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This newspaper page contains 17 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
Leavenworth Echo
Location
Leavenworth, Washington, United States of America
Date
Jan 10, 1919
Page
4
Dispatches from Erivan and Bagdad describe Armenian captives sold to Arabs and Turks, mass hunger, and shattered families. Relief workers detail blanket distributions, orphanages in Aleppo, and the toll of violence across Asia Minor, Jerusalem, and Persia with thousands displaced and a desperate need for aid.
The text traces a boy fleeing through Turkish lines at night and sleeping in caves by day while bribing soldiers until reaching an American consulate. It also recalls a mother abandoning her child on an American home step, leaving a note saying she cannot feed the baby and trusts that help will come.
A 14 year old girl tells of 11 months held by Kurds in Persia. She narrowly escaped multiple marriages to Kurdish men and moslem priest families after resisting conversion. Beaten when refusing, she was bought by a Kurdish woman for 30 dollars and later escaped with the protecting family to Russian lines.
Abram I. Elkus notes that when he left Constantinople due to broken diplomatic relations with Turkey the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief maintained full operations. He says relief work continues effectively across centers with Turkish officials showing increasing friendliness and a growing need for aid.
A Persia sourced report describes widespread hunger with women selling their children to survive. Typhoid and typhus are cited as prevalent, camels nibble spilled rice, and a laborer reports extreme weakness earning thirty cents daily and only able to buy bread.
A new American Committee for Relief in the Near East replaces the Armenian and Syrian relief effort and aims to raise 30 million dollars for relief across Europe and Asia. The Senate approved its incorporation and a campaign committee led by Alexander Hemphill and Cleveland Dodge includes Taft Hughes Eliot McCormick Morgenthau and many notable figures. The piece ends with a call to aid the victims, recalling ancestors who aided intellectual and spiritual wealth and urging Americans to provide bread for children.
A long passage recalls the suffering of Christian communities during three years of war. It describes ruined churches, mass killings, and refugees while praising Christian fidelity and forgiveness. Muslims who witness the scene are moved and question their own beliefs about religion.
Dr. J. P. McNaughton, after twenty five years in Turkey, addressed Spokane Chamber of Commerce praising immigrant ancestors for shaping civilization with rich content, noting prophets and impact on culture.
Henry Morgenthau, former ambassador to Turkey, notes Turkish authorities initially blocked relief funds but later allowed clandes tine aid. American relief teams, aided by British and French troops, continue work in occupied Turkey aiding 5,000 listed now with 15,000 more in urgent need. No funds available for a dedicated fatherless children program.
A German school teacher in Aleppo details mass killings and deportations of Armenians, describing how thousands are slaughtered or starved during deportations and accusing Turkish authorities of extermination. The account notes German sympathy and calls for diplomatic action to counter the killings.
The article surveys Armenian, Syrian, Greek, Assyrian, and Jewish communities in Western Asia. It notes Armenia as an early Christian nation with 137 pontiffs seated at Etchmiadzin since 309, population distribution in 1913, Syria as a crossroad between continents with historic cities, Greek influence in Turkey, Assyrian Nestorians speaking Syriac, and the broad historical role of Jews in Palestine and Syria.
A refugee crisis leaves about 100000 people with 20000 fatherless children. In Baku, Kars, and Erzroom regions many more. An American doctor spots starving children by a dying camel, then finds them scavenging scraps and even eating scraps from animal dung.
The piece describes American women missionaries forced to choose who among starving children to feed as funds run short. In one town 430 children awaited aid but only 70 could be supported, leaving 360 to starve.
The passage describes widespread depopulation in Beirut Palestine and the Lebanon with many villages empty. An American visitor found a village last summer with only one house open and observed emigrants or deceased residents. A young girl cried I am hungry as she stood alone. Children in the villages appear as old due to hardship.
In Aleith grape harvests are poor as children eat shoots and young leaves. Mulberry orchards, sown with wheat, suffer as children pluck wheat to reach seeds near roots.
The text laments mass killings and a larger tragedy of deportations affecting 100000 women and children from a single district. It calls on nations to provide means for locating and restoring survivors to their homes and families after the war.
American consuls report Armenian children scavenging in streets for diseased flesh from dead animals and discarded scraps, fighting crowds for scraps as garbage and peelings become prized food.
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