Unfortunately the Turk never deigns to explain his own case, and thus
the pro-Armenians always manage to hold the field, appalling the public
by incessant reiteration and exaggeration as to the number of victims,
and apparently valuing to its full extent the wisdom of the old Eastern
proverb: Give a lie twenty-four hours’ start, and it will take a hundred
years to overtake it. Later on, when the true figures become available,
only a very few inquisitive people realize the falsity of the earlier
stories. Thus Lord Bryce, speaking in the House of Lords on October
6th, 1915, said that the information he had received went to show that
800,000[8] was a possible number of the Armenians destroyed since May
last. By adding to this figure the 250,000 refugees in Russia for whom
funds are requested, and 13,000 refugees in Egypt, we arrive at a grand
total of 1,063,000 Armenians, while, according to Sir Charles Wilson, the
total Armenian population of the nine Provinces most thickly populated
by them is only 925,000, which he describes as an outside estimate. The
total number of Arabs killed by the Italian newspapers in the Tripolitan
war exceeded three times the population of the country. It would seem
that the advocates of the Armenians are imitating the Italian Press.
An example of the most extraordinary reports anent the so-called
massacres, furnished to and circulated through the English newspapers by
Lord Bryce, is that of Mersina:
The number of Armenians sent _from_ this city now totals about
25,000, and this _in addition_ to the many thousands coming
from the north that pass through.
Yet the total population of Mersina as given in the official returns for
1908 was 20,966 persons, of whom 11,246 were Moslems, 2,441 Jews, and the
remaining 7,279 Christians of various sects, Greek, Armenian, Latin and
Nestorian. How 25,000 Armenians could have been sent from Mersina out
of a total Christian population of 7,279 (at least one half of whom were
Greeks), is difficult to understand.
The _Times_ report of Lord Bryce’s statement in the House of Lords quotes
him as saying, that at Trebizond
the facts as to the slaughter were vouched for by the Italian
Consul, who was there at the time. The Turkish authorities
hunted out all the Christians, gathered them together and
drove them down the streets to the sea. They were all put on
sailing boats and carried out some distance into the Black Sea,
and there thrown overboard and drowned; the whole Armenian
population of from 8,000 to 10,000 was destroyed in that way in
one afternoon.[9] After that any other story becomes credible.
Indeed any other story would be more credible. Consider (apart from the
time that would be required for the collection and embarkation of the
victims) the number of sailing boats necessary to carry 8,000 or 10,000
people “some distance” out to sea, even if the boats were able to make
more than one journey! And still this was the preposterous story vouched
for, according to Lord Bryce, by the Italian Consul, Signor Corrini, who
was there at the time. Yet the account of the same event, as given in the
Rome _Messagero_, is entirely different, the Consul being made to say
that the banishment of Armenians under escort, and wholesale shootings in
the streets, continued for a whole month, while there is nothing about
the Armenians having been shipped out to sea and drowned _en masse_ in
one afternoon.
It is interesting to compare the original accounts relating to the number
of Bulgarians killed in the popular risings of 1876 and of Armenians
killed in the Sassun disturbances of 1896, with the subsequent official
estimates.