be exalted! An officer of police,
but not a judge; a searcher, but not an investigator! He
was an insignificant searcher, and was notorious in the affair
known as "the Republic of Novorosk," where he forged all
the papers, created new writings with capricious additions to
existing accusations against the defendants, and for all that,
instead of being subjected to condemnation, which was demanded
even from the nostrum of the Duma, he was praised
and his work approved by the Minister of Justice, Schteglovitov,
and he was promoted to one of the pillars of the government 
police. Afterwards, when many innocent victims were
condemned to the gallows, and others were exiled through his
criminal investigation, he was rewarded by being put in charge
of the new "political" affair, to prove his zeal. And he hopes
through the services rendered to the revolutionary oligarchy
of St. Petersburg to rise by the bloody steps to the post of
Attorney General, and thence, perhaps, to the Minister's chair,
which is star-studded, and so lucrative a post in Russia.
Many protests were made by the community and the
prisoners, against the guilty actions of the police judge, but 
he remained in his position defended by bands of hired detectives
and with singular levity and bold manner he is safe
in his citadel, surrounded by the police, from where he issues
criminal orders, each even worse than the other.

Here in the investigation, is it always the same old
"comedy," or is it a sad tragedy, performed in the name, but
under the mask of justice?36
Seated in his great chair, the investigator with inhuman 
severity presumes that he is the little Tzar of Great Russia and
acts the part. Opposite sits an officer of gendarmerie, an expert
in plots and arrests. In the corners stand the interpreters,
with keen scenting noses, and bowing heads, ever ready
machines to materialize on paper all sorts of lies, and to complete
the picture there is the representative of justice, the Attorney
General, silent and mysterious as the Sphinx.
"If I were the minister," roared the investigator, jumping
from his chair like a madman, "I would destroy and annihilate
the Armenian language; its literature, its church, its theatre.
I would scatter the Armenians all over Russia and that would
end the Armenian movement, this great danger to the State."
"It is not you, but we, Mr. Investigator! We the guiltless
sinners that are hounded as political plotters and subject to
imprisonment and exile, for the mere sympathy we entertain
for the just cause of an oft-tormented people."
The Attorney General interfered and the storm passed by.
"You are guilty on the following counts" began the investigator
resuming the harangue, "You have brought arms in
illegal ways; you have armed the people, and have sent part
to Armenia, in Turkey; you have organized armed bands;
founded a secret printing house and are publishing prohibited
papers in the name of your secret society, of which you are
a member, and finally you are guilty of a number of terrors
aimed at the officials of the State."
This is a well-known phrase prepared in the offices of the
gendarmerie and proposed to every arrested person. Years
and years ago, when they pushed to the foreground the awkward
suspicion that the Armenians were demanding an "independent
kingdon," the government of Caucasus reported to 
the central government that, Tans-Caucasus was the "heart"
of the movement, and that the residence of every young man 
was a store for arms and headquarters for warriors.
Orders came from  St. Petersburg, and the investigation 
was started. They were convinced that they would find thousands
of guns, hundreds of thousands of cartridges, and would
open up safes of dynamite, secret printing houses, and a strong,
organized conspiracy against the State, with a separatist program.

37
The hopes of the gendarmerie were not justified, and hence
the source of their entanglement and anger.
"If you have called us to be tried, Mr. Investigator, simply
to pile accusation upon accusation upon us, without listening
to our explanations, then all this is of no avail. Shut us up in
the prison or send us to exile, as already"----
"Return to prison," the investigator interrupted wildly.
"I know that you wish to create an independent Armenia and
rule over others as we Russians do. But you seriously mistake.
The friendship of England will not avail you, and we
do not wish to give Armenia to you. We are going to possess
it and annex it to Caucasus. See! the railway is ready on the
frontier, and we are waiting for an occasion to send troops
to Turkey."
After a short pause, he continued"
"If you do not confess withing three days, I am going to 
shut you up in the prison for a year, two years, I will deprive
you of food and bed. I will not allow any communication
with your relatives and friends. I will do whatever I 
wish to do with you to help realize my purpose."
He attained his desire, and "he magnified the flea to
the size of a camel." He manufactured the impossible. He
at last wrote a history, each page sadder than the other, and
he made up his lines from what did not exist.
To complete the picture, some more features will be given,
taken, as always, from the facts.
The well-known Armenian writer, Aharonian, was arrested
and was kept for two years in prison for the reason that
as a member of a delegation sent by the Catholics of the Armenians
he presented himself to the conference at The Hague,
the chairman of which was Count Nelidoff himself, the ambassador
of the Tzar.
An Armenian millionaire, Melik Azarian, an old man of
sixty, was cast into prison simply for the reason that he had
transferred money several times through his business office.
38
Dr. Atabekian remained in prison two years under the accusation
of committing certain crimes in Shoushi although he
presented irrefutable proofs that he was in Baku and not in
Shoushi at the time.
A youth, B. M., eighteen years old, is now imprisoned for
the "terrors" he is charged with having committed in 1905,
when this formidable terrorist was but thirteen years old.
Ohanjanian, an able physician, has been pining away
in prison for three years under the accusation of  participating
in a meeting held in Vlatikavkas, notwithstanding the
fact that he has never been to that city and therefore could
not possibly have had any share in it.
Tateosian, an officer, was imprisoned for two years, for the
sole reason that the name Tateosian was mentioned in some
suspicious telegram.
Etgarvian, an old man of seventy, was arrested, confined
and tortured in prison, simply because one of his employees
was a revolutionist. He was released, under heavy bail, but
died soon after.
We could mention many more instances as sad as those
but there is no end to  them.
No alibi! No official, or even conclusive proof, demonstrating
that the accused person could not possibly have been
in a said place at the said time received any attention from  the
police investigator who ordered them imprisoned, surrounded
by an awesome silence, while his lowering glances looked for
some utterance which might  be racked from them.
Indirect prosecutions also were inaugurated.
In some of the villages of Ganzak they threatened to
arrest women if their husbands refused to present themselves
to the police. In many places they arrested the innocent brother
in order to compel the accused brother to come forward
and surrender. A letter, or some incidental writing was a
sufficient reason to issue an order for imprisonment. In one
of the villages of Erivan a poor man was arrested and pronounced
guilty for having convoyed a traveller on his horse, 
because the traveller was suspected to be a "revolutionist."

39
Here is a characteristic instance.
One day a young investigator, as yet uncorrupted by the
police atmosphere, was conversing with the Governor-in-Chief
of Ganzak, regarding the arrest of an Armenian bishop.
"In the absence of any positive proof," he said, "I am hesitating
about ordering him under arrest."
"Is the bishop young?" asked the Governor-in-Chief.
"Yes, he is hardly twenty-nine years of age."
"If he is young, he must be guilty, arrest him!"
Such is the policy of Legine.
Another example: One night the police rushed into the
house of a lady, by the orders of Legine, and for a time the
house was in a state of confusion, and children were crying.
"What do you wish?" asked the lady of these dreadful 
visitors.
"Where is your husband, Davtian, we are looking for 
him."
Confused, and with tears in her eyes, she answered:
"Oh, how happy I would be if I could send you where he
is! He is in the grave!"
Davtian had died eight years ago, in 1903.
But neither this shameful rebuff nor hundreds of similar
defeats could halt the investigator in his devilish cunning. On
the contrary, he became more haughty and aggressive. He
ordered the arrest of the living instead of the dead. The relatives
instead of the missing ones; this without proof and
without proper inquiry.
Real investigation there was none, but the so-called investigation
of  Legine lasted over two years and a half, and as a
result one hundred volumes were written, with more than one
thousand pages to each volume, an eternal monument of lies
and deceit.40
THE AFFAIR OF DASHNAKTSOUTUN.
  Thus an entire nation composed of various classes is put
on the bench of accusation by an unwise government. A singular
phrase in the annals of political trials, singular in the utter
groundlessness of the accusations and even more singular in its
external form.
  Be it even the Tsar as the head of injustice, or Stolypin
as the inspirer, or Legine as the executor. Bear in mind that
to accuse a whole nation is a most unwise and disturbing thing, 
which puts its author in an untenable position. It is utterly
impossible that a revolutionary movement against the State
and government should join such elements and classes which
in their social position represent diverse opinions and views.
  It is on account of this fact that the group of police
judges were obliged to disguise under a party name the persecution
they had inaugurated against a whole nation; so they 
called it the "Dashnaktsoutun Affair."
  What is a Dashnaktsoutun?
  It is an Armenian revolutionary party, organized in 1890,
twenty years ago, having as its aim the political liberty of the
Armenians in Turkey, and as means to that end the revolutionary
struggle, and as applied method the solidarity of all the 
nationalities in Turkey. It was founded in the Caucasus,
but were used in Turkey which was chained by Hamid's hands.
  The Russian monarchical bureaucracy, beginning from
1890, often dealt blows to the Armenians of the Caucasus, but
the Dashnaktsoutun never deviated from its agim, and did
not enter into any conflict with the Russian authorities until
2903, when the news of the confiscation of the property of
the churches excited and so disturbed the Armenians and compelled
the Dashnaktsoutun, as a servant of their people, and,
as a body born of the people, to stand by them and defend their
violated rights.
  Two years later, in 1905, at the period of the breaking out 
of the Pan-Russian Revolution, when the agents of the Tsar
created the Tartar-Armenian collisions, the Armenian party

41
participated in that conflict, inevitable, and thus began its activity
in the Caucasus, also, as a revolutionary and socialistic
organization. At the convention of the party which convened i
n Vienna in 1907, their tactics were approved and adopted
as a direct result of the severe persecutions to which the Armenians
in the Caucasus were subjected.
  The October constitution, drawing a veil over the past,
officially recognized this situation. The government not only
failed to persecute the Dashnaktsoutun and other political organizations,
but permitted them to come forward and be recognized
politically in the country.
  Thus, in 1905, during the conflicts between the Armenians 
and the Tartars, the supreme authority itself distributed
arms through the police-commissioner, Tsis, to the Dashnaktsoutun
and to social democrats to defend Tiflis, where the victory
sits, against the invasions of Tartars.
  In 1906, when the representatives of Tartars and Armenians
convened at the palace of the viceroy, Vorontsov-Dashkov,
under the chairmanship of General Malhama, the
representatives of the Dashnaktsoutun were invited to the official
convention.
  Beginning from 1905, in the election of the Duma in the
Caucasus, the Dashnaktsoutun came forward as a separate
body, the government recognized officially their electioneering
campaign, and those elected were recognized in the Duma as
the representatives of the Dashnaktsoutun and now they form
a special faction in the Ottoman Parliament.
  From the same year, 1905, onwards all over the Caucasus,
in almost all its districts, the governors, governors-in-chief, as
well as the police officials have often entered into  official relations
with members and the governing bodies of the organization,
and have requested its assistance and advice.
  Thus it remained from 1905 to 1908, after which the
attitude of government changed, They began to persecute
the Armenian organization not only from 1908 onward,
but went back to years past, beginning with 1903, and even
further back than that, having forgotten that in the past the
same government had itself, on many occasions both officially
and unofficially in the life of the State, recognized the activity
of the Dashnaktsoutun and its right of existence.
  42
  There is, however, a more important point.
  There is a secret which the government of the Tsar wishes 
to conceal forever in its chambers, but which must be brought
out for the sake of those innocent people who suffer in the
prisons.
  It was in March, 1908, that a rumor was circulated of a
probably war between Russia and Turkey with Bulgaris's participation.
Bulgara would attack Turkey from Macedonia,
while the Russian soldiers would capture the village of Erzroum
in Asia Minor. The government at St. Petersburg began
sending ammunition to the frontier, and centralized forces near
Kars.
In this important moment it was the desire of St. Petersburg
to ascertain what would be the attitude of the Armenians
of the Caucasus. For this purpose special military officers
were sent from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus, by the
military authorities, at the suggestion of the Minister for Foreign
Affairs. The mission of these emissaries was to enter
into relation with the governing bodies, and the representatives 
of the Dashnaktsoutun, in order to ascertain the attitude
of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in case of war.
  To fulfill this important mission the military and civil representatives
of St. Petersburg made overtures in a very courteous
manner and did not forget to be very lavish in their
sympathy and appreciation and respect for the Armenian
people and for their organizations. The Dashnaktsoutun replied
that its attitude would largely depend as to how the
political question of the Armenians should end in Turkey.
Fortunately, war was avoided by outside pressure, and the 
negotiations came to an end.
Now the question arises: By what logic does the government 
which in the beginning of 1908 was in amicable negotiation
with the Dashnaktsoutun suddenly turns towards the end
of the same year and begin as unutterable and unnatural persecution,
not only for deeds committed during 1908, but also
for deeds supposed to have been committed from eight to ten
years prior to the negotiation.
  IT is a curious and rapid change even for monarchical
tactics. IT is a mean political  conspiracy, the bitter fruits of

43
which are enjoyed today by the deluded Armenia people. And
how serious is the contrast of facts.
  The government which in 1904 returned the confiscated
property of the churches, actually confessed the justice of the
demands of the Armenians. But in 1908 it imprisoned innocent
men with the accusation that they had supported the cause of
the Church.
  In 1906 the government, itself, distributed arms to the 
Armenian organization to defend Tiflis. In 1908 the same
men, and many others, who belong to the Dashnaktsoutun,
were arrested as authors of illegal and guilty actions.
  In 1906 was  held the Central Convention of the Armenians,
with this permission of the Catholicos of the Armenians,
and with the knowledge of the police. But those who participated
in that convention are pursued as dangerous socialists
and revolutionists in 1908.
 In the beginning of 1908 the government had entered 
into secret negotiations with the party for very important and
secret affairs of the State, while toward the end of the same
year, those who belonged and even many who did not belong
to the same party are put in chains as dangerous terrorists
and political agitators, deserving the gallows and exile.
  The government which negotiated which the socialist organization
and the representatives who sat face to face with
the delegates of the same party in the Duma in the beginning
of 1908, toward the end of 1908 undertook an unprecedented 
persecution against the Dashnaktsoutun, for the reason that
it was preaching socialism and that in the days of affliction it
stood by the people, in their defense, resorting to "terrorism," 
which was necessitated by the bloody and stern realities.
  So it was that in the wild outburst in 1910, youths barely 
eighteen and nineteen years old today, were accused of committing
terrors in 1903-1904, when they were mere lads of
 thirteen and fourteen, playing and catching ball, like schoolboys.
  This criminal deceit, practiced for years, and the present 
persecution, following the policy of deceit, it an indelible stain
on the record of een a monarchical government, a black stain44
which should be washed out, not by the blood of the persecuted
and innocent victims, but by the blood of those who are
the authors of the criminal policy.
  The great task of rehabilitation is left to the Russian
court, which, defective and police-bound as it is, is called upon
to uphold the torch of justice and become the shelter of the 
innocent.
  The court!
  This is what in three years of protest, in tears, in silence,
and in vain appeal, has been the constant demand of the Armenians
behind locked doors, and the Armenians in the
Caucasus and throughout the world.
  There is no court, because the heroes of the sad tragedy
know by sad experience that in the court proofs are required - 
proofs which can stand the inquisition of the law.
  For this reason they are postponing the trial in order that
in the prison cells they may smother the consciences of the
revolters, and terrify the whole Armenian people, hoping thus
to quench the last breath, which has incurred the hatred of
Russian despotism, from Finland to the land of Ararat,
  For this same reason the government police is endeavoring
to conduct the trial behind closed doors, through which the 
watchful eyes of the people and especially those of foreign 
nations, cannot penetrate and disclose the terrible proofs of
disturbing justice.
  Will they succeed?

45
THE MONARCHICAL RUSSIAN BUREAUCRACY.
  There was a time when the Trans-Caucasus was the center
of the Russophile winds. All the races, and all CHristian
nations turned their eyes towards the Eagle of the North.
  With an inexplicable historic foolishness, the Caucasus - 
"The Wild Land" - was a place of exile for the Russians in
the beginning of the nineteenth century. To the Caucasus
were exiled all the undesirable military and civil officials, also
those restless poets - Poushkin, Lermondov, to atone for their
"sins." And again to the Caucasus, in 1863, were exiled all
the political agitators of Poland to bewail their fond dreams
of liberty. 
  The exile, however, loved the Caucasus instead of hating
it. They say the beautiful country, with its charming mountains,
the stupendous Mount Massis with its white-crowned
peak, the proud Kasbek, the penitentiary of invincible Prometheus,
who stole from Heaven the fire of freedom. They saw
the ever-smiling Gour, they saw Araxes, with its sad memories!
and they saw the land of the nightingale and the rose
and they liked it.
  They saw, also, the people of various tribes and languages,
who were full of love toward the "White Tzar," and trusting
in the northerners, even in the Christian Cossacks. The exiles
enjoyed everywhere, in the cities and villages, love, respect, 
and unreserved friendship. No wedding in the distant village,
no ceremony of baptism in the city, no gathering whatsoever,
without a blessing and cheering for the Tzar. The aged priest
raising the first cup would pronounce the following words in
fervent faith: "May God keep firm the throne of the Russian
King!"
  But now?
  All is hatred, scorn and vengeance. Hatred towards the
Russian Chinovnig, enmity toward the Russian officers, military
or civil, regrets for the past, and revenge for the coming
days.46
The chief reason for this state of affairs in the destructive 
spirit of the bureaucracy of the Tzar. Its unrestrained
persecution of what is not Russian but local, a spirit which is
as narrow as the mind of a Cossack, rude as a soldier and
irritating as a master itself - a spirit if incarnate prejudice
and partiality, of contempt for local languages, enmity toward
their letters, hatred of other nationalities and insult to other 
religions.
  In addition to this the Chinovnig, great or small, is bribed
and is lazy, wanton and wicked; unacquainted with the country,
he is to govern and therefore he cannot but inspire hatred
toward what is Russian, and everything concerned with its
government.
  The past history of the Russian dominion revealed a bitter
truth. The Russian was strong and charming as a military
force.
  Situated on the border of two Mohammedan countries,
enslaved and oppressed under the tyranny of the Shahs and
the Sultans, and the Armenians and the Georgians were both aspiring
to come under the domain of  Christian Russia, under
whose sovereignty they thought they would enjoy political
peace and rest. And it is not a secret that it was the Georgians
of the Caucasus who, with the aid and encouragement of the
Armenians, paved the road of the Russian domination toward
the valleys on Gour and Araxes. In Tiflis, on the "Temple of
Glory," which stands in the center of the city, and which is
the museum of the Russian Military Victory, the following
words are inscribed from the edict of Alexander I, addressed
to Georgia in 1801:
  "It is neither for our own interest, nof for the extension
of the limits of our domain, that we undertake the
hard task of controlling the Georgian Kingdom. It is
humanity and kindness that obliges us to listen to the
supplication of the suffering people, and establish in
Georgia a just government."
  And in the first period, which was the military period, the
Russian government was attractive, the Russian soldier was
liked. Military authorities, either to gain a firm foothold in
the newly subjugated country, or, perhaps, sincerely respecting

47
the native people of the country, its like and its customs,
were trusted implicitly. The central government, also, did not
miss any opportunity to bring in close relation the remote
regions and the center of its domain.
  Alexander I went personally to Etchmiadsin, the religious
center of the Armenians, to pay an official visit. There
existed a close intimacy in Tiflis between the Georgian aristocracy
and the royal family. The Armenian Catholicos and the
VIceroy of the Caucasus were often most friendly, for instance:
Nerses and Voronstovo. The Catholicos Nerses himself
at the head of the Armenian volunteers, fought against Persia
in 1827 to extend the Russian dominion as far as old 
Nakhitcheven and Araxes.
  The Georgians gave to the Russian army brilliant generals,
whose efforts helped greatly in the capture of the Oriental
Caucasus. And from the Armenians sprang forth famous
military men: Lois-Melikoff, Lazarian, Der-Ghoukasian, and
Shekovnikoff who fought against Turkey in the war of 1878
and caused her defeat.
  But when the second period arrived, the period of so-called
peaceful advancement, the period of the Chinoving was
ushered in, when everything was undone. The bureaucracy
subverted what the military authorities had built up. The
Chinovig is incapable of creation, and government; he can
only command, Russianize, and open an impassable chasm between
the various elements. Not only the sword but even the 
law became a cause of estrangement. The court, the capitol,
the police-station, were reduced to places of deceit, bribery, and
horror. The people were looked down upon and began to fear,
to detest, and hate, and finally to retire.
  Add to this the anti-national, and anti-demotratic spirit
which is the core and marrow of the Russian bureaucracy. In
Poland they hate the Poles; in Finland they are enemies
of the Finns, in the Caucasus they cannot endure the sight of
Armenians, and it is this policy, systematically pursued, which
has created what we witness now, - enmity instead of friendship, 
hatred instead of sympathy.
  A brief comparison.
  In the old period Voronstov was intrusted with the duty
of attracting the local elements, while in the new period48
Golitzin was commissioned to suppress the local nationalities. Voronstov opened schools. Golitzin closed 260 Armenian schools in one year. 
In the past the government was the connecting link between native races. Now it is a disrupting poison. 
Once officials came from St. Petersburg and Moscow to establish rule and order, now come thousands of spies to fill the dungeons with prisoners. 
Once Armenian and Georgian volunteers were the flower of the army were assigned the chief place during official receptions, now the police push the people aside, using whips, during the receptions of the Governors-in-Chief. There was a time when all Tiflis rose to receive the Exarch, the head, of the Orthodox Church, while in 1808 the Exarch was assassinated and none but the officials and the police were present at his funeral procession. 
In the olden times men used to run to the police and to the gendarmerie, while in danger, but now they flee away from them, as from a pestilence. Up to 1870 Russia was a land of learning and advancement but now it is a barrier against advancement. 
Once the government was a welcome guest. But now? 
An aged Armenian officer, whose grandfather was formerly in the Russian army and present at the capture of Garabag, said on his death-bed :
"I do not wish to die before I see the Russian exit from the Caucasus. Then only can I rest."
The forefathers invited and welcomed the Russians!
Their grandsons would rejoice at their absence.
This is the fruit of the despotic and destructive regime. It made the Russians miserable in their own land -- that ocean of grief and oppression; and it spreads poison and hatred among foreign peoples, everywhere reaches the breath of tyrannical regime. 


49
A VOICE OF PROTEST
-----
What tears around the prisons! What sobs and sighs along the roads of exile! and endless hours of waiting at the doors of the investigator.
 The police and the investigator!
Each are Tzars, in their circles of influence, silent when they should answer, roaring and raging when they should be silent. 
The same scene everywhere. Wives, sisters, brothers, sons, who have come from who knows from what state nor in how many days and with what bereavement and suffering. One desires to see a prisoner who is sick, wished to give him some money, clothing, or some food, ---he is refused! He wants to exchange a few words of comfort with the prisoner in regard to his condition, even in the presence of the police,---he is refused! 
Each and all of them are beseeching to see the investigator, to ask him a few questions, to get some information about their friends. His answer is : "Impossible! apply in writing." 
They apply in writing and wait for days, weeks, nay months, but get no answer. The little Tzar, surrounded by his group of spies, is cruel, proud, and arrogant. He is proud of the fact that instead of his going where the prisoners are he orders several hundred prisoners brought on a four or five days' journey to the "foot of his throne;" from the Caucasus to Rostove, and Novotcherkask, with their relatives and friends who, perhaps, have no money for travel, no means of living, and have left their children in poverty. 
Let them wait and suffer! Are they not more "subjects?"
Finally, patience and human endurance was at an end. Complaints, dissatisfaction and righteous indignation broke out. The complaints reached the Duma, which though handicapped, attempts occasionally to raise its voice. There in the 
"supreme legislative council," several representatives echoed the general dissatisfaction. "It is a misunderstanding," they said, "to imagine a whole body as revolutionists and to persecute them so severely."50
The Armenian Catholicos also interfered. In July, 1909,
when Izmirlian went from Constantinople to St. Petersburg
to present himself to the Tzar, he said in his official address:
  "If your Excellency wishes me to influence and pacify
the minds of the Armenian people and bind them to the 
throne, when I arrive at the Caucasus, then please be so
kind as to fulfil my request - give orders to release the
Armenian prisoners, and in this way you will have
strengthened me to serve the State more efficiently."
  Nicholas II, Emperor of Russian, by the mercy of God,
interrupted and said:
  "They will be released before your Holiness arrives at
the Caucasus."
  The Catholicos went to the Caucasus, moving from city
to city, proud of the imperial promise given him, but found
not only that the prisoners were not released but, on the contrary,
their number increased.
  Supplications and protest are not even heard in the domain
of the Tzar. It is therefore natural and the time has
arrived that protest and complaints should find an echo 
outside and beyond the boundaries of Russia, in order to show
to the world at least a glimpse of the tragic scenes enacted in
the prison of the Autocrat, in whose dominion there is a Duma
but no constitution, books of statute laws but no justice.
  Protest.
  Protest, and Sympathy!
  That is the demand of the suffering Orient. The just demand
of the warriors of liberty: Russians, Polish, Armenian,
Finn, Jew and Georgian, who under chains or on the gallows
have but one comfort, - the encouraging word from every
tongue which hates tyranny; from every land where the torch
of liberty is shining.
  And that protest should be as great as the suffering, as 
immense as the oppression, and as international as the persecution.
The sufferers do not belong to one nation, nor should
the protests be confined to one nation either.
  The protest should not be partial or general, from the
land of oppression to the remotest regions of Europe, and

51
across the great ocean to America, to the very borders of
the Great Republic, everywhere, in every country where on
the ruins of slavery the flag of civilization now flies.
  Every man who has a mind, every citizen who has a
conscience, every being who has a heart, should open his mouth
in protest, move his tongue in sympathy, stretch his hand to
help, - this is the duty of humanity!
  The suffering men and races in our times belong not
only to their race and community but to the whole mankind;
and the bodies of men, trampled down by tyranny, are not
only a disgrace to that country, but to the entire world.
  "The time has arrived" - says the California Legislature,
in its resolution on March 21, "in the affairs of this 
world for every civilized nation to protest against such
 conduct on the part of any nation, and we do hereby express 
our abhorrence of the treatment accorded these
men of Armenia because of their political convictions."
. . . "The time has arrived when there should be a concerted
action between all the nations that lay claim to civilization 
and enlightenment to compel the observance on the
part of  any nation of the laws of humanity and common
justice towards its citizens* . . ."
  The protest broke out, despite the endeavors and the
obstacles of the agents of the Tzar. IT was in Vienna that
the socialist party gave the first signal of indignation. Another
day in Constantinople - yesterday's fortress of tyranny - 
Armenians, Turks, Bulgarians, joined hands to brand the
brow of tyranny. Another day, in Paris, the adorable cradle
of international revolution, the bet minds united to defend
the persecuted justice, and, lately, on this side of the Atlantic,
in fifteen cities of the great Republic of America, were from
San Francisco to New York, large mass-meetings were held
where resolutions were passed expressing sympathy for the
sufferers and contempt for the ghouls who under the name of
law and religion are spreading crime over that unfortunate
part of the globe which forms the property of the Tzar.
  Let us united all the voices of protest as the drops of
water which form the mighty ocean; and in that union let us
[*See the Appendix.]52

create a strong and vigorous wave of sympathy and protest 
to surge over and cool the innocent victims of all nations, 
giving them new strength and heart, to endure, and to hope, 
and to love the great ideals of liberty even in the prison where 
through there is no sum yet there is dream, where the cell is 
small but the heart large, the body weak but the soul strong.
          In the expression of international sympathy the warriors 
of all lands find encouragement.
          In the expression of international contempt the tyrants 
of all lands find the death-poison.

  This is merely a page, a little portion of the terrible 
political sufferings, just as widespread as the Russian domain 
itself, endless as the surging billows of mournful Volga. 

           "We die with satisfied conscience and without regret," 
uttered that Russian volunteer for liberty from the scaffold, 
"with this firm belief that after us will come others, braver 
than we, greater than their predecessors, until the wave of 
freedom, fierce and ruthless, uproots and overthrows that 
bloody tyranny which is the curse of entire Russia and the 
shame of all humanity."
  They came by the hundred.
  Will come by the thousand.

  This awful suffering is the agony of the unbridled tyranny, 
the portending of the coming Great Day.
  Take courage warriors,—that day is at hand.
  And you, friends of liberty, strengthen the protest,—the 
victory is certain!


APPENDIX.54

RESOLUTIONS.
  In thirty-five cities of the United States and Canada there took place mass-meetings for the benefit of the prisoners of Caucasus. In fourteen cities, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Providence, Worcester, Troy, West Ho-boken, New Haven, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Fresno; and Brendford and Hamilton, Canada; resolutions of protestation were drawn up by votes and sent to Washington, to the President of the Republic, to the Secretary of State, to members of Congress, and to some of the foreign ambassadors there, especially to that of Russia.* Copies of the resolutions were published in the papers. 
  The following are some of the resolutions:

New York:
  At a mass meeting held by the Armenian residents at Carnegie Lyceum, in the City of New York, on February 5, 1911, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:
1. WHEREAS, for two years, more than five hundred Armenians, - professors, authors, physicians, lawyers, merchants, artisans and peasants - are subjected to unspeakable incarceration in Russia;
2. WHEREAS, ten or fifteen are imprisoned in damp and cold cells without bread or food;
3. WHEREAS, this indescribable condition still continues, and their trial is postponed arbitrarily;
4. WHEREAS, the Russian Government tries to punish innocent people for crimes that have never been committed by the accused;
1. RESOLVED, that we, the Armenian citizens of this Great Republic, protest against the inhuman attitude of the Russian Government, and demand an immediate and just trial of the innocent victims;
2. RESOLVED, that a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the Government at Washington and request it to please interfere in behalf of these innocent victims as it sees prosper;
3. RESOLVED, that copies of these same resolutions be sent to the foreign representatives at Washington, and to the American press, requesting all of them to raise their voices in behalf of justice and in behalf of the political rights of the unjustly prosecuted Armenians in the Caucasus, Russia. 

*The Russian embassy, with strange apprehensions, twice replied that it was not able to receive these resolutions or do anything with them. This is the way they do things in Russia. 

55

Philadelphia:
  In a meeting of Armenians, held on February 12, in Philadelphia, Pa., where speeches were given in behalf of the political prisoners in Caucasus, the following preambles and resolutions were passed.
  WHEREAS, the 500 prisoners are merely the victims of the premeditated and unjust policy of the Russian Government;
  WHEREAS, the prisoners are subjected to unbearable conditions, destitute of food, clothing and external relation;
  BE IT RESOLVED,
  1. To protest against the anti-Armenia and unjust persecution of the Russian government,
  2. To demand immediate trial of the prisoners, free form gendarme oppression. 
  3. To send copies of this protest to the government at Washington as well as to the ambassadors of other governments. 
  On the same occasion the meeting also appeals to the American public opinion and press, asking them to raise their voice in defense of this just cause.

Boston:
  A public mass meeting was held on the evening of January 8, 1911, at Paine Memorial Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, where a thousand or more Armenians passed resolutions protesting against the unjust imprisonment of five hundred or more of their leading countrymen in the Russian prisons.
  The meeting was presided over by Dr. V. H. Kazanjian, and speeches were made by several distinguished gentlemen, including Honorable E. Aknouni, of Constantinople. 
  A large collection was made for the benefit of said prisoners, and the following resolutions were adopted, viz.:
  WHEREAS: The present Russian government has deliberately commenced a general prosecution against the Armenian people of the Caucasus, and
  WHEREAS: Five hundred Armenian men, men of letters, scientists, merchants and others are the victims of the above mentioned prosecution, without any legal or moral justification, be it
  RESOLVED: To protest against this policy of the Russian government, which is contrary to the letter and spirit of the constitution, as well as to the dictates of civilization, and be it further
  RESOLVED: To demand an immediate trial before a just tribunal and to establish their rights as loyal citizens, and it is further
  RESOLVED: To send copies of these resolutions to the Secretary of State of the United States, at Washington, and to the Russian Ambassador at Washington, as well as to all other representatives of foreign powers, and be it further56 

  RESOLVED: To appeal to public opinion in the United States and to arouse a sympathetic movement in behalf of these Armenian prisoners, whose sole demand in the Caucasus is the right to enjoy the privileges of the constitution and those other rights which belong to every civilized community. 

San Francisco: 
  WHEREAS, it has been made to appear to the undersigned organizations, citizens and inhabitants of the city and county of San Francisco, State of California, by representation of Hon. E. Aknouni, the Armenian writer from Constantinople and other evidence to us submitted by Armenian citizens of the United States, residing in said city and county of San Francisco, that about 260 Armenians of education, rank and standing, are imprisoned in Novo Cherkask, in the monarchy of Russia, for political causes, and have so remained in prison for long periods without any preliminary hearing or other opportunity to present their cases to any court of justice, which imprisonment is revolting to the sense of justice in any country;
  AND WHEREAS, said Armenian citizens have by resolution duly protested against such imprisonment;
  NOW, THEREFORE, we, the undersigned, hereby protest against such imprisonment and ask our representatives in Congress to use all lawful and honorable means within their power to bring this condition of affairs to the attention of the government of Russia in such a manner as to lead to immediate hearing and disposition of all these cases in accordance with justice. 
  RESOLVED further that a copy of this resolution be sent to each of the Senators and Congressmen for the State of California, to the President of the United States, and to such other persons as may tend to bring about this desired end.
San Francisco, California.,
January 17,1911.

Providence:
  At a public mass meeting held on the evening of December 25, 1910 in Fay's Hall, Providence, Rhode Island, more than a thousand Armenians gathered to protest against the inhuman treatment of five hundred or more of their countrymen in the hands of the Russian government.
  The meeting was presided over by Mr. T. Gelalian and speeches were made by a number of leading Armenians, including the Honorable E. Aknouni of Constantinople. The following resolutions were adopted:
  WHEREAS: The present Russian government, with deliberate and premeditated policy has begun a general prosecution against the Armenian people of the Caucasus, and

57 

  WHEREAS: Five hundred Armenian prisoners belonging to almost every class, teachers, physicians, scientists, men of letters, merchants and others, are the victims of the above mentioned prosecutions without any legal basis and without trial, be it
  RESOLVED:
  1st. To protest against the policy of the Russian government, which policy is an insult to the constitution, as well as to the idea of civilization; 
  2nd. To demand immediate trial and the discharge of these prisoners, and the recognition of all of their rights as loyal citizens;
  3rd. To send copies of these resolutions to the United States government, at Washington and to the Russian Ambassador, at Washington, D.C.
  4th. To appeal to public opinion of this country and to arouse a sympathetic movement in behalf of these Armenian prisoners, who have no other demands or desires in the Caucasus, except to enjoy the privileges of the constitution and those rights which belong to every civilized community.

Worcester:
  On the fifteenth day of January, 1911, the Armenians of Worcester, Massachusetts, having gathered in Eagle's Hall for the purpose of signifying their sympathy and aiding financially the five hundred or more Armenian political prisoners in Russia, passed the following resolutions:
  WHEREAS, the five hundred Armenians who are imprisoned in Russia represent politically as well as intellectually the best among the Armenians of this generation;
  WHEREAS, these men have been subjected for the last two years to untold sufferings in the hideous prisons of Russia without a trial and without a legal cause;
  BE IT RESOLVED:
  1. To protest against the Russian government for its premeditated policy of prosecuting our intellectual leaders.
  2. To demand an immediate trial for these men and the recognition of their legal rights as citizens.
  3. To send a copy of these resolutions to the United States Secretary for Foreign Affairs and to the Russian Ambassador at Washington, and to arouse public sentiment and sympathy in behalf of these unfortunate prisoners. 

Troy:
  A public meeting was held on January 22, 1911, in Proctor's Theatre by the Armenians of Troy, N.Y. The purpose of the meeting was to arouse public sentiment and sympathy in behalf of the five hundred or more Armenian political prisoners in Russia who are considered as the foremost exponents of Armenian art, literature and science.58
  The following resolutions were passed:
  WHEREAS, the Russian government has commenced a policy of prosecution
against the Armenians in the Caucasus;
  WHEREAS, this prosecution of the Armenians in the Caucasus is
not only contrary to the spirit and letter of the constitution but also an
insult to the whole Armenian race;
  BE IT RESOLVED:
  1. To protest against the Russian government for this unjust imprisonment
and demand through proper channels an immediate and fair
trial before a tribunal which is not only competent, but free from military
despotism.
  2. To send a copy of these resolutions to the United States government 
at Washington, asking its aid and influence on co-operating with
us in this work.
  3. To call on the American public and to arouse public opinion
and sympathy against the unjust imprisonment of these men.
West Hoboken:
  At a great mass meeting held on February 5, 1911, by the Armenians
at the Liberty Hall of West Hoboken, N. J., the following preamble
and resolutions were adopted unanimously:
  WHEREAS, our compatriots in Russia are subjected to cruel persecutions,
and five hundred of them, for two years, are tortured in the
prisons of Rostov, Novochirgasoff, and other cities;
  WHEREAS, the innocent are arrested without any cause; and, notwithstanding
their demands, are not still tried;
  WHEREAS, these arrests by groups are the result of the policy of
the Russian government, which ignores all the elemental rights of the 
Armenians in Russia; it is therefore
  RESOLVED, that we, the Armenian citizens of New Jersey, protest
against the injustice of the Russian government, and demand that the
trial should be free of police interference and pressure; 
  RESOLVED, that a copy of this preamble and resolutions be forwarded 
to the Secretary of the Interior, and to all embassies at Washington,
requesting them to use their good office in behalf of the prisoners, and
be it further
  RESOLVED, that a copy be also sent to the American press, and an 
appeal be made to the political writers of this country to exert their good
influence in behalf of the five hundred unfortunate Armenian political
prisoners in Russia.
California:
  WHEREAS, it has been made known to use, the executive officers of
the California State Federation of  Labor, that five hundred Armenians of
education, rank and standing are imprisoned in Rostiv and Novocherkaska ,
in the monarchy of Russia, for political causes, and have so remained
for long periods of time without any preliminary hearing or

59
opportunity to present their cases to any court of justice, which imprisonment,
without trial, is revolting to the sense of justice of all mankind.
  Therefore, RESOLVED, that we, in the name of California State Federation
of Labor hereby protest against such imprisonment and request
the Hon. Hiram W. Johnson, Governor of the State of California, and
the legislature of this State, to take such measures by way of legislation
or resolution as will bring this condition of affairs most effectively
before the government of the United States with a view of having the
United States make representations to the Russian government for the
purpose of remedying this apparent injustice; and further
  RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be sent to each of the
following named persons; the President of the United States, the Senators 
and Congressmen representing California, the Secretary of the State,
the Governor of the State of California, and the senators and assemblymen.*
California State Federation of Labor.
San Francisco, 
March 10, 1911.
Resolutions of the Legislature of California.
(Voted in Senate and Assembly, March 21-22, and sent to
Washington on March 27th.)
  WHEREAS, the Russian government has imprisoned hundreds of prominent
Armenians who are teachers, lawyers and editors, and all of whom
are in the forefront of progressive thought and action, in the prisons of 
Rostove, and other towns in the monarchy of Russia, and has kept these 
men confined for a long period of time without giving them any preliminary
hearing or opportunity to present their cases to any court, which is
revolting to the sense of justice of all mankind; and
  WHEREAS, the said "Russian government has frequently tolerated riot,
pillage, outrage and murder of men, women and children by reason of
their religious belief;" and
  WHEREAS, such acts are a disgrace to civilization and repugnant to
all people who love justice and fear God; now, therefore,
  BE IT RESOLVED, by the Senate and Assembly jointly, of the Thirty-ninth 
Legislature of the State of California, that we believe the time has arrived in
the affairs of this world when it becomes necessary for every civilized nation
to protest against such conduct on the part of any other nation, and we do
hereby express our abhorrence of the treatment accorded these men of
Armenia because of their political convictions and to other men, women
and children because of their religious belief; and be it further
  RESOLVED, that in the opinion of the Legislature of the State of California,
the time has arrived when there should be a concert of action
[*Same resolution has been drawn up by the Labor Council of San
Francisco.]60

between all nations that lay claim to civilization and enlightenment, to 
compel the observance on the part of any other nation of the laws of 
humanity and common justice towards its citizens; and be it further
  RESOLVED, that copies of this resolution be sent to the President of 
the United States, the President of the United States Senate and to the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, earnestly urging them to use 
their good offices to secure to the Armenians herein referred to a just and 
public trial without further delay.Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas
and
Happy New YearAMERICAN WOMEN'S BRANCH
OF THE
ARMENIAN NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE
MISS ALICE STONE BLACKWELL,
CHAIRMAN

"Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you, do you even so to them."

Extract from "L'Humaine Tragedie" by Tigrane Polat, 
Armenian Artist, Paris.THE scene on the foregoing page illustrates in powerful manner not only the present intense suffering and need of the Armenian people after their prolonged resistence and martyrdom, but the remarkable spirit of charity which animated the survivors of this greatest of all national tragedies. It is to help them in their heroic effort to rebuild their broken and devastated national life in their own homeland that this organization has been formed. We invite you to cooperate with us in our work of helping to forward the native undertakings in all charitable and reconstruction lines. 
Help! and especially now at this Christmas time. Remember that noble and innocent men, women and children, our allies in the war, are dying for lack of food, contracting disease for lack of soap with which to wash themselves, shivering and suffering for lack of clothing, or for lack of thread and needles with which to mend their miserable garments. Help that Armenia may live, and that it may not be said of America, that she forgot her obligations and suffered a great people to perish. 
Send contributions to us of money and of clothing. We shall see that they are immediately forwarded through the proper channels and to the proper authorities whose "activities" according to American advices recently received from Constantinople "are limited only by the means at their disposal."
Miss ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Honorary Chairman
MOORFIELD STOREY, Esq., Honorary Counsel.

Committee Members: Miss Jane Addams, Mrs. Fannie B. Ames, Mrs. George Minot Baker, Miss Katherine Lee Bates, Mrs. Clara B. Beatley, Mrs. Charles Summer Bird, Miss Kate Buss, Mrs. George W. Coleman, Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott, Mrs. Herbert Gurney, Mrs. Sidney Hosmer, Mrs. Edwin D. Mead, Mrs. Bertha S. Papazian, Mrs. Alexander Petrunkevitch, Mrs. Laura E. Richards.

Photo by Paul Thompson
TALAAT PASHA AND THE ARMENIAN WHO KILLED HIM.

The leader of the Young Turks, it was proved, had ordered massacres of 
Armenians, including men, women, and children, in a way unparalleled in 
modern times. He was killed on the streets of Berlin by the young Armenian
student. Solomon Teilirian, shown on the right, and a Berlin court, after a 
sensational trial, declared the murderer "Not guilty."


About Falaet Bey                 Armenian file
Personal Glimpses
A TURKISH HEROD
A YOUNG ARMENIAN deliberately murdered one of
the most prominent Turkish government officials on 
the streets of Berlin, and yet a German court adjudged
him "Not guilty." That was the riddle which the cables spread
abroad a short time ago. The murdered man Talaat Pasha,
the chief of the Young Turk party, and during 
the latter part of the war
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman 
Empire. The murderer 
was an Armenian
student named Solomon
Teilirian, a youth with 
the general appearance of 
a successful young American 
business man - in 
short, nobody in particular. 
It was expected, 
writes George R. Montgomery, 
director of the 
Armenia-America Society,
in The Current History 
Magazine (New York),
"that the known sympathy 
of the German Government 
would result in 
the prompt conviction of 
the Armenian. To the 
surprize of the world he
was acquitted."
The reason for his acquittal, 
aside from the fact
that he found a champion
in a liberal-minded German 
professor, has just
come out in the publication 
of a series of documents 
which, in Mr.
Montgomery's words, "establish once and for all the fact that
the purpose of the Turkish authorities, in the case of the Armenians, 
was not deportation but annihilation,"  Incidentally,
it appears, the evidence establishes that Talaat Pasha was even
more thorough in his methods than was that Herod of the Bible
who ordered the slaughter of the first-born sons of the Jews.
According to evidence strong enough to convince a naturally
unsympathetic German court, men, woman, and children, including 
helpless orphans, were, by Talaat's orders, herded together 
and slaughtered. "The trial of the Armenian developed
into the trial of the murdered Talaat as the greatest of war
criminals," writes Mr. Montgomery. More than that, it
developed into a case against the German military authorities,
who had at least allowed the massacres to continue without
protest. Even Gen. Liman von Sanders, who had had charge of 
the German military forces in Turkey, was called as a witness.
The German official reports were produced, showing the total
number of Armenians who had perished was over 1,000,000.
The word "deportation," it was shown, was euphemism for
"slaughter." Regarding the children who were orphaned by the 
massacre of their parents, Talaat writes in an order to the 
Governor of Aleppo: "The Government will regard the feeding 
of such children or any attempt to prolong their lives as an act
entirely opposed to its purpose since it considers the survival
of these children as detrimental." Another order decrees that


"all such children" shall be collected and  sent to the "places of 
deportation," which places, as other orders show, were prepared
for the extermination of all Armenians sent there. These considerations 
resulted in the acquittal of Talaat's confessed assassin, 
whose mother had been a victim of the Turk's orders.
Mr. Montgomery writes of 
the trial:
Altho the technical defense 
of Teilirian was temporary 
insanity brought
on by a vision of his murdered 
mother, the real
defense was the terrible
record of Talaat Pasha;
so that in the eyes of Germany 
the acquittal of the 
Armenian of the change of 
murder became the condemnation 
to death of the 
Turk. That such a trial 
and such a result occurred
in Germany with Germans
as jurors is particularly
significant.
With respect to the present 
situation in the Near
East, the most important
phase of this dramatic
trail was the ability of 
Professor Lepsius to produce 
Turkish official documents 
which proved the 
heads of the Turkish Government 
at Constantinople
-- and particularly Talaat
himself -- to be directly
responsible for converting 
the deportation into
shambles. Heretofore
there have been defenders
of the Ottomans who held
that the massacres were 
not a plan of the Government, 
but were due to the
brutality of those who carried out the deportation instructions.
At the trail of Teilirian there were placed in evidence facsimiles
and translations of signed orders from Talaat--letters and eipher
telegrams which prove that the instructions to massacre originated 
in Constantinople. As Aleppo was the headquarters of 
the "Deportation Committee," the capture of Aleppo by the
British made possible the securing of these official documents
from the archives. This evidence directly linking the murdered 
Talaat with the inhuman deeds that were covered by the general
term "deportation" was irrefutable and overwhelming. The
documents established once and for all the fact that the purpose
of the Turkish authorities was not deportation but annihilation.

The first document on which the decision of the court was
based, says Mr. Montgomery, altho not signed by Talaat, "is 
from the committee of Young Turks, of which he was the head,
and inasmuch as its contents are referred to in dispatches signed
by him, was valid as evidence."  it was written in the spring of 
1915, before the massacres had begun, and shows the extermination 
of the Armenians to have been the determined policy of the
Government. Jemal, to whom the document is addrest, was the 
third in the triumvirate of Young Turks--Talaat, Enver, and 
Jemal. At that time he was Governor of Adana and soon afterward 
became Governor of Aleppo. The translated order runs:
March 25, 1915
To Jemal Bey, Delegate at Adana:
It is the duty of all of us to effect on the broadest lines the
realization of the noble project of wiping out the existence theThe man who was thru at Thirty 
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To their surprise they found that the young sales manager knew all these things. His practical experience had given him sales training: the Alex-ander Hamilton Institute had given him a grasp of the fundamentals which are found in every business.
A few days after his election to the Board of Directors of his company he wrote :
"The day when I enrolled in the Alexander Hamilton Institute's Modern Business Course marked the turning point in my career."
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For men who are asking themselves, "Where am I going to be in business ten years from now?" the Alexander Hamilton Institute publishes a 120-page book. It contains a full explanation of what the Modern Business Course and Service is and does; It contains letters from men whose business situation was precisely like yours. It will richly repay a careful reading, and it is sent without obligation; the coupon will bring it. 
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Copyright, 1921, Alexander Hamilton Institute

(page 2)

The Literary Digest for July 30, 1921  37
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well-known elements who have for centuries been constituting a barrier to the empire's progress in civilization. For this reason we must take upon ourselves the whole responsibility, saying, "come what may", and appreciating how great is the sacrifice what has enabled the Government to enter the world-war. we must work so that the means adopted may lead to the desired end.
As announced in our dispatch dated February 18, the Jamie [Young Turk Committee] has decided to uproot and annihilate the various forces which have for centuries been an obstacle in its way, and to this end it is obliged to resort to very bloody methods. Be assured that we ourselves were horrified at the contemplation of these methods, but the Jamiet sees no other way of insuring the stability of its work. 
Ali Riza [the committee delegate at Aleppo] criticized us and called upon us to be merciful; such as simplicity is nothing short of stupidity. For those who will not cooperate with us we will find a place that will wring their delicate heart-strings. I again recall to your memory the question of the property left. It is very important. Do not let its distribution escape your vigilance; always examine the accounts and the use made of the proceeds. Reference to this document, says the writer is contained in the following order, signed by Talaat and sent to the same Jemal. This order shows that women and children were to be included in the holocaust:
September 6, 1916
To the Prefecture of Aleppo.
We recommend that you submit the women and children also to the orders which have been previously prescribed as to be applied to the males of the intended persons, and to designate for these functions employees of confidence. 
Minister of the Interior, Talaat
Apparently, comments Mr. Montgomery, the instructions regarding the women and children called for some reiteration, for on September 16 the following eipher telegram which showed the instructions as going back to the decision of the Jamie, or Young Turk Committee, was sent: 
September 16.
To the Prefecture of Aleppo: 
It has been previously communicated to you that the Government, by order of the Jemiet (the Young Turk Committee), has. decided to destroy completely all the indicated persons living in Turkey. Those who oppose this order and decision can not remain on the official staff of the empire. An end must be out to their existence, however tragic the measure taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex or to conscientious scruples, Minister if the Interior, Talaat 

Mr. Morgenthau, the Americans Ambassador at Constantinople, we are told, began to exert himself in behalf of the Armenians, and the result was an official order suggesting caution: 
November 18,1915
To the prefecture of Aleppo: 
From the interventions which have recently been made by the American Ambassador at Constantinople on behalf of the Government, it appears that the American consuls are obtaining information by secret means . In spite of our assurance that comfort, they remain unconvinced. Be careful that events attracting attention shall not take place in connection with those [Armenian] deportations will be accomplished in safety and comfort, they remain unconvinced . Be careful that events attracting attention shall not take place in connection with those [Armenias] who are near the cities and other centers. From the point of view of the present policy it is most important that foreigners who are in those parts shall be persuaded that the expulsion of the Armenians is in truth only deportation. For this reason it is important that, to save appearances. a show of gentle dealing shall be made for a time and the usual measures be taken in suitable places.It is recommended as very important that the people who have given such information shall be arrested and handed over to the military authorities for trial by court martial. The Minister of the Interior, TALAAT. 
Reference to the effort of the American Consul at Aleppo, Mr. Jackson, to send information to Mr. Morgenthau is contained in the following eipher dispatch: 
December 11,1915.
To the Prefecture of Aleppo: 
We learn that some correspondents of Armenian journals are obtaining photographs and letters which represent tragic events and are giving them to the American Consul at Aleppo. Have dangerous persons of this kind arrested and supprest.
Minister of the Interior 
Talaat
The need for caution is further indicated in the following telegram: December 29, 1915
To the Prefecture of Aleppo:
We learn that foreign officers are encountering along the roads the corpses of the intended persons and are photographing them. I recommend you the importance of having these corpses buried at once and of not allowing them to be left near the roads.
Minister of the Interior,
Talaat.

The heartlessness of the Turks in regard to the doomed children made a deep impression on the Berlin jury, says Mr. Montgomery. The following are some of the documents presented on this point:
November 5, 1915.
To the Government of Aleppo:
We are informed that the little ones belonging to the indicated persons [Armenians] from Sivas, Mamuret-ul-Aziz, Diarbekir and Erzerum are adopted by certain Moslem families and received as servants when they are left alone through the death of their parents. We inform you that you are to collect all such children in your province and send them to the places of deportation, and also to give the necessary orders regarding this to the people. Minister of the Interior, Talaat.

January 15,1916.
To the Government of Aleppo:
We hear the certain orphanages which have been opened received also the children of the Armenians. Whether this is done through ignorance of our real purpose or through contempt of it, the Government will regard the feeding of such children or any attempt to prolong their lives as an act entirely opposed to its purpose, since it considers the survival of these children as detrimental. I recommend that such children shall not be received into the orphanages, and no attempts are to be made to establish special orphanages for them. 
Minister of the Interior, Talaat.
The production of the following eipher telegram (No. 830) is said to have been particularly telling in its effect on the jury: From the Ministry of the Interior to the Government of Aleppo: Collect and Keep only those orphans who can not remember the terrors to which their parents have been subjected. Send the rest away with the caravans. Minister of the Interior, Talaat.
That the Moslem Population was not to be held accountable for its share in the massacres was ordered in a telegram dated October 8, 1915:
The reason why the Sanjak of Zor was chosen as a place of deportation is explained in a secret order dated September 2, 1915, No. 1,843. As all the crimes to be committed by the population along the way against the, Armenians will serve to effect the ultimate purpose of the Government, there is no need for legal proceedings with regard to these. The necessary instructions have also been sent to the governments of Zor and Ourfa.
Minister of the Interior, 
Talaat
All the evidence tends to show, with cumulative effect, concludes Mr. Montgomery, that it was the pity awakened in the hearts of some of the local Turkish officials by the miseries of the Armenians which produced a certain mitigation of the heartless orders that emanated from Constantinople. A small remnant of the race survived. Talaat and his group in the government were obliged continually to spur some of their tools on to greater severity.
The headquarters of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief in Chicago are located in Room 1119, No. 19 South La Salle Street. Tel. Majestic 7737. The following are members of the Chicago Committee:
Rufus Dawes, Chairman
Harry A. Wheeler Treasurer
William T. Abbot, Secretary .
Herbert L. Willett, Jr., Field Secretary 
Miss Jane Adams 
Right Rev. Chas. P. Anderson
Dr. Ozora S. Davis
Chas. G. Dawes
D. A. Dikijian 
John C. Eastman
Dr. A. M. Hitchcock
Harold L. Ickes
Dr. Jenkins Lloyd Jones
James Keeley
Andrew M. Lawrence 
Dr. George M. McFatrich
Dr. Shailer Matthews
F.J. Michel
Rev. V.V. Nazaretian
P.J. O'Keefe
James A. Patten
G.T. Pushman
H.E. Rompel
John C. Shaffer
Rev. John Timothy Stone
Dr. Graham Taylor 
Prof. James H. Tufts
J.B. Willey
All subscriptions and gifts from Chicago and vicinity can be paid to Mr. H. A. Wheeler at the above address. Correspondence concerning meetings, speakers, literature and other local plans should be addressed to Mr. H. L. Willett, Jr., Secretary, at the address given. Sincerely yours, C.V VICKREY[*Federal Writer Project page 7, 13 15*]

A REPORT OF PROGRESS

June 15, 1939

THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT OF MASSACHUSETTS

Division of Professional and Service Projects

WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION

25 Huntington Avenue
Boston 
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT

Henry G. Alsberg, Federal Director
Frank Manuel, Regional Director for New England
Muriel E. Hawks, State Director for MassachusettsTHE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT OF MASSACHUSETTS

A REPORT OF PROGRESS

June 15, 1939

Introduction
          The Federal Writers' Project, a branch of Federal Project #1, 
was established in October 1935, as a part of the Works Progress 
Administration. It is one of the Federal Arts Projects, which 
collectively have been called "the clearest and most characteristic 
expression of the policy of the Government to give relief to the
unemployed by giving work suitable to their experience and training."
          In planning toward that objective, the idea was conceived of a 
series of State and local guidebooks which should reveal the extraordinary 
natural, economic, and cultural resources of this vast 
country, hitherto largely undescribed. The Federal Writers' Project 
was established in each of the forty-eight states, in the District of 
Columbia, and in Hawaii, and undertook the monumental task of portraying 
the infinite variety of the American background.
          That variety is more than geographical, and consequently the 
Project includes within its work scope regional and local histories, 
a series of studies of immigrant groups, State encyclopedias, bibliographies, 
non-technical accounts of living and working in particularized 
areas, children's books, living folklore, and occasional books such as 
New England Hurricane, difficult to classify.2.

Employment

Quota
  Since June 1936, when the Federal Writers' and Historical Records Projects became separate units, the employment quota allotted to the Federal Writers' Project in Massachusetts has varied between the peak of 295, effective for the first six months, to the present quota of 190 established January 15, 1939. The average quota for the three-year period has been under 200.

Analysis of personnel (as of March 13, 1939)

Total number employed      190
Clerical staff                          27
Research workers, writers, and supervisory staff    163 (The figure used in obtaining percentage below)

Academic degrees
Bachelor of Arts or Science         69             42%
Master of Arts or Science            20             12%
Doctor of Philosophy                    5   94        3%   57%
 
Newspaper experience
1 to 5 years                                   8               5%
5 to 10 years                                12              7%
10 or more years                          14   34       9%   21%

Publicity experience                              11      7%

Authors of published writing
In local and national magazines            34     21%
Free-lance newspaper feature stories   24     15% 
Authors of published books                  17     10%
Authors of published poetry                   9       6%

Editors (magazine and newspaper)        9        6%

Teachers (high school and college)      23      14%3. 

The Project includes graduates of the following colleges and universities:

Boston College
Boston Teachers College
Boston University
Brown University
Bowdoin College
Clark University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth University
Emerson College of Oratory
Harvard University
Holy Cross College
John Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts State College
Mount Holyoke College
New York University
Providence College
Radcliffe College
Smith College
Tufts College
Union College
University of Alabama
University of Chicago
University of Michigan
University of Southern California
Wellesley College
Worcester State Teachers College
Yale University

Backgrounds of representative men and women
  Lawyer and one-time magazine publisher.
  Editor of a foreign language newspaper in one of the largest Massachusetts cities.
  Superintendent of schools in a district of China, who has also been editor of a house organ, a publicity director, and author of a book.
  Author of five published volumes; his biography is included in Who's Who in America.
  Editor of a woman's magazine of large national circulation.
  Doctor of Medicine, practicing since 1925, who has published a medical treatise. 
  Two present members of city school committees.
  Author of numerous detective stories; his biography is in Who's Who in America.
  Managing editor of a scientific journal.
  Author of a history of a foreign country, later editor of a foreign language paper in the United States.
  Poet of reputation, whose work has been published in book form and has appeared in leading magazines of the "quality group."4. 

  Foreign correspondent who has published three books.
  Principal of an industrial school.
  Author of four novels.
  City editor of the leading newspaper in a Massachusetts city.
  Principal of a school in Japan. 
  Publicity director of a large charitable institution.
  Associate editor of a well-known historical periodical.
  Editor of a trade paper.
  Three members of the Christian ministry, who served their churches 
  from nine to over twenty years.

Age groups
  The distribution of present personnel by age groups in as follows:
                                       No.       Percent
60 to 70                          15             8
50 to 60                          24            13
40 to 50                          25            13
30 to 40                          66            35
20 to 30                          58            31
Total                               188          100%

Return to private industry
  Since June 1936, 128 persons have resigned from the Project to 
accept private employment. This is an average of 43 annually, or 24%
of our average actual employment, which for the same period has been 194.

Costs: The present man-month cast in this State is $94.76 for labor and 
$2.92 for non-labor expenditures, a total of $97.68. The man-month cost on 
a national basis is naturally lower because of the inclusion of rural areas. 
The total cost of the Writers' Project nationally, to October 31, 1938, was
only about 11% of the expenditure for the Federal Arts Projects as a whole.5.

Among Massachusetts authors, historians, and educators who have praised our work are:

Abbot, Rev. Wenonah Stevens
Bartlett, Ruhl J., Department of History, Tufts College
Billington, Ray A., Department of History, Smith College
Blackwell, Alice Stone
Bolton, Charles K.
Bowen, Lee, Department of History, Boston College
Boyle, Rosalie Dunlap Hickler
Brandenburg, Samuel, Department of Economics, Clark University 
Bridenbaugh, Carl, Department of History, Brown University (formerly at 
                                                           Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Brigham, Clarence, S., Director, American Antiquarian Society
Brinton, Crane, Chairman, Department of History, Harvard University 
Caldwell, Erskine
Cary, Harold W., Department of History, Massachusetts State College
Colcord, Lincoln
Converse, Florence 
Cross, Captain George, Worcester Historical Society
Curtis, Edward E., Chairman, Department of History, Wellesley College
Davis, Jesse, Dean, School of Education, Boston University 
Dos Passos, John
Eaton, Walter Prichard, Department of Drama, Yale University 
Emerson, Rupert, Department of Government, Harvard University 
Faulkner, Harold U., Department of History, Smith College
Foote, Henry WIlder
Foster, William Trufant 
Gibbs, A. Hamilton
Henshaw, Francis H., Librarian, Berkshire Athenaeum 
Hidy, R. W., Department of History, Wheaton College
Hillyer, Robert
Houghton, Samuel G. 
Hubbard, C. C., Department of History, Wheaton College
Irwin, Inez Haynes
Johnson, Owen 
Jones, Howard Mumford, Department of English, Harvard University 
Keller, Charles E., Department of History, Smith College
Lee, Dwight E., Department of History, Clark University 
Lerner, Max, Department of Political Science, Williams College
Little, Homer P., Dean, Clark University 
Long, Norton E., Department of Political Science Mount Holyoke College
MacLeish, Archibald
Mahoney, John K., School of Education, Boston University 
Marx, Fritiz M., Department of Government, Harvard University 6.

Mather, Kirtley, Department of Geology, Harvard University
Matthiessen, F.O., Department of History and Literature, Harvard
University
Maxwell, James A., Department of Economics, Clark University
Merk, Frederick, Department of History, Harvard University
Mitchell, Stewart, Massachusetts Historical Society
Moody, Robert Earle, Department of History, Boston University
Murdock, Kenneth B., Department of English, Harvard University
Neilson, William A., President, Smith College
Orcutt, William Dana
Powell, Warren, Boston University
Prall, David, Department of Philosophy, Harvard University
Roberts, Franklin C., School of Education, Boston University
Sanguinetti, Haughton
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Department of History, Harvard University
Scramuzza, Vincent M., Department of History, Smith College
Sheldon, James, School of Social Work, Boston University
Simmons, Ernest, Department of English, Harvard University
Skinner, Clarence R., Dean, Theological School, Tufts College
Spiegel, Edward, Chairman, Poor Richard Associates
Struik, Dork, Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
Tarkington, Booth
Tripp, William H., Curator, Old Dartmouth Historical Society
Tryon, Stenson, Department of History, Simmons College
Vail, Robert W.G. Librarian, American Antiquarian Society
Warne, Colston, Department of History, Amherst College
Weiner, Norbert, Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Williams, Ben Ames7.

Project Accomplishment 

Publication prior to January 1, 1939

Up to January 1, 1939, this Project has issued the publications

listed below. Those printed and distributed at the expense of the 

cooperating sponsor are marked with an asterisk; publications not so

marked were brought out by commercial publishers at their own expense, 

in expectation of steady return through sales. The Federal Writers' 

Project in no instances pays any part of publishing expenses. 

Title                                                                                 Sponsor
An Almanac for Bostonians, 1939                            Poor Richard Associates

*The Armenians in Massachusetts                          Armenian Historical Society

*Auburn: 1837-1937                                                  Auburn 100th Anniversary Committee

Cape Cod Pilot                                                           Poor Richard Associated 

Massachusetts: A Guide to its                                 Secretary of State, Commonwealth
      Places and People                                               of Massachusetts 

*Motor Tours in the Berkshire Hills                         Berkshire Hills Conference, Inc. 

New England Hurricane                                           Poor Richard Associates
       (a regional publication, collated 
         and edited in Massachusetts) 

*Old Newbury Tales                                                 Old Newbury Historical Society 

*Selective and Critical Bibliography                       Massachusetts Department of
     of Horace Mann                                                        Education

*Whaling Masters                                                     Old Dartmouth Historical Society 

*Winter Sports in the Berkshire Hills                      Berkshire Hills Conference, Inc. 

Of this varied list of publications, three were for protracted

periods on the list of best-sellers: the Cape Cod Pilot, Massachusetts:

A guide to its Places and People, and New England Hurricane.

Publications on Spring List - 1939
*THE ALBANIAN STRUGGLE IN THE OLD WORLD AND NEW -- Sponsor, Albanian
Historical Society; published May 17 by The Writer, Inc. 164 pp.
Illustrated.

The second in the Massachusetts series of studies 
of immigrant groups.

THE BERKSHIRE HILLS -- Sponsor, Berkshire Hills Conference, Inc.; July 
publication by Funk & Wagnalls. 400 pp. Illustrated.

An informal guide to the towns and the folk of Berkshire, 
including a comprehensive section on recreation facilities. 

*FAIRHAVEN, MASSACHUSETTS -- Sponsor, Fairhaven Board of Selectmen; June
publication. About 80 pp. Illustrated.

The history of a whaling town and its modern development.

*OLD SUDBURY, MASSACHUSETTS -- Sponsor, Sudbury Tercentenary Committee ; 
June publication. About 50 pp. Illustrated.

An account of the founding and development of one of
the State's most interesting towns.

*THE STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE AT WESTFIELD -- Sponsor, Westfield State 
Teachers' College; August publication. About 75 pp. Illustrated.

A complete history of the development of a State 
institution. 

HERE'S NEW ENGLAND -- Sponsor, New England Council; published by 
Houghton Mifflin Company in June. 120 pp. Illustrated. Compiled 
in all New England States; collated and edited in Massachusetts.

A brief guide to 21 great recreational areas in New
England, intended primarily for visitors to the New
York World's Fair, and including an invitation to
New England from the six New England Governors.

Publications on Fall List - 1939
AN ALMANAC FOR BOSTONIANS, 1940 -- To follow the pattern of the 1939
Almanac and to be issued by the same publisher. This book will
give under each day of the year relative excerpts from the history
of Boston and will include a variety of useful information.

FROM THESE STRAINS -- A brief survey of the ethnic groups in the
Commonwealth. Information hitherto unavailable relating to the
backgrounds, numbers, concentration, occupations, and achievements 
of component groups of our population.9. 

*THE FINNS IN MASSACHUSETTS AND THEIR COOPERATIVES -- Sponsored by 
Ralvaaja as agent for the Finnish Cooperatives. One of our 
series of social-ethnic studies, this book will particularly 
emphasize the cooperative movement widely developed in Massachusetts 
by Finnish citizens.  

THE FOREIGN PRESS IN NEW ENGLAND -- A history of foreign language 
newspapers in New England, analyzing their origins, development, 
policies, and social influence. Compiled in all New England 
States; collated and edited in Massachusetts. 

THE GROWTH OF SPRINGFIELD -- Sponsored by the City of Springfield. 
100 pages, illustrated. An historical sketch of the City and a 
detailed analysis of its resources today. 

THE PORT OF BOSTON -- A history of the Port and a detailed study of 
its contemporary facilities, problems, and potentialities. 

RIGHTS OF MAN -- A compilation of important statements by Massachusetts 
people upon the fundamental human liberties, together with explanatory
background material. An impressive social document 
including three centuries in its scope.

STORIES OF MASSACHUSETTS -- Sponsored by the Boston School Committee; 
bulletins to be printed in the Boston trade schools and distributed 
to pupils in the Boston schools. Publisher's offer received for 
later publication in book form. 

Other books in preparation 

We are engaged upon research for the following future publications:

*HISTORY OF HAMPDEN COUNTRY -- An account of the government, development, 
and character of the county. Sponsored by the County Commissioners. 

ORIGIN OF MASSACHUSETTS PLACE NAMES -- Exhaustive research has for the 
first time made available in one source all known data on the origin 
of the names of counties, cities, and towns in Massachusetts. 

*THE SYRIANS IN MASSACHUSETTS -- A social-ethnic study. Sponsored by 
the St. George Orthodox Young People Association.  

*THE JEWS IN EARLY MASSACHUSETTS -- A study from hitherto unpublished 
sources. Sponsored by the Jewish Culture Club.

YANKEE FOLK -- Revealing portrait sketches of New England characters. 

NEW ENGLAND COASTAL WATERWAYS -- A yachtsmen's guide to New England; 
informative and entertaining. Compiled in all New England 
States; collated and edited in Massachusetts. 



10.
*THE PORTUGUESE IN NEW ENGLAND -- A comprehensive survey of an important
ethnic group, rich in content; among our major publications.
Compiled in all New England States; collated and edited in Massachusetts.
Sponsored by Amportus Historical Society.
OLD HOUSES IN MASSACHUSETTS -- Photographs and accompanying text
illuminating the development of New England architecture.
BIOGRAPHIES OF MASSACHUSETTS ARCHITECTS -- For inclusion in a national
publication.
STATE ENCYCLOPAEDIA -- A monumental publication to make readily available
data on the State and its municipalities; education, religion,
medicine, the arts, industry, commerce, recreation, and similar
topics treated on the basis of achievement and resources within
the State.
BOSTON IS THE HUB -- One of our major undertakings; approximately 450
pages, profusely illustrated. An inclusive survey of modern
Boston -- its history, people, resources, and attractions, 
together with descriptive tours in each of the twenty sections
described. Probably a fall, 1939, publication.
WE WORK IN NEW ENGLAND -- The economic pattern of the region graphically
presented through selected industries of significance, under
such headings as "The Loom and the Flying Shuttle," "Leetle Fish
and Beeg," and "The Way of Yankee Ingenuity." Profusely illustrated
with industrial photographs. Compiled in all New England States;
collated and edited in Massachusetts.11. 

TYPICAL COMMENT BY LITERARY CRITICS ON 
FEDERAL WRITERS PROJECT PUBLICATIONS IN GENERAL

"Throughout its length and breadth the book business is benefiting 
from the Government's program for literature." (The Publishers' 
Weekly March 18, 1939)

"Of all the good uses of adversity, one of the best has been the 
conception and execution of a series of American guide books; the 
first attempt, on a comprehensive scale, to make the country itself 
worthily known to Americans . . . . Within a surprisingly short time, considering 
the many special problems that must have arisen, this work was
organized and has been partly brought to completion; and the best of 
new guides that are so far available, those for Massachusetts, Vermont, 
and the city of Washington, give one a great thrill of pride; pride in 
the country they describe and in the capacity and the devotion and the 
fine anonymous collaborations that has gone into this work . . . . These 
guide books are the finest contribution to American patriotism that has 
been made in our generation; let that be the answer to the weaklings 
who are afraid to admit that American justice may miscarry or that the
slums of Boston may be somewhat this side of Utopia." (Lewis Mumford 
in The New Republic) 

"I was amazed at the patience, the skill, the scholarship that went 
into these books, and heartened by the number of people who bought 
them." (Ernest L. Meyer in New York Post) 

"Here is the real America . . . . Here lies before us the rich and varied 
nature of our country, for us to see, absorb and appreciate." Bookman 
Radio Program)

"Its definition of America's 'where, what, how,' will probably be 
studied by historians long after 20th century civilization is dead        
and done with." (The Pathfinder, Washington, D. C.)

"It is likely that many of the writers will re-discover many important 
aspects of American life, a discovery that results of which will probably 
be reflected in American letters for years to come." (The 
Publishers' Weekly)

"These are fascinating and invaluable books, books which everyone who 
is interested in New England or who intends to do any touring there 
must be overwhelmingly grateful to have." (Bernard DeVoto)   12. 

TYPICAL COMMENT BY LITERARY CRITICS ON MASSACHUSETTS PUBLICATIONS 

The Massachusetts Guide 

"The WPA has done a great service in supplying Massachusetts with 
a volume that approaches the high standard long ago set by many similar
works covering the British Isles and most of the Continent." (Kenneth 
B. Murdock, Harvard University, Review in The New England Quarterly, 
March 1938) 

"The reader who comes to this guide for information about Massachusetts 
will get it in full measure. This not only is a well-made 
book giving the history and notable buildings in every town, but many 
photographs of landmarks and views . . . . Everywhere the comment is 
lively, suggesting the wealth of historical interest in every hamlet 
and cross-roads . . . . The American guide series is having an auspicious 
start." (Harry Hansen in New York World Telegram)

". . . the industries, and the government and literature and so forth provide 
much good material. And then there comes 500 pages of minute description 
of Massachusetts' towns and cities, which are the glory of the 
guide. Some of these little essays are worth preserving, some of the 
material is superb. After this major section there follows an excellent 
chronology of Massachusetts history, and a very full and well gotten up 
index. Altogether a first rate job. Even the photographs are good." 
(Ansonia, Conn. Sentinel)

"The W.P.A. guide to Massachusetts . . . is a surprisingly lively and 
stimulating book. Although based on probably the greatest mass research 
in history ever attempted, it has individuality, literary color, and 
verve . . . . The reader . . . will be amazed at the versatility of his state 
and at the ability of the editors to condense so much information about 
it into one volume . . . . The Massachusetts guide is one of six to be 
published on the New England states. If the others are as good, the WPA 
may be credited with providing New Englanders with a valuable introduction 
to their own countryside, their own traditions, and their own 
people." (Editorial in Boston Herald)

New England Hurricane 

". . . the text to each picture and the short account of the hurricane are
superb, the full tragic drama brought home to us with all its force and 
meaning . . . . There is not a phrase, a sentence, in text and in short 
narrative that is not that of an artist in prose who is conscientious 
about and proud of his work." (Burton Rascoe in Newsweek)

Almanac for Bostonians - 1939 

"A hilarious and interesting little book . . . . Nearly every page of the 
Almanac contains some little surprise and it may be said that the reader    

 
13.
will be hard put to find a passage too tedious for consumption.... It's
a volume which should be on the shelf of every lover of good books."
(La Notizia, Boston, Dec. 17, 1938)
"The Almanac is another commendable work accomplished by the Federal
Writers' Project of Massachusetts." (Andrew F. Donnell in Boston Sunday
Post)
"It is good to find an authentic sense of humor in these young writers."
(Boston Transcript, Dec. 14, 1938)
Whaling Masters
"The work which the Federal Writers have done shows the result of a
great deal of intensive research. It will be of lasting value, particularly
in answering the hundreds of queries the Society receives each
year." (William H. Tripp, Curator of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society,
nationally known as an information source on the subject of whaling."
The Albanian Struggle in the Old World and New
"The Federal Writers' Project of Massachusetts has undertaken to
publish a series of books presenting the lives of the various immigrant
groups....  The whole series promises to be of great interest to the 
general reader, to the scholar, and to the American patriot alike. The
new enterprise is worthy of widest support. It is to be hoped that
volumes of similar value (to The Albanian Struggle) will follow about
all the many other population groups which make up the unique miracle
of American democracy." (Hans Kohn in The Boston Transcript)
The Armenians in Massachusetts
"An honest, competent, and far-reaching survey of Armenian history,
culture, and contributions to American civilization." (The Armenian
Mirror)
The Cape Cod Pilot
"A contribution to American literature as well as to Cape folklore."
(Lewis Gannett in New York Herald-Tribune)
Old Newbury Tales
"The last chapter brings the book up to 1930, leaving the adult as
well as the juvenile reader with the conviction that the history of the
town is as important a study locally as that of the great nation of which
it is a part." (Newburyport News)14.
CONTENT FROM MASSACHUSETTS PEOPLE ON THE
VALUE OF OUR PROGRAM
Governor Leverett Saltonstall:
"I have received many letters and calls protesting against reduction
of the Federal Arts Projects. The Federal Arts Projects are making
a substantial contribution to American culture."
Mr. Robert W.G. Vail, Librarian, American Antiquarian Society:
"The Federal Writers' Project has done valuable work through its
American Guide Series in making available, often for the first time,
the essential historical facts of communities all over the country.
These guides have been favorably received by historians, for the
most part, and have been eagerly bought and read by the public. This
work should go on."
Mr. John S. Clapp, Book Director, Hale, Cushman & Flint, Publishers:
"I should like to be on record to the effect that the project, during
the time that NEW ENGLAND HURRICANE was being written and prepared
for the press, functioned smoothly and efficiently. The cooperation
I received both from the state director and her staff as well convinced
me that the federal government, in sponsoring the Federal Arts
Projects, has made a valuable contribution not only to relief but to
the furtherance of cultural activities in New England."
Mr. Kenneth D. Lippincott, 50 Oliver Street, Boston:
"Judged by any standard, the work they are turning out is of a high
class and well worthwhile."
Mr. Charles H. Way, Chairman, Sudbury Tercentenary Committee:
"Your writers have caught the very thing we wanted...a dramatic
word picture of the time with the part that Sudbury men and women
played in it....It must have taken a vast amount of research to
do all this, and we know how little time we gave you, but it came
through on schedule."
 Miss Marjorie Wetherbee, Librarian, Fall River:
"Under this project many worthwhile books have been compiled, books
for which there has long been a need--such as the Guide books.
Another need is being filled by the compilation, in concise form,
of information on the foreign elements in certain sections of our
country. As a librarian I endorse the Writers' Project."
15.
Professor Hans Kohn, Smith College:
"I received today your volume on the Albanian struggle and I wish
to congratulate you upon this excellent achievement. These social-
ethnic studies seem to me of utmost value. I hope they will be
continued. They are a most important contribution to a better
understanding of Americans as well as of Europeans and their problems."
Mr. D.H. Boyajian, President, Armenian Historical Society:
"Many universities, libraries, research institutions, philanthropic
and other organizations have not only received the book, (The
Armenians in Massachusetts), but have considered it a valuable
addition to the country's collection of books of reference....
The Writers' Project afforded the only means whereby the characteristics,
peculiarities and best traditions of each (ethnic group)
could be made known. That work has just begun and must be given
an opportunity to grow into real usefulness."
Professor Rupert Emerson, Harvard University:
"I can only hope that the Writers' Project will continue to use
its unparalleled resources to open up to us the lives of these
many peoples from which a new America is continually being forged."
Mr. A.B. Burack, Publisher, The Writer, Inc.:
"I want to take this opportunity to express my satisfaction with
the splended work that has been done and is now being done by the
Federal Writers' Project. Judging your efforts from professional
standards, it seems to me that your Project is adding to literature
a heritage that will permanently enrich the cultural life of
our country.
"In all my contacts with your workers and administrators in connection
with our recent publication of your, THE ALBANIAN
STRUGGLE IN THE OLD WORLD AND NEW, I have been impressed by the
businesslike way in which they are conducting their work. I
have the feeling that their interest is not merely perfunctory,
but that they take a keen pride in their work, which naturally
adds to their efficiency.
"To my mind, the contributions made by your Project form an
important part of our American life. I sincerely hope that your
good work may proceed unimpaired, and I look forward with interest
to your continued success."16.
REHABILITATION
It is impossible in limited space to give an adequate picture
of the rehabilitation of human lives through employment at a living
wage in the line of work for which men and women have been trained.
The following cases were chosen almost at random:
Mr. W. was an automobile mechanic out of work. He published
an excellent technical article in one of the country's largest
periodicals. On that basis, with some misgivings, he was given
an opportunity on the Writers' Project in September 1938. Six
months later Mr. W. resigned to accept an offer to do research
and writing on technical subjects for an automobile manufacturing
corporation. He wrote, "I would like you to know that I am
deeply grateful. The financial security and moral courage this 
employment gave, came at a time when things looked very dark indeed.
For this reason, my association with the W.P.A. will always
be a grateful memory; it more than justified itself in my case - 
how much, only my wife and I will ever know."
Mr. B. was a young writer of talent, unable to finance himself
under depression conditions. He did valuable work for us until
he resigned, in May 1938, to accept a Guggenheim Foundation
Fellowship. Since then his name has become well-known among
American writers through publication of a book and a number of
stories in leading magazines. Another book will soon be issued.
Mr. H. was a scholar and an ordained minister. Unable to obtain
a pastorate because of economic conditions, he came to the Writers'
Project and supported himself and his family through this employment
until, in October 1938, he received a call to an Ohio church.
Mrs. K. is a well-known writer who has sold fiction and non-fiction
to many well-known periodicals. Handicapped by the support of an
invalid mother and the sole support of five children in school and
by the decline in the market from periodical writing, she turned to
the Writers' Project in desperation and is sustaining herself and
her six dependents on the security wage. There is no question that
the aid will be temporary and she will succeed in re-establishing
herself.
Miss D. wrote in May 1939:
"When I came to you for a job I was in desperate need....While
working on the Project I regained my self-confidence, poise and
health, that enabled me to take advantage of the first offer for
return to private employment."17.
SUMMARY
In terms of human values, the Project has meant a chance
for impoverished professional men and women--writers, newspaper
reporters, librarians, teachers, lawyers, technical research
workers,--to earn their livelihood and so retain their self-
respect. It has maintained and sometimes increased their skills.
Employment is not static: between March 15, 1938, and May 10, 1939,
with a quota limitation on 190, the Project dropped 102 persons and
123 persons were assigned to work. The rehabilitation process is
progressive. Under present conditions with regard to white collar
employment in Massachusetts, the need for professional projects remains
acute.
In terms of standards of work and contribution to contemporary
culture, our accomplishment is recognized by literary critics,
historians, civic organizations, and the general public. And the
Federal Writers' Project in Massachusetts has gathered momentum.
The heavy publishing program for 1939 shows significant accomplishment.
It presents a substantial list of books planned to meet definite needs
expressed by Massachusetts communities. In such publications, for one
example, as The Port of Boston, we are happy to feel that through our
research facilities we can render a service to New England.[?]

Vol. IX. No. 16
August 15, 1917

THE NEW ARMENIA PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY

CONTENTS
Frontispiece                                            (His Holiness Kevork V.)
The Kaleidoscope of the Near East         Edward H. Clement
Armenia and Her Future                          The Hon. T. P. O'Connor
Christ and Abgarus                                   Moses of Khorene 
The Liberalism of the Armenian Church   Alice Stone Blackwell
Armenian Relief                                        X.
For Armenian Soldiers                              Frank A. Wiggin
Armeno-Tartar Hostilities                          Luigi Villari
The Armenian Deportations                     The English Blue Book
An Armenian Child to God                        Maurice Ferber

Single Copies, 10 Cents. Yearly Subscription $2.00, in advance. Foreign Countries, $2.50.
Address all Communications to Editor of THE NEW ARMENIA.
949 BROADWAY.   NEW YORK, N.Y.

Entered as second-class matter November 29, 1915 at the post office at New York, N.Y., under the act of March 3, 1879.HIS HOLINESS, KEVORK V., CATHOLICOS OF ALL THE ARMENIANS


THE NEW
ARMENIA
A Semi-Monthly Periodical
Issued by the New Armenia Publishing Company
949 Broadway, New York, N. Y.
Established as "Armenia" in Boston, Mass., under the honorary editorship of Julia Ward Howe, Alice Stone Blackwell, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Lucia Ames Mead, Rev. Charles Gordon Ames, Edward H. Clement, Prof. Albert S. Cook, Ph. D., L. H. D., Rev. Charles F. Dole, Rabbi Charles Fleischer, William Lloyd Garrison, Edwin D. Mead, Rollo Ogden, James Bronson Reynolds, and Prof. William G. Ward. 
European honorary editors, Anatole France, Georges Clemenceau, Victor Berard and Jean Longuet.

"Who can foretell  our future? Spare me the attempt, 
We are like a harvest reaped by bad husbandmen
Amidst encircling gloom and cloud."
JOHN CATHOLICOS

Armenian Historian of the Tenth Century.
"To serve Armenia is to serve civilization."
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE

Volume IX. 
August 15, 1917
Number 16

The Kaleidoscope of the Near East
By EDWARD H. CLEMENT
(Editor of the Boston Evening Transcript, 1881-1906)

ANOTHER shake has been given to the kaleidoscope of the New East by the Russian Revolution. Six months ago Russia was standing out for Constantinople and the Dardanelles; the Allies had had enough of imperialism - one English writer has gone so far as to say that the British are cured forever of imperialism by their experiences at the Dardanelles - and official announcement was made through several different spokesmen, on several important occasions, that Constantinople was officially earmarked for Russia in the coming division of the spoils of the war. After its long prorogation by the then ruling despotism (what an age ago that seems through it was only December last!) the Duma reassembled, apparently expressly to hear from the then premier, Trepoff, the most important announcement of the war . 
It is curious to recall some particulars of the scene. The instincts of the Duma's Radical minority were sound - the German-brought traitors in authority were to be distrusted, and disowned by the true Russia, whatever they proposed. Accordingly, the Socialists there demonstrated in the denunciation of whatever the Premier might be about to say, even in advance, and prevented him from speaking for a quarter of an hour, though he thrice attempted to do so. The uproar was ended only by the President's moving the suspension, for eight sittings, of twelve members of the Socialist and Labor parties, including the since famous leaders, Tcheidse and Kerensky! How little one could have believed at that time that Kerensky was the wield not only such power as Trepoff was then master of, as premier, but later that of the Dictator, acclaimed by his countrymen in the place of the Czar, a suppliant prisoner.
Their expulsion was voted, and then, in the stillness of a wondering suspense, the Premier made the announcement that the traditional goal of the Russian people for a thousand years, Constantinople, door to the deep open sea,- had been reached; that after failing to restrain Turkey from entering the war on Germany's side, Russia had concluded an agreement with the Allies which established in the most definite manner her right to the Straits and Constantinople. "Russians should know for what they are shedding blood," said Trepoff, "and, in accord with our Allies, announcement of this agreement is made to-day from this tribune. Absolute agreement is firmly established among the Allies; and there is no doubt that after she has obtained sovereign possession of a free passage into the Mediterranean, Russia will grant freedom of navigation for the Rumanian flag, which now, not for the first time, floats in battle, side by side, with the flag of Russia." The whole history of the seething politics of the Near East is sampled in this episode, and the commentary of history will doubtless point to it as containing all the elements of the devil's brew in that still boiling and tossing cauldron. The already bought and prepared Russian betrayal of Rumania was close at hand behind the curtain in spite of the fair words which could be taken not otherwise at the moment than as the official proclamation of the Czar's government. 
The bourgeois Duma went wild in exultation over this realization of Russia's historic dream,- but, it244        THE  NEW  ARMENIA

must be noted, not until after it had got rid of its
Socialist radicals for the time.   This  historic  session
of the Duma  had been  eagerly awaited,  because it
was the first  session after the crisis  between the government 
and the people in which the people had won,
ridding the country of the traitorous, reactionary  and
corrupt  pro-German  Premier, Sturner.  But  it was
realized even at that time Trepoff was no  more
than a stopgap ; that his premiership was not to be
relied on by the Left.  The  real significance  of the
demonstration ending in the expulsion of Kerensky
was that, for  the first time, demands  for a change in
the character of the Russian  autocracy were not only
voiced in unequivocal  terms, leaving not the slightest
doubt  of the determination of the comparatively moderate  
Duma,  but were allowed to be published in the
newspapers.

In three months' time came the Revolution and with
in the enthronement  of Kerensky,  and the Socialists'
principle of repudiating even the guaranteed grant of
Constantinople  and the Dardanelles  in  the   Revolutionist's  
slogan,  "No  annexations,  no  indemnities."
It is too soon yet to know whether in Kerensky has
risen  the Napoleon  of the  Russian  Revolution.  He
has, to be sure, not only  created and maintained, for
some weeks together,  the semblance  of national rule
and  civic  order,  but he  has also  heroically reformed,
and personally  led into battle,  disintegrating Russian
forces.  But  his own physical strength  is slight,  his
enemies  and rivals  in the Revolutionist  councils  are
cunning  and persevering,  and his control may turn out
to be a rope of sand,  amid such widespread chaos in a
vast  land  of enormous  diverse  populations.  The  next 
shake  of the kaleidoscope may  bring  so  entirely   a
different  set of factors  into  some  new arrangement  of
colors  and  design,  as  regards  political  purposes  and
ideals,  that  it is utterly  useless  to consider   them  until
they  are  actually  before  us.

Think of it !  It   was   only little  more   that   a   year
ago  that  the so-called  "Black  Congress"  assembled in
Petrograd  and  the  presiding  bureaucrat,  Chtcheglovitoff,   
former    Minister  of   Justice,  warned  it  that  the
destruction  of  Germany  would  carry  with  it  the  destruction  
of  conservative  politics ;  the  triumph  of  England  
and    France  would  be  that  of democracy    and
Germany  once  beaten,  political  radicalism  would  sweep
over  Europe.   It  was  the  Jews  another  member  of  the
band  said,  not  the  Germans,  who  brought  on  the  war.
No  wonder  that,  a year  ago,    the  spokesmen  of   the
Kaiser  in  the  country  were  confidently  giving  us  the
details  of  the  separate  peace  Germany  had  arranged
with   Russia,   with  the  Berlin-to-Bagdad  Railroad  making  
ready  to  open  for  business.   No  wonder,  either,
that  Russia  is in  collapse,  with  the  great  end  and  object  
of  all  its   wars   heretofore  suddenly   disavowed.
The  Constantinople  prize  was  its  only  real  cause  of
conflict  with  Germany, -- otherwise  the two  autocracies
were  in natural  political  and  spiritual  harmony.  For
possession  in  Asia  Minor,  and  with " an  Armenia  emptied  
of  Armenians"  Russia  must  play  the  games  as
Germany  and  Turkey  had  played  it.   Not  only  the
honest,  simple,   generous  masses  of  the  Russian  people
revolted  at  the  program,  but  even  the  official  class  of
which  the  Duma  was  mainly  composed,  voted  down,
under  the  lead  of  Miliyukoff,  the  officially  prepared
project  for  the  depopulation  of  Armenia,  and  the  installation  
of  Russian   ex-soldiers  on  lands  of  the  deported  
natives.   Bureaucratic  Russia  had to  fight  the
Germany  she  believed  in :  the  Russia  people  hated  the
conquest  and  imperialism  that  herded  them  in  armies
under  the  Grand  Dukes.

All  that  has  gone  to  pieces ;  root  and  branch  the
whole  pernicious  tangle  has  been  cast  into  the  fiery
furnace  of  Revolution,  and  will cumber  the  earth  no
more  forever.    What  use,  then,  to  play  any  longer
with  the  implements  of  the  old  gamesters,  matching
pieces  on  the  chessboard  of  diplomacy,  with  nations
and  peoples  as  mere  pawns  to  be  thrown  away  in
barter  or  sacrifice  on  the  battlefield  for  the  safety  of
kings  and  dynastics?   Events   have  proved  the  falsity
of  the  traditional  belief  that  "the  Russian  liberals  are
as  deeply  absorbed  in  the  Constantinople  dream  as  the
most  reactionary    of  the  Slavophils."      The  new   Declaration  
of    Independence  for  the  forming  United
States  of  Europe,  with  its  equivalent  for  our  "consent
of  the  governed"  and  our  "decent  respect  for  the  opinion  
of  mankind"  in  its "no  annexations,  no  indemnities",  
is  the  new  charter  by  which  the  new  civilization
is   to the  organized,  and  the  world  of  governments
placed  on  a higher  plane  than  ever  before.
    The  latest  partition  of  Turkey  on  paper,  by  a Russian  
political  writer,  gives  the  Straits,  Constantinople
and  Armenia  to  Russia ; Syria to  France and  Palestine
to  England ;  leaving  Turkey  only  Anatolia,  making
two  Arabian  independent  states,  and  a protectorate
out  of  Mesopotamia....  The   only  sound,  reasonable
or  practice  thing  about  this  fantasie  after  the  old
style,  is  its  basic  principle,-- that whatever  else  comes
out  of the peace,  for  which,  remember  always,  we  are
now  to  share  responsibility  is  -- "Turkey   must not  be
left   undivided."  There  is  no  future  for  it;  there  is  no
health  in  it ;  its  "Young  Turkey"  is    baser,    crueler
worse  every  way  than  the  Old  Turkey  even!  The
earth  must  be  relieved  of  it.
    Concord,  Mass.,  August,  1917



Armenia  and  Her  Future
    By  The  Hon. T. P.  O'CONNOR, M. P.

On August 3,  we  request  the  Honorable  T. P.  O'Connor,
the Irish  nationalist  leader,  now  sojourning  in  this country, to
express  his  opinion  concerning  the  future  of  Armenia.  The
subjoined  brilliant  speech  delivered  by  him  on  August  11, at
Chautauqua,  N.  Y., meets  our  desire  admirably.

   The  story  of  the Armenian  massacres  is  familiar.
The  thousands  murdered  at  different  points,  the
terrible  shame  and  more  prolonged  agony  of  deportations---  
the  women  betrayed  by  officers,  then  passed
on to  the  gendarmes,  then  to  the  Kurds ;  the  women
compelled  to  march  on  foot,  sometimes  naked  under
burning  suns,  and  pushed  on  with  the  bayonet  or  hook
when  they  fell  fainting.   The   madness   that    resulted,
the  suicides,  and  the  abandonment  of  children  whose
cries  of  agony  could  no  longer  be  borne,  are  known  to
all.   So  it went  on  day  after  day,  month  after  month
until  the  number  of  those  who  died  of   the  persecution
rose  to  appalling  figures.

           And  now  let  me  ask  two  questions :  First,  what  is
the  duty  of  the  citizens  of  the  British  Empire?      The
answer  is  but  too  clear.    It  was  the  diplomacy  of  Lord
Beaconsfield  as  Prime  Minister  that  gave  back  in  the
Treaty  of  Berlin  the  Armenians  who  had  been  transferred  
from  Turkish  to  Russian  rule  by  the  Treaty
of  San  Stefano.   Those  who,  like  myself,  followed
the  Eastern  policy  of  Gladstone  when  this  controversy
was  being  fought  out  can  say  that  our  withers  are unwrung.   
But  after  all  the  responsibility  remains  and 
many  Englishmen  to-day  abhor  the  policy  which  they
acclaimed  in  the  older  time,  and  are  doing  their  best
to  repair  it.   This    is  one  of    reasons  why  the    Armenian  
Committee  in  London  has  been   able  to  make
so  successful  an  appeal  to  the  generosity  of  the  British
people.

    What  I  ask  next  is,    What  is  the  duty  of  the  American
people?   They  also  are  responsible  for  Armenia,  though
  in  a  different  way.   One  of  the  things  which  struck  me
most   when   reading   the  stories  of  these  atrocities  is
the  large  part  which  America  has  played  in  the  history
of  Armenia  and  of  other  countries  of the  East.  It  was
her  Universities,  among  other   Harvard,     Yale  and  
Princeton,  that  trained  many  of  the  Armenians  who
first  played  a  large  part  in  educating  and  uplifting
their  country  and  afterwards  were  among  the  
American   mission  school  and  that  especially  famous
school,  Robert  College  at  Constantinople,  which  educated  
and trained  young  Armenian  men and women to
teach  in  their  own  elementary  schools.  But  there  was
another  debt  which  Armenia  owed  America  apart  from
this  magnificent  contribution  -  the  education  of  her
people --  and  that  was  the  spirit  of  hope,  of  energy, of
aspiration  towards  liberty  which  must  radiate  from
every  centre of  American  culture.

That responibility,  though  a glorious  one,  is also
onerous, for  it  throws  on the  American people  the  duty
 of  rescuing,  helping,  starting  again  the  remnants  of
the  American  race  which  the  massacres  have  left.
That  responsibility has  been met with  apparently  a
fine  sympathy  and generosity.  Tens  of  thousands of
Armenian  men,  tens  of  thousands of  Armenian  women,
above  all tens of  thousands  of  Armenian  children  are
alive to-day   who  would  have been  in  their  graves
from  hunger, from  disease,  from  exposure,  but  for the
dollars that have been sent from over the seas to  them.
The  United  States  must not weary in this well doing.
The  need is still great.   I say great,  it  is gigantic,   it
is  appalling.

I have  been asked  to say a word about  the  future  of
the  Armenians.   I can  speak with  this  much  authority,
that  I have been  in closet  touch  with  Boghos  Nubar
Pasha,  the  energetic  and wise  leader  of his  race.  I
know  the views  of some  of the British  statesmen  who
have  to deal  with  this problem.   Let me  first  make
this  statement,-- massacred  though  they  have  been to
such  an  appalling  extent,  gigantically  reduced  though
they  have  been in  numbers,  the  Armenian  race  is  not
doomed  to die.   No  great  race  dies.   A race  is  like one
of  those  great  stream  that  looked  in the icy  embrace
of  winter  and  frost  for  ten  thousand  winters, shrunk
to a rivulet  under  the  sweltering  suns  of ten  thousand
summers,  yet  flow  on and  on  and will flow  on till time
and  earth  have  come  to an  end.   So  it  has  been with
the   races  which   racial  or  religious  hate,  the  sharp
sword,  the  unequal  law,  the  periodical  massacre  have
attempted  to  destroy.  So  it   has been  with  the  Irish,
with  the  Jews,   with  the  Armenians.      The  Armenian,
like  the  great  river,  flows  on and  on.   In the meantime
we  have  to keep  the  Armenian  alive ;  we  have  to  train
his  children  for  future  work ;  we  have  to give  seed  for
the  ground  to  which  they  will  in  time  return.  But  that
is  not  enough.

I   hear    people   to-day  talking  peace  when  there is 
no  peace.   Can  any man of  sense  or  who  loves liberty,
who  hates  oppression,  who  deplores  the  ocean  of  blood
which   has   been   shed  during   the  last  three  years  contemplate  
that  happening  without  bringing  some  divine
compensation  to  the  suffering  world?      And  must  not
the   very  first  compensation   be   that    every   oppressed
nationally    shall  be  liberated?    The   case  is    strong  for
the   Slavs,  the  Poles,  for  Ireland,    but   assuredly  strong
as   is  the  claim   for  each  of  these  nationalities,  in  no
case  is  it  as  strong  as  in  that  of  the  Armenians.

   To  give   these  people  back  to  Turkey  only  to  be
massacred  again  would  to  my  mind  be  one  of  the  most
abominable  crimes  over   committed.    I  know  that  the
present   Prime   Minister    of  England  is  pledge   never246              THE NEW ARMENIA
Copyright Clinedinst, Wash., D. C.
THE HON. T. P. O'CONNOR

to consent to such a crime; I am perfectly sure that
Mr. Wilson will never consent to such a crime.  Whatever 
happens after this war, the Armenian man must
be saved forever from the knife of the Turkish assassin, 
the Armenian woman must be saved from outrage 
and from death, the Armenian babe must be preserved 
from torture and murder.
     I may be now asked what form the future government 
of the Armenians may take.  At an early period
of the war this question was discussed in the Armenian 
committee in London with Lord Bryce in the
chair.  At the time the one thing we could think of
was that the Armenians should be saved from future
massacres, and therefore that any country - any government - 
which secured them from massacre, should
be welcomed.  We knew, too, that a good many Armenians 
and much Armenian territory had passed into
the hands of the Russians, and that on the whole the
Russian government had acted well.  The Armenians
had prospered and had multiplied and there had been
no attempt in recent years to attack them.  We therefore 
rather looked to Russia as the Power that would
have to liberate Armenia, and we found it difficult to
give any encouragement to the ideal of an Armenia
united and self-governed, deeply as we sympathized
with it.
     But Russia has had her Revolution.  There is a new
and enlightened Russia, and we note with satisfaction
that one of the very first pronouncements of the new
Russian rulers was that Armenia should have such autonomy 
as she desired.  I view the Armenian problem 
from a different angle accordingly now, and for myself
I give my full adhesion to the ideal of the Armenians
themselves, namely, that they should be all united - 
those not merely in the Turkish territory of to-day
but those in Russia as well; that when united they
should have self-government, guaranteed if need be
by some of the Great Powers; that they should have 
free access to the sea and that thus they should start
once more and begin the building up from the ruins of
so many centuries the great cultured, united and free
Armenia of the ages before Turkish savagery conquered 
their ancient and historic kingdom.
     This word finally: How does the case of Armenia
bear upon the merits and the issues of this war?  I 
am content to have my view of these two things decided 
by this single factor in the great struggle.  I am
content to have the merits and the aims of the two sets
of belligerents tested by this case.  For it is one of the
most lamentable facts in this whole tragic story that
the German rulers have played a terrible part in these
massacres - I say rulers deliberately for we have 
many Germans earnestly interested in the fate of the
Allies - I have met one of them at various Armenian
Conferences, Dr. Lepsius.  There was a German Consul 
in nearly every single one of the great Armenian
settlements where the massacres took place.  The wires
were open as we know between the Armenian settlements 
and Constantinople, for as I have said already
the massacres were ordered by telegram from the Government 
in Constantinople.  If the wires were open
between Armenia and Constantinople, they were open
between Armenia and Berlin. 
     For a generation the voice of Berlin has been omnipotent 
in Constantinople.  At the very moment the
troops of Germany and Turkey were fighting side by 
side.  Is it not clear, therefore, that Berlin had only
to say a word and the massacres would not have begun,
and even if they had begun would not a word have
brought them to an immediate end?  For these reasons
I feel entitled to say that the guilt of these hideous
massacres lies at the door of the German as well as
of the Turkish authorities.  If I needed further proof
of this fact I would point to the action of the representatives 
of Germany:  to Wangenheim refusing Ambassador 
Morgenthau's appeal for intervention; to 
Count Bernstorff's attempt at Washington to deny the
massacres; to the statements of Bethmann-Hollweg,
Zimmermann and other German officials in Berlin, -
if they did not justify, at least extenuated this horrible, 
gigantic, unsurpassed crime against humanity.
        And having that conviction how can I, - how can
any man who loves liberty, hates oppression, loathes
cruelty and massacre, - how can I help feeling that
I am on the right side when I feel myself in hostility
to the present regime in Germany?  How can I look 
for hope for the Armenians except in the defeat of both
Turkey and Turkey's ally, the militarist party in 
Berlin?  For these reasons I rejoice that this great
country has entered the war, has made the wise and the
just and the humane choice in the war.
     I claim to know something of American history and
of American character.  America, it is true, is patient,
long suffering, slow to move, a peaceful nation, living
and wanting to live in peace with all nations, to the
sons and daughters of whom she had opened her


THE NEW ARMENIA               247

hospitable shores and given prosperity and freedom. America was unprepared for war, but never has America undertaken any task which she has not had the tenacity and courage to carry through. She can be ruthless and relentless as well as gentle and patient, and it is my confident prophecy that of all the nations that will hold out to the last hour and to the last man until liberty and justice, democracy and peace once more are enthroned in men's hearts and in the institutions of nations, America will be the chief one.


Christ and Abgarus
(From the History of Armenia)
By Moses of Khorene

Abgarus the son of Arsham began to reign in the twentieth year of the reign of the Arshavr King or Persia. This Abgarus was called the Great Man because of his exceeding meekness and wisdom. In the third year of his reign the whole of Armenia fell under the jurisdiction of Rome. . . . Therefore the Romans sent commissioners unto the land of Armenia who brought the image of Cæsar and placed it in all the temples.

At this time was born our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And there was a dispute between Abgar and Herod. For Herod commanded that his image also should be placed in the temples of Armenia, with that of Cæsar; to which Abgar not acceding, the anger of Herod was kindled against him. And he sent his brother's son with a great army against him. And Abgar met and fought him; and he was slain in the battle and his army fled.

Soon after these things Augustus died, and Tiberius reigned over the Roman Empire; and Germanicus sent messengers from Rome unto Arshavr and Abgar concerning the battle in which Herod's brother's son was slain. Whereupon Abgar was displeased, and thought to prepare for revolt and war. Then did he build the city of Edessa wherein to keep the hosts of Armenia, and removed thither his court from Mdzpin, with all his idols: Nebog, Bel, Batnikol, and Tarata; also with the Royal Palace he removed the books of the schools belonging to the temples.

But strife had arisen between his kinsmen of the reigning house of Persia, and Abgar collected his armies and went to reconcile and pacify them. And having settled their disputes he returned home; not sound in his body, but tormented with a painful disease.

At that time Marinus was governor over Phoenicia, Palestine, Assyria, and Mesopotamia. And Abgarus sent two of his notables unto him to show him the treaty of peace between Arshavr and his brother (for the Romans suspected that he had been to Persia to collect armies against them). And Marinus received them with peace and great honour, sending word unto Abgarus, "Fear nothing, only hasten to raise all the taxes."

And on their return the messengers went up to Jerusalem to see our Saviour Christ, having heard of His wonderful deeds.

And when they had seen Him with their own eyes they returned and told Abgarus; at which the king marvelled, and believed Him to be the very Son of God. And because His body was tormented with a painful disease contracted in the land of Persia seven years before, and he was not able to find any cure by men, he sent unto Him a letter asking Him to come and heal him of his disease.

The Letter of Abgarus to our Saviour Jesus Christ.

"Abgarus, a prince of the world, unto Jesus, the Saviour and Benefactor, Who hast appeared in the City of Jerusalem, greetings.

"I have heard of Thee and of the healings wrought by Thy hands, without drugs and without roots; for it is said that Thou givest sight to the blind, Thou makest the lame to walk, and Thou cleansest the lepers; Thou curest those who have been long tormented by diseases, and raisest even the dead. And when I heard all this concerning Thee I thought that either Thou art God come down from Heaven that workest these things, or the Son of God. I have written unto Thee that Thou shouldest trouble Thyself to come unto me, and heal me of my disease. I have heard also that the Jews murmur against Thee, and think to torture Thee. My city is a small one, but it is beautiful, and it is sufficient for us twain."

And taking the letter they found Him in Jerusalem. And unto this the gospel beareth witness, saying: "There were some amongst the heathen that came up to Him." But our Saviour did not undertake to come at the time when they called Him, but made Abgarus worthy of a letter thus.

The Answer to the Letter of Abgarus, written at the command of our Saviour by the Apostle Thomas.

"Blessed is he who believeth on Me though he hath not seen Me. For it is written concerning Me thus: 'They that have seen Me believed not on Me, but they that have not seen Me shall believe and live.' And concerning that which thou hast written unto Me to come down unto thee, it is needful that I fulfil all that for which I was sent; and when I have fulfilled it I will ascend unto Him that sent Me. And after My ascension I will send one of My disciples, who shall heal thee of thy disease, and give Life unto thee and unto all them that are with thee."

This letter did Anan the messenger bring unto Abgarus, with the Image of the Saviour, which remaineth in the city of Edessa until this day.
Trans. Zabelle C. BoyajianThe Liberalism of the Armenian Church
BY ALICE STONE BLACKWELL
THE Armenian Church is the oldest national Christian
church in the world. It has always set a 
shining example to the rest of Christendom in its
heroic resistance to persecution, throughout the many
centuries when its members were subjected to such
pressure to make them apostatize as no other Church
has had to bear during so long a time. The Armenian
Church has now set a good example to the rest of
Christendom in another respect. The head of the
Church, the Catholicos, from his See at Etchmiadzin,
in a very ancient monastery near the foot of Mt. Ararat,
has sent out an official decree that women are
henceforth to have equal rights in every respect, in
the Armenian Church throughout the world. They
may vote on all Church questions, and they are made
eligible to all Church offices.
The Bull issued by His Holiness Kevork V. Sourenian,
Catholicos of All the Armenians, permitting the
Armenian women to take part in public affairs, bears
the date of April 7, 1917. His Holiness, remarking
that the democratic principle of the Armenian Church
had always recognized the right of both sexes to
participate in the management of public affairs, and
that, unfortunately, that spirit, on account of foreign
influence, was obscured, says:
"We have kept long enough this spirit of our Church
under a bushel,--a spirit with which our Church was
renowned in the past. We, henceforth, permit the
restoration of the rights of women in public affairs.
Armenian women have the right both to vote and to
receive votes, both to elect, and to be elected."
This action is particularly noteworthy as being
taken by an Oriental Church. It is a fresh illustration
of the fact that the Armenians are the most progressive
of Eastern races.
Many of the Western Churches have given women
the right to vote in church affairs, but a number of
important denominations still refuse it to them; and
women are debarred from church offices, even in some
denominations that allow them to vote.
The Episcopal Church in the United States, which
has been particularly sympathetic toward the Armenian
Church, has been wrestling with the question 
for some time. That Church ought to be influenced
by the good example now set her by her elder sister.
The Unitarians and Universalists have given women
equal rights for many years, and the Quakers have always
done so.
The Methodists are said to be more numerous in the
United States than any other denomination. They
are split into a good many branches. The largest,
the Methodist Episcopal Church, divided during the
Civil War into the Methodist Episcopal Church North
and the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Both
allow women to vote in church affairs. About twenty
years ago, after a long fight, the Methodist Episcopal
Church North gave women the right also to be elected
as lay delegates to the General Conference. the
Methodist Episcopal Church South still refuses it to
them, unless its rules have been changed very recently.
Neither of them yet allows women to be ordained, but
most of the smaller Methodist denominations do. It
was for this reason, many years ago, that the Rev. Dr.
Anna H. Shaw (who has lately been appointed by 
the United States Government as head of the Woman's
Committee of the Council for National Defense), left
the Methodist Episcopal Church, which had refused
to ordain her, and was ordained in the Methodist
Protestant Church.
In the Congregational Church, women vote in church
affairs, and may also be ordained. The first woman to
receive ordination in the United States, and probably
in the world, was the Rev. Antoinette L. Brown, who
was ordained as pastor of the Orthodox Congregational
Church of South Butler, N.Y., in 1853. A few years
later she married my father's brother. She is still
living, at the age of 92. Less than a year ago, she
preached a good sermon; and only a few days ago she
gave me a contribution for the Armenian orphans.
When she applied for admission to the theological
school of Oberlin University in Ohio, about the year
1846, the professors were shocked, and would have
kept her out if they could; but a clause in the University's 
charter said that all its courses should be
open to women. It had never occurred to any one that
a woman might want to study theology. In later
years, the University became very proud of her; and
about fifty years after her graduation, it gave her
the honorary degree of D.D., although in the meantime
she had become a Unitarian. Her ordination in
1853 made a great commotion, and was bitterly denounced
by the pulpit and the press. Now the census
shows that there are more than 3,000 women ministers
and preachers in the United States.
In the Congregational Church, as elsewhere, the
principle of equal rights for women was not conceded
without a hard fight. About 1835, the General Association
of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts
issued a "Pastoral Letter" against women's
speaking in public. It was called out by the activity
of three young women of the noblest character, who
were lecturing against negro slavery. It said that
"the female character was threatened with wide-spread
and permanent deterioration," and that true reform
could never be promoted by " the harangues of female
orators."
When this letter was read aloud in the church, Lucy
Stone was sitting in the gallery. Through only seventeen,
she listened to it with great indignation. Her
cousin, who sat beside her, said afterwards, laughingly,


THE NEW ARMENIA   249
that her side was black and blue from the wrathful
nudges of my mother's elbow.
In the Congregational Church of West Brookfield,
Mass., Deacon Henshaw was brought to trial for his
anti-slavery activities, and was expelled from the
church, with a number of other members. In those
days, of course, women had no vote in church affairs;
but my mother, who had only lately joined the church,
did not know this. When a vote was take on Deacon
Henshaw's case, she held up her hand with the rest.
The minister, standing up tall and dark, looked over
to the church officer who was counting the votes, and
said, "Don't you count her."
"Isn't she a member?" asked the church officer.
"Yes," answered the minister, "but she is not a voting
member."
The accent of scorn in his voice touched her to the
quick. A vote was taken six times, and she held up
her hand every time. She held it up again, with a 
flash in her eyes, when she told me the story on her
death-bed. What a world-wide contrast there is between
the present day and eighty years ago, when that
one uncounted hand was the only open protest against
the subjection of women, in Church and State!
In the Catholic and Greek Churches, the movement
for an enlarged representation of  women in ecclesiastical
matters is less marked. But an interesting fact
was lately mentioned in a public address by Mr. Dudley
Field Malone, Collector of the Port of New York.
He says that in the diocese of Turin, Italy, it has
been the custom for centuries for each congregation to 
elect its parish priest, and the women have voted as
well as the men. The present Archbishop of the 
diocese did not like to have the women vote. He made
a journey to Rome to ask the Pope to put a stop to
it; and the Pope refused.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, who was President of the
"Friends of Armenia," was also deeply interested in
the movement for equal rights for women in the
churches. Although unordained, she often preached
herself; and she was president for many years of the
"Association of Women Ministers." Frances E. Willard,
another distinguished friend of the Armenians,
took a prominent part in the movement to make women
eligible as lay delegates to the General Conference of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was herself
chosen as a delegate.
The action now taken by the Catholicos of All the
Armenians may have been influenced in part by the
action of the new Russian government. In giving
women the ballot, Russia has followed the example
of Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Canada, New
Zealand, Australia, and twenty States of our own
Union. The tendency is world-wide; and the trend of
events is all one way.
But the Armenian Church by this act has placed
itself in the van of all the Oriental Churches. With 
many thoughtful persons, this will be an additional
argument for giving Home Rule to Armenia at the
end of the war. The position of women has been said
to be the criterion of civilization. When any set of
men are willing to concede home rule to their women,
it is at least presumptive evidence that they are fit to
have home rule themselves.
Chilmark, Mass.
Armenian Relief
A CABLE dispatch from the American Consul at
Tiflis, disclosing the increasing misery of hundreds
of thousands of Armenian and Syrian refugees
in the Caucasus and Eastern Armenia, has been made
public by the American Committee for Armenian and
Syrian Relief. It reads:
"Estimates place the number of Armenian and
Syrian refugees in the Caucasus at 250,000, and in
Eastern Turkey at 100,000. The total is being slowly
increased by newcomers. Of these 250,000 are without
employment. A large proportion of them are
women and children. Our committee is anxious to
help these. The minimum estimate necessary for each
individual is $3.00 per month. In order to meet the
needs of the situation the minimum estimate is
$500,000 per month.
"I strongly urge the need of support of fatherless
children. Of these 5,000 are now on our list, and about
15,000 others require immediate help. No funds are
available at present for this department.
"The medical department is caring for many old and
sick and for babies. The need is great in other centres.
Send new workers at once as follows: One doctor,
two women for orphanage, one man, well trained, for
leader of technical industrial work, and three or four
general workers.
"We urge that not less than the following sums be
sent immediately for the departments indicated: Repatriation,
$1,000,000; fatherless children in homes,
$500,000; industrial relief, $500,000; animals, $150,000;
orphanages, $100,000; medical relief, $100,000; seed,
$100,000. Machines, looms, and engines for weaving
wool would greatly help to meet the needs of the 
coming Winter and be of permanent value in establishing
the industry."
Three women representing the American Board of
Foreign Missions, Mrs. Harry H. White, Mrs. Carl
Compton and Miss Susan W. Orvis, are now on their
way to the Caucasus, to take up the work for orphan
girls. The relief agents are giving a great deal of
thought to the problems of repatriation and rehabilitation,
which must find an early solution. Provision is
being made for clothing refugees and for educating
boys and girls.
The latest report regarding the situation in Turkey250   THE NEW ARMENIA
comes in a letter to the Chairman of the American
Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. The
writer says:
"We cannot impress upon you too strongly the need
of prompt action if the remnant of the Armenian people
is not to perish. It seems a horrible thing to sustain
them thus far and then let them die through neglect. It
is possible that your Committee thinks there are not
means of distributing relief since the Ambassador came
away, but I want to assure you that it is not so. There
are members of the American Embassy force sill in
Constantinople and they are working with and through
the Swedish Legation, which now has charge of American
interests in Turkey. They may be relied on to
see to the wise and careful distribution of all funds.
The banks here have correspondents in Constantinople
so that funds sent here can be transferred by wire and
become immediately available.
"We do not think our Missionaries remaining will
suffer bodily harm, but living conditions are growing
steadily worse and they must have large increase in
funds to make up for the high prices of food. In each
station which our people have left they have arranged
with responsible people to look after relief, so that
funds will not be misapplied, and there are yet thousands
of Armenians who have no place to look for help
but to the American Missionaries or their representatives.
"We want to make it clear as words can do it
that at least $150,000 per month is still needed for
relief work, that the Constantinople Committee will 
be able to forward it to the field and will see that none
of it is misapplied; that the customary distributing
centers in the interior are, with unimportant exceptions,
still supplied with a sufficient force for making
the distribution as usual."
This correspondent speaks of only one relatively
small section of the field of need. His suggested
$150,000 must be multiplied many times to enable the
Committee to reach all districts.
The movement to relieve all those who are suffering
in Syria, without regard to race or creed, has lately
received a new inpetus from Bishop MacInnes of
Jerusalem, temporarily in Egypt, who describes conditions
throughout the land as more than appalling.
Committees are being formed in England under the
patronage of Princess Christian, all Bishops of the
Anglican Church, the Archbishops of Canterbury and
York, and prominent laymen like Lord Bryce. Sir
Henry McMahon, who formerly represented the English
government in Egypt, is chairman of the London
Committee. At a meeting held in the Mansion House,
$250,000 was collected, to which another fifty thousand
was added later.
The Committee formed in Egypt is under the direction
of Bishop MacInnes, who already has made good
progress in the work of organization. Distribution
will be made by persons conversant with the country
and its varying peoples, just as soon as the way is opened.
More than $400,000 was sent abroad in July to be
distributed by agents of the American Committee for
Armenian and Syrian Relief in those parts of the Near
East where suffering and destitution is greatest. A
like amount, or one slightly larger will be sent during
August if sufficient money is received.
The plan which has been successfully followed so
far is to cable money to accredited representatives of
the Committee who are working in the larger towns
of various districts like the Russian Caucasus, Persia
and Asia Minor. From such central points the money
is distributed according to local needs.
An interesting sum of money which the Committee
expects to send to Beirut during August for distribution
is $130,000 received from the sale of the cargo of
the relief ship Caesar sent abroad last Christmas, and
forced by political conditions to discharge her cargo
at Alexandria.
Mr. Charles R. Crane, Treasurer since its organization
of the American Committee for Armenian and
Syrian Relief, and now in Russia as a member of the
Root Commission, has tendered his resignation on
account of his prolonged absence, as he may be detained
there for some months to come. Mr. Cleveland
H. Dodge, the well known New York business man and
philanthropist, has been selected to succeed Mr. Crane.
The Treasurer's office has been removed from 70 Fifth
Avenue to 1 Madison Avenue, the general headquarters
of the Committee.
For Armenian Soldiers
To the Editor of The New Armenia:
At the urgent request of certain Armenians the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
has authorized me to accept for the Board from
Armenians who are entering or are about to enter the
military service of the United States sums of money
on deposit, of $100.00 or more in amount, and to give
receipts for the same. On such deposits the Board
will allow 2% interest per annum, reckoned for full
months only on such deposits as remain with the
Board for at least three months. The Board will require
each depositor to sign his name in his own
handwriting and to furnish such other information as
the Board may require for identification. In case the
depositor cannot write his name either in Armenian
or English he will be required to present himself at
our Boston office when making the deposit, that some
other method may be adopted for his identification.
In the event of the death of the depositor the money
at his credit will be paid only to a regularly appointed
executor or administrator of his estate. It is strongly
recommended that the legally executed will of the
depositor be left with the deposit.
Frank H. Wiggin, Treasurer
Boston, Mass.


The Armeno-Tartar Hostilities
By LUIGI VILLARI
THE virtues of the Armenians are of a kind which
are bound to become more and more valuable as
civilization progresses, while his vices are for the most
part the rough edges which, under a wise and progressive
Government, will be rubbed away. This people
is the civilizing element of the Middle East, and is
likely to remain so. Other races will also, no doubt,
become really advanced in course of time; the intelligence
of the Georgians is an important factor to be
reckoned with, and even the Moslem peoples may
eventually shake off the paralyzing influence of tradition
and take their place in the general scheme of the 
world's progress.
The rivalry between the Armenians and the Tartars
is of ancient date, and differs little from the general
rivalry of the two races in other parts of the Caucasus.
The Tartars have always considered Baku as a Tartar
city. The Tartar khans have rules it for centuries,
the great bulk of the native population of the whole
province is Tartar, and the general character of the
country until the recent influx of foreigners was mainly
Tartar and Mohammedan. But the Armenians, with
their superior education, their greater intelligence and
push, have acquired an increasing influence in the
town and the industry, and have edged the Tartars
out of many professions. There are only two small
Tartar oil firms, although many Tartars are interested
in the business. At Baku, where they are numerically
inferior, the Armenians form a majority on the town
council, as the law does not allow the non-Christian
races to have more than half the seats on local bodies.
Even in competition with foreigners the Armenians
hold their own, for while their interests on the naphtha
industry are only 35 per cent. of the total, they are
represented by five members out of seven on the
Soviet Siezd (council of naphtha producers). There
are also no Tartars on the Bourse Committee.
One fact which struck me very forcibly during my
stay at Baku was the extreme bitterness of the foreign
element against the Armenians; its sympathies, save
in two or three instances, seemed wholly on the side
of the Tartars. This attitude, I confess, impressed 
me at the time, and having come to the Caucasus with 
an open mind, I became inclined to believe that the 
sufferings of the Armenians had been grossly exaggerated
by the European Press, and that the Tartars
were a much-maligned people. While a man like
Agaieff, on whom I called, was able to make out a good
case for the Tartars, Englishmen, Russians, and other
outsiders were almost unanimous in their condemnation 
of the Armenians. Even the common Russian
soldiers and policemen, when questioned as to who was
to blame for the troubles, replied unhesitatingly,
"Armiane."
   In a place where racial and religious animosities
have reached a white heat it is very difficult to arrive
at a fair estimate of the rights and wrongs of a controversy,
and one naturally tends to trust in the judgment 
of foreigners who know the country well but
should be free from bias. But on closer investigation
I could not help coming to the conclusion that the 
foreigners were by no means so impartial as they at
first appeared. The views of foreign financiers and
managers are greatly influenced by the fact that they 
are in close commercial competition with the Armenians.
If it were not for them the foreigners would 
soon have got the whole oil industry into their own
hands, instead of being obliged to compete with capable,
business-like, and energetic rivals.
   At the same time the Armenian workmen are much 
less tractable than the Tartars. They demand better
food and higher wages, more comfortable lodgings,
baths, reading-rooms, etc., whereas the Tartars are 
content with anything that is given them. The Armenians 
belong to workmen's societies, and if they do
not get what they want they organize strikes, and even
take part in revolutionary movements. With the Tartars,
once you have their own chiefs and the Russian 
authorities on your side, you can do anything; but
with the Armenians you must be careful. The latter,
being politically more advanced than the Tartars, are
more exacting. Then, since the Government instituted 
persecutions against them and their Church, they indulged
in political agitation, which, if not primarily 
directed against the capitalists, did cause them loss by
disturbing the general conditions of the town. 
   This explains the attitude of the foreigners, and accounts
for their bitterness against the Armenians. One
prominent Englishman said to me that he would be 
glad to see the whole Armenian nation wiped out! He
accused them of every conceivable crime, of having
been the cause of the whole trouble, of being at the 
bottom of every revolutionary agitation, and even of
having attempted his own life. The evidence adduced
in support of these charges was, I am bound to say,
quite Caucasian in its inconclusiveness, and I have 
never subsequently come on a particle of proof of their 
truth from any source. 
   Prince Golytzin, who had been busy carrying out 
his anti-Armenian policy, had a few weeks before
executed the confiscation of the Church property; in 
October his life was attempted. Early in 1904 Prince 
Nakashidze, a Georgian noble, who as Vice-Governor 
of Erivan had been actively implicated in the said 
confiscation, was appointed Governor of Baku. His 
arrival coincided with a recrudescence of Armeno-Tartar
hostility, and an outbreak seemed imminent 
at that time, so that many Armenians sent their families
away from the town. In July, 1904, Prince
Golytzin left the Caucasus for good and went to St.252   THE NEW ARMENIA
Petersburg. Towards the end of the year Prince Nakashidze
was summoned to the capital, where he had
several conferences with his former chief, and subsequently
returned to Baku. Excitement in the oil
city and the hatred of the two races increased, and the
Governor did nothing to reconcile them. On the contrary,
he was perpetually talking of an Armeno-Tartar
pogrom as imminent; he openly encouraged the
Tartars, and treated the Armenians with marked coldness.
When a deputation of Armenians came to express
their fears and ask him for protection, his only
reply was, "Do not you shoot and no one will shoot at
you."
In the meanwhile a number of murders of Armenians,
attributed to Tartars, had been committed in the
Shemakhinka street, and, on the other hand, several
mutilated corpses of Tartars, supposed to have been
murdered by Armenians, were discovered under the
snow which had just melted away. There is a strong
presumption that the police was at the bottom of these
affairs, which it had instigated with a view to promoting
Tartar-Armenian hatred, but I cannot say whether
the suspicion is well-formed. The authorities were
perpetually telling the Tartars that the Armenians
were meditating a massacre of Mussulmans, and that
they should be on the qui vive.
Early in February a Tartar shopkeeper named
Gashum Beg, who had assaulted several Armenian
boys and girls, was attacked by an Armenian and
wounded, but he succeeded in killing his assailant. He
was subsequently arrested, and as he was trying to
escape a soldier of the escort, also an Armenian, shot
him dead. The assailant proved to be a member of
the revolutionary committee, but the Armenians deny
that that association ordered him to kill Gashum Beg,
and state that he had been deputed to do so by the
family of one of the boys he had assaulted.  A relative
of Gashum Beg's, a rich Tartar named Babaieff,
determined, according to the Tartar custom of vendetta,
to avenge him, and a few days later tried to
shoot an Armenian in the courtyard of the church,
who had been pointed out to him as the man who had 
killed Gashum Beg; but he failed, and in the emeute
which ensued, another Armenian killed him.
This deed caused great excitement in the town, and
Prince Nakashidze summoned some Armenian journalists
to his Chancery, and delivered them a long
discourse on the dangers of an Armeno-Tartar pogrom.
He declared that if the Tartars did rise against the
Armenians he would be powerless to defend them, as
he had not enough troops, and the police were unreliable,
many of them being Tartars. In fact one of
the said Armenians told me that parts of his speech
corresponded almost word for word with the report
which the Governor made after the massacre, which
suggests that he had foreseen the whole affair.
The body of Babaieff was carried in procession
through the Tartar quarter, and exposed to view.
Had Prince Nakashidze wished to prevent trouble he
would have stopped the procession; the sight of the
murdered man roused the Moslems to fury, and on
the 19th of February they proceeded to massacre every
Armenian they came across. The Armenians defended
themselves as best they could, but the Tartars were
much more numerous and better armed. The authorities
remained absolutely passive, and to the frenzied
appeals for help which Prince Nakashidze was constantly
receiving from hard-pressed Armenians besieged
in their own houses, he replied that he had no
troops and could do nothing, although as a matter of
fact he had 2,000 men. 
He was seen driving about the town openly encouraging
the Tartars, and slapping them on the back;
and on one occasion, happening to see some too officious
soldiers disarming a Tartar, he ordered them
to give the man back his rifle, which of course they
did! M. Adamoff, one of the richest Armenians in
Baku, was besieged for three days in his own house,
and being a first-rate shot he killed a number of his
assailants with his own hand; at last he and his son
were shot dead, the Tartars set fire to the house,
rushed in and butchered all the inmates. A similar
fate befell Lalaieff, another rich Armenian, who defended
himself until ammunition gave out, after which
his house was burnt and the whole household killed.
To his appeals for help the Governor made no reply,
but came himself when all was over.
At last on the fourth day, when both sides were
exhausted, the pogrom came to an end, after some 300
to 400 people had been killed. The Tartar Sheikh-ul-
Islam arrived from Tiflis and paraded the town in
company with the Armenian bishop, and a sort of
peace was patched up. The Sheikh-ul-Islam, a worthy,
well-meaning old man, but without much influence
over the more turbulent elements of his people, preached
a peace sermon in the Armenian cathedral, while
the bishop preached in a similar strain in the mosque.
The cooler heads on both sides were beginning to see
that the chief responsibility lay with the Government,
but the race hatred was now so bitter that no lasting
reconciliation was possible.
For some months things remained comparatively
quiet although isolated murders were very frequent.
Both Armenians and Tartars armed themselves, but
the former did so on a larger scale, for they had had
such experience of the Government's hostility that
they felt they now had only themselves to rely on. The
Tartars, thinking themselves secure in the Government's
favor, were less active. An official inquiry into
the outbreak was conducted by Senator Kuzminsky,
but none of the guilty were punished. The Armenians,
however, took vengeance into their own hands, and
on May 24th Prince Nakashidze was blown up by a 
bomb. As for his own guilt in this matter there can,
I think, be no doubt whatever. The direct responsibility
of Prince Golytzin is more questionable, for he
had left the Caucasus several months before the Baku
outbreak; but the troubles were unquestionably the
direct outcome of his own policy, and he may have
given suggestions to Prince Nakashidze when the latter
was in the capital.


The Armenian Deportations
(From the English Blue Book)
THUS the second contention breaks down, and we
are left with the third, which lays little stress on
justice or public safety and bases the case on revenge.
The Armenian civil population in the Ottoman Empire,
it is argued, owes its misfortunes to the Armenian
volunteers in the Russian Army. "Our Armenians in
Turkey," say the Turks in effect, "have certainly suffered
terribly from the measures we have taken; they
may even have suffered innocently; but can you blame
us? Was it not human nature that we should revenge
ourselves on the Armenians at home for the
injury we had received from their compatriots fighting
against us at the front of the Russian ranks--men
who had actually volunteered to fight against us in
the enemy's cause?"
This is almost the favorite argument of the apologists
and yet it is surely the most monstrous of any,
for these Armenian volunteers owed no allegiance to
the Turks at all. but were ordinary Russian subjects.
Through territorial acquisitions and free immigration
from across the frontier, the Russian Government had,
by 1914, acquired the sovereignty over little less than
half the Armenian race (the statistics of the Armenian 
population in Russia, up to date, are 1,636,486
for the Caucasus, and approximately two million for
the Empire as a whole. For the Ottoman Empire,
statistics compiled in 1912 estimate the Armenian population
at 2,100,000). Russia was as much the lawful
"fatherland" of this substantial minority as Turkey
was of the remainder. It is a misfortune for any nation
to be divided between two allegiances, especially
when the states to which they owe them elect to go
to war; but it is at least an alleviation of the difficulty,
and one that does honor to both parties concerned,
when either fraction of the divided nationality finds
itself in sympathy, even under the test of war, with
the particular state to which its allegiance is legally
due
The loyalty of the Russian Armenians to Russia
cast not imputation upon the Ottoman Armenians,
and was no concern of the Turks. The latter will
probably explain that they had no objection to the
Russian Armenians doing their duty, but resented
their doing more: "The conscripts naturally answered
the summons, but why did those who were exempt
equip themselves so eagerly as volunteers? The Ottoman
Armenians adopted a painfully different attitude.
At the beginning of the war, the Young Turkish Party
sent representatives to the Congress of the Armenian
'Dashnaktzoutioun' Party at Erzerum, offered them
concessions to their nationality, and called upon them
to organized volunteers and join in the invasion of Russian
territory. Yet they decidedly refused--refused
in this case when their kinsmen did not wait to be
asked in the other. This reveals the real sympathies
and aspirations of the Armenian people, not only the
Armenians in Russia, but those in our country as well."
There is, of course, a crushing answer to these
tirades. If the Armenians felt so differently towards
the Turks and the Russians, then that was a serious
reflection on their treatment by the Turks, and the
logical way to change their feelings was to treat them
better. Could the civilian Armenians who remembered
the massacre of their innocent kinsfolk at Adana
a few years before have been expected to volunteer
in support of those who had commanded these massacres?
Could their feelings have been other than
they were? But so long as only their feelings were in
question and their behavior remained correct, the
Turks had no right to proceed with them in any but
a humane and constitutional manner. The argument
can be driven home by a parallel. There are Polish
volunteer legions in the Austro-Hungarian Army. What
would the Turks' German apologists have said if the
Russian Government had appeased its resentment
against these Austrian-Polish civilians on their own side
of the frontier?
It is a significant fact that all these Turkish complaints
are directed against Russian Armenians in
Russian service. These is no hint of treachery or
malingering on the part of those Ottoman Armenians
who had been drafted, many of them illegally, into
the Turkish Army--no insinuation that their record
was not as satisfactory in 1914 as in 1912. To the
editor's knowledge, the German apologists have only
been able to fasten upon two "traitors" in the legal
(though not in the moral) sense of the word. There
have been refugees, of course, like Mourad of Sivas,
who escaped into the Caucasus when the atrocities
were in full course--men who had just been compelled
to fight for their lives, and had seen their neighbors
and kinsfolk massacred once more on all sides of them.
Not even the German apologists would dare to censure
these men under these circumstances for enrolling
in the volunteers. But there are only two cases adduced
of Ottoman subjects who went over to the Russians
before the atrocities began--a certain Karakin
Pasdermadjian, a deputy in the Ottoman Parliament,
and another Armenian named Suren, stated to have
been a delegate at the "Dashnaktzoutioun" Congress at
Erzerum. "In face of this," argues the German writer
from whose pamphlet these instances are taken, "it
was the Ottoman Government's duty to uphold public
law and order. In war-time, measures of this kind assume
an especially weighty and pressing character"--
and with this generality he implicitly condones the
atrocities of 1915.
If this represents the official apologia of the Ottoman
Government, the only answer is a reductio254   THE NEW ARMENIA
ad absurdum. On the same principle, when Sir Roger
Casement landed from a German submarine on the
Irish coast, it would have been the British Government's
duty to deport all the Roman Catholic inhabitants
of Ireland and maroon them, say, on the coast
of Labrador or in the central desert of Australia. The
parallel is exact, and leaves nothing more to be said,
unless, indeed, what was said by Talaat Bey, the
Young Turkish Minister of the Interior, in a recent
interview with a correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt.
"The sad events that have occurred in Armenia,"
he vouchsafed, "have prevented my sleeping well at
night. We have been reproached for making no distinction
between the innocent Armenians and the
guilty; but that was utterly impossible, in view of
the fact that those who were innocent to-day might be
guilty to-morrow." There is no need of further witnesses.
The various Turkish contentions thus fail, from
first to last, to meet the point. They all attempt to
trace the atrocities of 1915 to events arising out of the
war; but they not only cannot justify them on this
ground, they do not even suggest any adequate motive
for their perpetration. It is evident that the war was
merely an opportunity and not a cause--in fact, that
the deportation scheme, and all that it involved, flowed
inevitably from the general policy of the Young Turkish
Government. This inference will be confirmed if
we analyze the political tenets to which the Young
Turks were committed.
The Young Turkish movement began as a reaction
against the policy of Abd-ul-Hamid. Its founders
repudiated his "neutralization of forces"; they maintained
that the Ottoman Empire must stand by its own
strength, and that this strength must be developed by
a radical internal reconstruction. From their asylum
at Paris they preached the doctrines of the French
Revolution--religious toleration, abolition of caste-
privileges, equality of all citizens before the law, equality
of obligation to perform military service, constitutional
government through a representative parliament.
And when they came into power, they made
some attempt to put these doctrines into practice. In
Turkey for a brief space of the year 1908, as in France
twelve decades before, the vision of "Pure Reason"
did bring peace and goodwill among men.
Nearly all the foreign observers who were in the
country when "Huriet" came, testify to this momentary,
magic transfiguration of hatred into love; and
the Armenians, who had desired more than any of
their neighbors to see this day, might well believe
that the Young Turks' ideal was identical with their
own. Yet there were vital differences beneath the
surface. The Young Turks realized that the Christian
elements were an asset; they did not propose, at
the outset, to destroy them, as Abd-ul-Hamid had
done; but they wanted still less to co-operate with
them as separate partners in the Ottoman State. The
"Millets" were as abhorrent to them, as an institution,
as the autocracy of Abd-ul-Hamid. They set up
against the principle of the "Millet" the programme of
"Ottomanization." The Turkist leaven was to permeate
the non-Turkist lump, until it had all become
of one uniform Turkish substance.
In Parliament this programme took such forms as a
bill to make the Turkish language the universal and
compulsory medium of secondary education (the vast
majority of secondary schools in the Empire being, of
course, American, Armenian or Greek, and practically
none of them Turkish), and the Armenian deputies
found themselves opposing it in concert with the Liberal
Party, which included the Arab bloc and stood
for the toleration of national individualities. The
Young Turks, in fact, had imbibed both the good currents
and the bad in the modern political atmosphere
of Western Europe--its democratic doctrines but
its chauvinism as well. Most political theorists debarred
from responsible practice give this same confused
allegiance to incompatible ideals, and all, when
they come into power, are compelled by circumstances
to choose which master they will serve.
In 1908, the choice of the Young Turks was not predestined;
the "Committee of Union and Progress"
might have set its face towards either of its divided
goals; but disillusionment soon decided its orientation.
The magic dawn of "Huriet" faded; the old, crushing
burden of Ottoman Government descended upon shoulders
not expert, like Abd-ul-Hamid's, at balancing
the weight; the Austro-Bulgarian violation of the
Treaty of Berlin and the subsequent territorial losses
of the Balkan War shook the Young Turkish Party's
prestige, aggravated the difficulty of their problem,
and embittered their attitude towards its solution. The'
current of chauvinism gained upon them more and
more, and their intervention in the European War demonstrated
that its mastery was complete, for their
calculations in intervening were of a thoroughly Prussian
character. A military triumph was to restore
them their prestige; it was to recover ancient territories
of the Empire in Egypt, the Caucasus and the
coveted Persian province of Azerbajan; it was to
shake off the trammels of international control, and
solve the internal problem by cutting the Gordian
Knot. But the hopes of conquest and prestige were
early shattered by the strategical failures of the winter
of 1914-5, which were almost as humiliating as those
of 1912, and then the Young Turks concentrated
savagely upon "Ottomanization" at home.
Ottomanization has become the Young Turks' obsession.
Their first act after declaring war was to
repudiate the Capitulations; their latest stroke has
been to declare the Turkish language the exclusive
medium of official business in the Empire, with only
a year's delay--a step which has caused consternation
among their German allies. And in this mood
they turned to the Armenian question, which happened
at the moment to have reached an important phase.
In 1912-3 the diplomatists of Europe had once more
met in consultation over the Ottoman Empire, and the
Armenians had presented their case to the Conference
at London, as they had presented it at Berlin thirty-
five years before. The Delegation of 1912 was nominated


THE NEW ARMENIA   255
nominated by His Holiness the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin.
Its President was His Excellency Boghos Nubar Pasha.
When the Conference proved unable to take cognizance
of their petition, they applied to the individual governments
of the Powers. The Russian Government took
the initiative and drafted a new scheme for the administration
of the Six Vilayets, which it submitted
to the Signatories of the Treaty of Berlin. The German
Government opposed, but was won over by the
Russian diplomacy and by the representations of the
Armenian delegates, who repaired to Berlin in person.
Then, when the German opposition had been withdrawn,
the Russian draft was revised by the Ambassadors
of the Powers at Constantinople, accepts, with
modifications, by the Young Turkish Government, and
actually promulgated by them on the 8th February,
1914.
In its final shape, the scheme still embodied the
main points of reform which had been regarded as
cardinal ever since 1878. There was to be a mixed
Gendarmerie, under a European chief, recruited from 
the Turks and Armenians, but closed to the Kurds;
Moslem and Christian were to be equal before the
law; the Armenian language was to be a recognized
medium in the courts and public offices (a bitter clause
for the Young Turkish nationalists); there were to
be no restrictions on the multiplication of Armenian
schools. Finally, the vilayets affects by the scheme
were to be divided into two groups, and each group
was to be placed under a European Inspector-General.
The two Inspector-Generals were authorized to appoint
and dismiss all officials in their respective
spheres, except those "of superior rank." They were
themselves to be appointed by the Ottoman Government,
on the recommendation of the Powers, for a
term of ten years, and not to be removable within
this period.
The Government duly proceeded to select two candidates
for these Inspectorates, a Dutchman and a 
Norwegian, but its treatment of these gentlemen soon
showed that in diplomacy, at any rate, the Young
Turks had adopted the methods of Abd-ul-Hamid.
A clause was inserted in the Inspectors' contract of 
engagement, empowering the Government to denounce
it at any moment upon payment of an indemnity of
one year's salary--a flat violation of the ten years'
term provided for under the scheme; and the list of
"superior officials" was inflated until the patronage of
the Inspectors, which, next to their irremovability,
would have been their most effective power, was reduced
to an illusion. The unfortunate nominees were
spared the farce of exercising their maimed authority.
They had barely reached their provinces when the
European War broke out, and the Government promptly
denounced the contracts and suspended the Scheme
of Reforms, as the first step towards its own intervention
in the conflict.
Thus, at the close of 1914, the Armenians found
themselves in the same position as in 1883. The
measures designed for their security had fallen through,
and left nothing behind but the resentment of the
Government that still held them at its mercy. The
deportations of 1915 followed as inexorably from the
Balkan War and the Project of 1914 as the massacres
of 1895-6 had followed from the Russian War and the
Project of 1878. Only in the execution of their revenge
the Young Turks revealed all the sinister features
of their dissimilarity to Abd-ul-Hamid. The
Sultan, so far as he differed from the familiar type
of Oriental despot, had been an opportunist in the
tradition of Metternich--a politician of mature experience
and delicate touch, unencumbered by any
constructive programme to disturb the artistry of his
game of finesse.
He repressed the Armenians to a nicety after preparing
for it eighteen years. The Young Turks were
adventurers who had caught the catchwords of another
generation and another school--the apes of
Danton and Robespierre, and doctrinaires to the core.
For the old, anachronistic ascendency of Moslem over
Rayah, to the maintenance of which Abd-ul-Hamid
had cynically devoted his abilities, they substituted
the idea of Turkish nationalism, which clothed the
same evil in a more clearly-cut and infinitely more
dynamic form. They were fanatics with an unreasoned
creed, builders with a plan that they meant to carry
through, and no half-measures would content them,
no inhibitions of prudence or humanity deter them
from the attempt to realize the whole. Hindrances
only exasperated them to sweeping action, an a blind
concentration on their programme shielded them from
doubts. "Our acts," Talaat Bey is reported to have
said, in the interview quoted above, "have been dictated
to us by a national and historical necessity. The
idea of guaranteeing the existence of Turkey must outweigh
every other consideration."
The first of these sentiments is the pure-milk of
the Eighteenth Century ideologues; there is a Prussian
adulteration in the second, which smacks of more
recent times. It is the voice of the youngest, crudest,
most ruthless national movement in Europe, and the
acts which it excuses, and which the documents in this
volume describe, where the barbarous initiation of the
Near East into the European fraternity.
An Armenian Child to God
BY MAURICE FERBER
"I was an Armenian child, and my father was peacefully
gathering in the apples, when the Turks came,
laughing, down the highway: and they mocked my
father, and they said, 'To-morrow you shall eat the
apples of Eden,' and they plunged at him with bayonets.
Then a tall Turk, with a curse, shouted: 'And
the little seedling, too, must we cut off.' Then he shot
me dead; and it was pitiful to see my blood flow, for
I had not an overrunning measure of the ruddy fluid.
Thus I tarried on Earth but the short days of my life,
before I came back to Thee." --Boston HeraldTHE NEW ARMENIA
A LITERARY and POLITICAL PERIODICAL
THE NEW ARMENIA, published semi-monthly, is the only English Periodical
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ARMENIAN POEMS
Rendered into English verse by
MISS ALICE STONE BLACKWELL
A new and much enlarged edition of Miss Blackwell's book of Armenian Poems
is just published, and is to be sold for the benefit of the relief fund. It contains
poems by Siamanto, Varoujan, Toumanian, Hovhannessian, Chrimian Hairig
and many others.
PRICE $1.50. With foreign postage $1.58
For sale by
Robert Chambers, Room 616, Ford Building, Boston, Mass.

Armenian Legends and Poems
ILLUSTRATED AND COMPILED BY
ZABELLE C. BOYAJIAN
J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London, Eng., Publishers.
This volume contains a selection of gems from Armenian Literature, both ancient
and modern. There are 12 beautiful colored plates to illustrate some of
the legends and poems. In these illustrations Mis Boyajian has evolved an entirely
new style of art, based upon the decorative scheme of ancient Armenian
missal work. All the profits will be given to the Lord Mavor's Armenian Fund
Price $8.00
Apply to: E. P. Dutton & Co.,  681 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.[?] atro [?] barbar [?] which is pr [?]
ing [?] r country, and thus assist as
in o [?] efforts for freedom.

Resolved, that we express our thanks 
to the press of this country, which has 
given so much attention to our national
question and presented to the 
country the terrible condition of our 
people, and by it securing for us the 
sympathy of this free people, thus getting 
our just cause better understood 
by the civilized nations.

Resolved that we express thanks to 
all individual Americans who, by word 
and action, did all they could for our 
beloved nation.

Resolved, that we appoint a committee
who have power to join with other
committees, in framing a protest to 
the great powers of Europe.

Several newspaper accounts of the 
outrages were read at last night's 
[?] thig, but perhaps the most startling 
[?] s a special cable dispatch to the
[?] w York World, under the date of Nov. 
[?] It is as follows:

[?] e terrible massacre of perhaps ten 
thousand Armenians by Turkish soldiers
[?] and Kurdish tribesmen has horrified 
[?] the English public. But there is 
[?] ch indignant outburst from the 
[?] press as followed the discovery
[?] e Bulgarian atrocities, which 
[?] butcheries equal both in enormity
[?] magnitude.

[?] World correspondent talked to-
[?] h Mr Hagopian, an Armenian
[?] and the president of the Ar
[?] Patriotic Association, through 
[?] the account of the massacre 
[?] the press. He complained bit-
[?] t the Daily News did not even 
[?] the full description from Bitlis,
[?] e Times sought to minimize 
[?] r and to discredit the particular 
[?] ause the letter was anonymous
[?] ated.

[?] Hagopian declares that it would 
[?] valent to a sentence of death on 
[?] writer of the letter if his name
[?] divulged, as the Turkish authorities
[?] would instantly mark him. He
[?] the World correspondent that the 
[?] nt comes not from an Armenian, 
but from an American missionary stationed 
near the scene of the massacre. 
[?] letter was not intrusted to the 
[?] ish mail, where it would have
[?] certain of being stopped, as after
[?] ges of this description Turkish
[?] ls devote all their energies to 
[?] ating communication with Eu-

[?] the courage of American missionaries, 
who, at considerable risk, 
sent this account beyond the frontier by 
hand, aided by friendly merchants. 
Nothing would have been heard of 
these atrocities for months.

From personal experience with Turkish 
savagery in Armenia and from his
confidence in the source from which the 
account comes Mr. Hagopian absolutely 
relies on its accuracy.

As to the proposed sending of a commission
of inquiry by the sultan, Mr.
Hagopian thinks it will be useless unless
it is conducted under international
supervision and accompanied by
full guarantees that witnesses shall 
not be murdered afterwards by Turkish 
officials. Otherwise no one will dare 
to give evidence, for he would do so 
on peril of his own life and the lives 
of his relatives.

Speaking with passionate earnestness, 
Mr. Hagopian asserted that no 
words can adequately picture the unspeakable
indignities and the incessant 
persecution the Armenians have suffered 
under Turkish governors. They 
have sunk hopeless into despair because 
Turkey has been permitted for 
12 years to ignore her solemn pledges 
to introduce reforms, though these 
pledges were guaranteed by the European 
powers, and by England most 
strongly of all.

Asked as to the possibility of getting 
further information now that the Turkish 
officials have been put on the alert, 
Mr. Hagopian says it will be more difficult 
than ever, as no correspondent 
would be permitted to enter Armenia. 
Even the consuls are powerless, for
when they attempt to intervene the
persons on whose complains they act
are doomed.

The World correspondent subsequently 
called at the foreign office,
where he was informed that the 
British ambassador to Turkey had already
made representations to the sultan 
and than an inquiry is promised. 
The political conditions here are not 
[?] to the Armenians getting 
[?] from further Turkish bru-
[?] ugh British influence. The
[?] indisposed to raise
[?] for the government
[?] always op-
[?] mbar-
[?] rly is


[?] dition of things is [?]
[?] the public. Occasional 
[?] other letters smuggled
[?] the lines tell direful tales of 
[?] ing and torture.

The Armenians are now united, without 
regard to sect or creed, in protest 
against the outrages committed in Armenia.
They will now work together 
in an effort to rouse the Christian
world to the true state of affairs in Armenia. 

The Huntchagist Society maintains 
its independent organization, which is
the revolutionary society, will do all in
its power to help Armenia to rise and 
throw off the yoke of tyranny by force of arms.

The Armenians claim that the Turkish 
government has its spies in this
city and that copies of the local papers 
are sent to Turkey and they consequently 
refuse to give out names of
speakers or committees appointed last
evening for publication. They say relatives
or friends there will be singled
out and made to suffer. 

The evening service of the Protestant 
Church was a memorial service for the 
massacred countrymen. 

Upon Thanksgiving day all the 
Armenians of the city will unite in a 
memorial procession. They will assemble 
at the Laurel Street Church at 8
o'clock and after Memorial services 
will proceed to Curtis Hall in a body, 
headed by muffled drums and the National 
and Armenian colors. Both pastors 
will ride at the head of the line 
in an open carriage. At Curtis Hall 
memorial services will also be conducted.

The Armenian colony in this city is 
the largest in the country. Its numbers 
between 700 and 800 men, most of 
whom are employed by the Washburn 
& Moen Manufacturing Company.

AN APPEAL TO ENGLAND.
Mass. Spy
The Cradle of Liberty Rocked by 
Armenians
Nov. 30, 1894
Gov. Greenhalge and Other Prominent
Persons Join in the Protest Against
Turkish Inhumanity.

Boston, Nov. 26--An audience which 
crowded "the cradle of liberty" to the 
doors, made up largely of Armenians, 
but with a goodly number of Americans,
gathered at Faneuil Hall tonight to hold
an indignation meeting over the recent 
atrocious treatment of their countrymen
by representatives of the Turkish government.

Rev. J. S. Barrows, editor of the Christian 
Register, presided. On the platform 
were Gov. Greenhalge, Mrs. Julia Ward 
Howe, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Rev. Francis 
E. Clarke, Rev. Thomas H. van Ness
of Boston, Dr. Samuel F. Gumbart of 
Cambridge, and Col. Albert Clarke, secretary
of the Home Market Club, all of 
whom made addresses, which were received 
with great applause.

M. Gulesian, secretary of the United
Friends of Armenia, the last speaker, 
read reports from his fellow countryment 
in Armenia, giving accounts of the massacre
of between 8000 and 10,000 men, 
women and children early in September. 

Resolutions were adopted, reciting that 
it was the report of the Amercan commission 
of inquiry that convinced Mr. 
Gladstone of the [tru?t] the similar
Bulgarian atrocities, and petitioned President 
Cleveland to instruct our minister
at Constantinople to investigate the matter,
either by sending a trusted messenger
or by joining in a commission sent by 
united European powers. Any investigation 
decreed by the Sultan is denounced 
as wholly untrustworthy. The signatory 
powers are appealed to for the immediate 
enforcement of the 61st article 
of the Berlin treaty, for the reforms in
Armenia therein guaranteed have never 
been carried out. On the contrary, the 
condition of Armenians in Turkey has 
grown more deplorable. Appeal is made 
specially to England, because she has the 
care of Armenians in Turkey, just as 
France has the care of those in Syria.
England holds the island of Cyprus as a 
guaranty of the protectorate.

THE ARMENIAN MASSACRE
A Turkish Official Admits That 2000
Were Killed.

Vienna, Nov. 23--The Politishche 
Correspondenz prints a letter from an 
official Turkish source, whose intention 
is to minimize the significance of the
Armenian massacre in the Sassoun district.
The letter repeats the old statements 
as to Armenian rebellion, and 
asserts that at Sassoun all the Armenians 
fell in open combat. The troops, 
the writer admits, killed 2000 of them.


Meetings to protest against Turkey's treatment 

of the Armenian Christians have been 
held in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, Boston
and in many minor cities, indeed, wherever 
the Armenians are found in any number. 
The meeting in Boston very properly
was held in Fanueil Hall.	Julia Ward
Howe presided, and Lloyd Garrison 
was one of the speakers. It is well that 
the American people should in some way 
make its indignation felt. There can be no 
doubt of the substantial truth of the reports 
that have come from Bitlis and vicinity. 
Letters from the missionaries of the 
American Board in the vicinity, received
this week, corroborate the dispatches of the 
past two weeks which have been based on 
letters to the friends of Armenia in London. 
Think of it! The thousands were slaughtered 
last September and Christendom is
just learning of it. This fact in itself is an
indictment of Turkey. The commission
which Turkey has appointed to investigate
is not deserving of confidence--its verdict
is predestined to be one of excuse, and at 
best what self-imposed remedy can it suggest? 
Turkey, however, fears somewhat
the condemnation of Christendom. She already
has taken steps to prevent all papers 
from entering the empire which in any way 
refer to the massacres. If Great Britain, 
the United States and Germany could agree 
upon a policy that would force Turkey to 
permit an investigation that would be 
thorough, and if Great Britain would resolutely 
live up to the treaty which makes her 
the guardian of the interests of the people 
whom Turkey is permitting the Kurds to 
ravage and murder, then a new day might 
dawn for the Armenians. Unfortunately,
thus far the British Foreign Office has given 
no sign of any such conception of its duty
in the matter, and the Armenians seem to 
have no ray of hope save as it may come 
out of the semi-darkness of Russia. But
Russia and England seem to be coquetting
just now, so that source of hope and comfort
is denied.

Congregationalist

The in Memphis, Tenn., of the sheriff
and those implicated with him in the recent
lynching of the six colored me, gives evidence
that the governor and other officials in 
that state, where the six widows of the murdered 
men lately were themselves in evidence
together in court and gave their testimony, 
are in earnest in trying to put a check to this
form of barbarism and national disgrace. The
anti-lynching agitation in England has not 
been without its influence. As Mr. William 
Lloyd Garrison in a letter printed in the London
Times a few days ago remarks, it is no
unusual thing for the down-trodden people of
a nation to appeal for justice to the world's 
tribunal. It was, doubtless, impertinent, 
he says, for Lafayette to interfere with England's
treatment of her colonies, but America 
cherishes his name as sacredly as that of 
Washington; to shame Austria for the wrongs
of Hungary, Kossuth submitted his case to the 
enlightened sentiment of England and America; 
Mazzini could gain the ear of Italy more easily 
from London than from Rome; to-day oppressed
Russia, through Kennan and exiled 
Stepniak, speaks with more force than would 
be possible in the dominion of the Czar. And
now Armenia seeks redress, not by changing
Turkish sentiment, but by appeal to English
and American sympathy and sense of justice. 
So to-day the South, which had resented
Northern protests, is no longer indifferent to 
the broader public sentiment. It does not 
wish to put itself in the same class with Turkey.

Advance, Nov. 29

There is dissatisfaction by Armenians in London, 
in regard to the Turkish commission appointed
by the Sultan to inquire into the reent massacre 
in Armenis. They charge that Abdullah Bey, the 
head of the commission has a bad record, and that
the purpose of such an appointment is to suppress 
the truth. The British Foreign office seems to [?]
complications in the [?]

Letters have been received by private persons in Boston, confirming 
the reported massacre of Armenians near Bitlis, Turkey, which occurred
in September last. According to these letters, the massacre was
the result of an affray between some Kurds and Armenian villagers, 
from whom the Kurds had stolen their flocks. The Sultan ordered 
the military to the scene to put down the rebellion, and numbers of
innocent women and children were killed with the others. The Turkish
government has excluded American newspapers from Turkey because 
of their reports of the massacre.

Friends' Intelligencer and Journal.

Nov. 29

Indian [Bank?], Nov. 19;94

Advices received from a Turkish source show 
that 2,000 Armenians were killed in the recent
massacres in Armenia.city of Moosh, and the claim was made that Armenian 
soldiers had overrun the land, killing and plundering on 
every side. This furnished another pretext, and troops 
were called in from far and near. The commander of 
the military post in Erzingan, a hundred miles distant, 
made a desperate race on, and is said to have hung from 
his breast, after reading it to his soldiers, an order from 
Constantinople to cut the Armenians up, root and 
branch, as they loved their King and Government.

No compassion was shown to age or sex, not even 
when the victims fell suppliant at the feet of the officers. 
Women and babes were slaughtered without the slightest 
mercy. The details as given are too horrible to narrate. 
Women and girls were violated by the hundred 
and then slaughtered. It is believed that from five to 
ten thousand were killed. Had the reports come from 
the Armenians themselves it might appear as if there 
were some exaggeration. As a matter of fact the worst 
stories are told by the Turkish soldiers who participated 
in the carnage. Some of them declare that what they 
did was simply under the pressure of orders from their 
officers, and that even the most that they did was far 
exceeded by the outrages of the Kurds. There is a perfect 
reign of terror throughout the whole region ; refugees 
escaping to cities a hundred miles and more away, 
dare not tell the story of what they have been through, 
and it is only as, now and then, one with a little remnant 
of courage or confidence overcomes his fear that 
the facts are coming out.

These facts speak for themselves. They simply show 
that the end has come, and that the system of Turkish 
rule which for these years has utilized the worst elements
of the most barbarous people known on the face 
of the earth, not exceeded by the fiercest tribes of Africa
or the South Seas, must stop. The fact that the British 
Consul at Van on investigation indorsed the statement 
of outrage, and the fact that the British Ambassador at
Constantinople was unwilling to accept the official denial
of the Turkish Government, but has started an independent 
investigation, give us hope of some definite results, 
and that the Sultan and his advisers in Constantinople
will see that they cannot longer fly in the face of the
humanity of the world. Radical measures must be	
taken, and taken at once. There must be to imprisoning
of a few Kurds as an offset to blind 
Western eyes. The men who are responsible for 
these orders, whoever they may be, whe her Kurdish 
chiefs, local governors, military pashas or Cabinet 
officers, must be punished or the Turkish Government 
is at an end ; and Europe will enter in and 
take into its own hands the control of a country of 
as fine resources as any on the face of the earth, but too
long under the heel of an ignorant and outrageous despotism. 
The responsibility rests chiefly upon Great 
Britain. For these years since the Crimean War she has 
stood as the defender of Turkish autonomy. She has 
accomplished much. Of late her hand has been relaxing ; 
it must tighten or she must leave the grasp to somebody 
else. The entente between Great Britain and Russia, 
and the probable opening of the Dardanelles to the Russian 
fleet will make this further intervention easier. The 
powers must do for Asia Minor at least what they have done for Syria. 

N.Y. Independent, Nov. 29

Missions
ANXIETY IN EASTERN TURKEY
BY THE REV. W. N. CHAMBERS,
MISSIONARY OF THE AMERICAN BOARD.

One of the first out-stations organized in the Ezrûm 
region was the village of Chevermeh, in the Khanoos district. 
That was in the year 1853. There were a few descendants
of the old Tondragians, supposed by some to 
have sprung from the Paulicians, and who had retained 
some of the traditions of their fathers. Persecution had 
driven them to hold those traditions and to celebrate their 
rites in secret. Soon after the arrival of the missionary 
the Gospel was put in their hands, and some of these men 
became eager to declare themselves for evangelical Christianity. 
They heroically endured most bitter persecution. 
Tho once and again driven from the district, they were 
finally able to establish themselves as a community, organize 
a church, secure a pastor, and build a chapel and 
school. This building, for the place, is a large and commodious 
one, and enjoys—what few other chapels do—an 
Imperial firman (special permit from his Majesty the Sultan). 
The work prospered. The people had struggled well 
up toward self support. Hard times and resultant poverty, 
however, led to the uniting of this place with Heramik, a 
near village which later had been organized as an out-station. 
These two places were united under the care of the 
Rev. Mr. K., who has now been the pastor of that flock, 
first as preacher and later as ordained pastor, for a quarter
of a century.

[?] r of a vigorous evangelical 
work which made itself felt through [?]
plain

The other day this faithful and devoted pastor [?]
me, his utterance punctuated by sobs: "Ah, sir, [?]
reached this age. I have passed the prime of my life and 
am almost gray. After twenty-five years of service there
should be something to which I could point as indication 
of work accomplished for the Lord. But now little more
than the buildings in which we have been accustomed to 
worship remain to really indicate what has been accomplished. 
I see my people in deep distress. They are being
scattered—many of them are fleeing to Russia. The greater
part of them are suffering from hunger. I dread to think 
of the condition that will prevail the coming winter. The
people naturally appeal to me for assistance and advice. 
What can I do to relieve them? what can I say to encourage
those who remain? May God, indeed, have mercy upon 
us."

Robbery, oppression and famine have left the plain well-nigh 
desolate. Many have fled to Russia. Those remaining 
are living in terror. Yesterday a man with his wife 
and two small children came from that district to this 
city to beg. I said to him that his coming here was useless, 
as the people here were in need. "Yes," he said, I 
will go back to my village. It is better for us to die there 
at home, than here or on the mountains as friendless wanderers."

The work has had good organization and good success on 
this plain. It has been established in several places, and 
there is much to be done throughout the district. It is today 
almost in confusion. In order to keep it from entire 
confusion this pastor has been engaged as an evangelist to 
travel the entire plain. At this time of distress when we
should stretch out our hands in larger assistance, we are 
forced to take away the pastor of this oldest and very important 
out station and leave the brethren without even 
the consolation of a winter school.

In 1895 will we be able to keep even this evangelist in the
field? The $116,000 debt does not inspire us with great hope for that.

ESZRUM.
N.Y. Independent, Nov. 29

The great difficulty about the Armenian
massacres is the difficulty of getting correct
intelligence. There is a great deal of 
Turkish oppression going on in those remote
regions, aggravated by the marauding 
and kidnapping of the Kurds, and 
there is intense hatred between the Christian 
and Mussulman populations; and 
both sides, of course, exaggerate this feeling
for the purpose of working on European
opinion. But that the Turkish oppression 
is frightful there can be no doubt, 
and it is highly probable that some Armenian
resistance was punished by wholesale 
massacre. This has been the Turkish 
mode of repressing insubordination of any
kind on the part of its Christian subjects
ever since the Turks began to have any 
Christian subjects. They have perpetrated
these massacres now and again in every 
part of their dominions. That of Scio in 
1822 made a profound impression on Christendom, 
but that of Bulgaria in 1876 was 
nearly as bad, but would have passed comparatively
unnoticed if Mr. Schuyler and 
Mr. McGahan had not happened to be on
the spot. The truth is that there are no
remedies for Turkish rule but abolition. 
The Armenians, once a warlike people, 
and furnishing some good soldiers to the
Russian service, have, through ages of oppression,
become warlike and are incapable 
of effecting their own deliverance. It 
will probably come some day from Russian
interference. In letting the Turks have a 
free hand in that region the western Powers 
are playing into Russian hands. But 
there is little use in remonstrating with 
the Turks or exposing them, and their 
own press, even the European version of it, 
is muzzled by censorship such as has not 
been seen in Europe since the middle
ages. One of the horrible incidents of
Turkish rule from which the Armenians 
suffer severely is the insecurity of their
young women. The kidnapping of Christian
girls is a time-honored Turkish pastime,
and keeps the Christian parents of
pretty daughters in horrible anxiety. 
Down to the emancipation of Bulgaria, 
the entrance of Turks, especially high 
official Turks, into a Christian village in
that province was always a signal for the
close concealment of the young women.

N.Y. Nation, Nov. 29, 1894 (or Dec. 1)


[?] Mass Meeting of Her [?] in
Association Hall.
Worcester Spy
A LOUD CRY FOR JUSTICE
Nov. 30, 1894.
European Powers to be Appealed 
to Against Turkey.
The Sympathy of Christendom Invoked—
Public Memorial Services Thanksgiving
Day.

The mass meeting of the Armenians
of the city at Association Hall Sunday
was one of the largest and most enthusiastic
ever held by Armenians in this county. 

All the Armenians of the city u [?] 
regardless of religious or society [?] 
nection, and discussed the terrible [?] 
ferings of their unfortunate co [?] 
for nearly four hours. Fully five [?] 
dred men and three women were [?] 
ent.

There were scores of speakers [?] 
each was frequently interrupted [?] 
plause and occasional comment [?] 
preciation from the big audience [?] 

The meeting was opened at [?] 
Rev Manghakian Deroonian [?] 
Laurel Streel Gregorian Church [?] 
Rev. Kyos Kemalion of the P [?] 
Church presiding. M.B. Se [?] 
as secretary.

The speakers dwelt upon t [?] 
soon massacre and the present [?] 
tion of the country at length [?] 
said the massacre occurred because [?] 
people did not pay their taxes [?] 
they could not do, for they h [?] 
reduced to a state of destitu [?] 
Turkish tyranny. They had [?] 
robbed of their land and their [?] 
devastated by the outrages of [?] 
Kurds. They said that the blo [?] 
Sarssoon was upon the heads [?] 
civilized nations.

The object of the meeting was to appoint 
a committee to meet other committees
that will be appointed by Armenian 
colonies in America. The [?] 
vention will be held in the near future 
and a petition will be drawn up and 
sent to Russia and all other European 
powers who signed the Berlin treaty
demanding that they insist that [?] 
key comply with the conditions of [?] 
treaty. They will ask the nations [?] 
rise up and demand a cessation [?] 
the outrages and that Armenia [?] 
given an independent government. 

A letter was read from Diarbeki
Moosh in Armenia, purporting to have 
been written by an American resident
that awakened much feeling. It was 
in substance as follows:

In the mountains of Armenia there is
a district of thirty Armenian villages.
They have been subjected to the outrages 
and plundering of Kurds and the 
oppression of the government until the 
torture became unbearable.

Last fall, the people arose and, obtaining
a position easy of defense, held
it for a time against the marauders.
But the government sent soldiers 
against them, and between the soldiers 
and the Kurds thousands have been 
massacred. Homes have been destroyed
and villages burned.

The interest of the evening centered 
upon a set of lengthy resolutions 
which were presented and adopted. In
substance, they were as follows:

Whereas the Turkish government 
has not introduced the reforms as 
promised by the Berlin treaty; has 
perpetrated unheard of atrocities, as the
Armenian nation is being daily consumed
by the heartless and tyrannical
Turkish government, as homes are being 
devastated and cities desolated, the 
country paralyzed, innocent men, women 
and children massacred by the thousands,
we, the Armenians of the United
States of America,

Resolve to appeal to the Christian 
civilization directly, asking them
interest themselves in our behalf, 
consideration of the fact that the massacre
of Sarssoon has been only a 
small part of what the Turkish government
has been guilty of since the 
beginning of the century, and that the 
outrages continue with time.

Resolved, that we lament the [?] 
our thousands of martyred [?] 
and sisters, respect their [?] 
and will see to it that their [?] 
not have been shed in vain [?] 

Resolved, that [?] 
ments have h [?] 
morally res [?] 
still [?] 
st [?] 
c [?]