RELIEF WORK IN ARMENIA.
In presenting an account of the relief work done in Armenia, the order
in time has been observed in a very great degree in order that as the
distress and misery increased the reader might see that greater efforts
were made to relieve the terrible condition of the starving thousands.
March 15, 1896, Hon. John Wanamaker who was then in the East, sent
this cablegram to the Relief Committee of Philadelphia. "I am convinced
that the necessity is appalling. Needs for relief extremely urgent."
The spring of 1894 saw the gaunt spectre of poverty stalking through
this devoted land. It trod on the beautiful valleys and they lost
their verdure and their harvests withered. Poverty became hunger and
cheeks grew thin and death's pallor looked out from hollow eyes. Hunger
became starvation and the keenest form of suffering became the portion
of thousands of once prosperous and happy Armenians.
The Rev. Mr. Macallum, a missionary at Erzeroum said of the situation
in and about that city in April 1894:
"The famine continues to increase in severity. Spring is opening up
late. Very many of the farmers have no grain to sow; we wish we had
enough money on hand to supply the Protestants of Khanoos with seed,
but I am sorry to say that what has come to us is now exhausted,
or practically so. We are feeding about seven hundred people a day
in this city, who otherwise would have nothing to eat. Besides this,
we have sent sufficient out to the country districts to keep life
and courage in several hundred more."
Over $2,000 had been sent to Mr. Macallum up to the middle of May but
though spring had arrived and the agony of the cold was over, there
was no work to be found, and over one-third of the sixty thousand
inhabitants of Erzeroum had nothing to eat except the bread of
charity. In the Passen and Khanoos district near by a similar famine
was prevailing, and but for the help sent to them many of the people
would have died of starvation.
Writing to the friends who had sent him aid Mr. Macallum said: "You
may rest assured that there are hundreds of poor starving people who
bless you and the givers night and day. We have sought to help only
those who are most needy, and the testimony of all is that the help
we have administered has saved many from a terrible death. 'You have
redeemed us.' 'You have bought our children's blood.' 'May the Lord
reward you a thousandfold for all you have done!' These and other
like expressions we hear every day. Some of those who get bread from
us regard it as sacred, and eat it as they take the sacrament in
church. We are giving bread regularly to over a thousand people a day
in the city, Protestants, Greeks, Catholics, and Gregorians. We have
given £50 to the governor here for the Turkish poor. This gift was
comparatively small, but more gratitude was expressed by the Turkish
authorities than by the Gregorians, to whom we had given the most."
The summer of 1894 instead of bringing relief, brought increased
burdens from the frequent raids of the wild Kurds, who during that
single year drove out of the districts of Boolanyk and Moush alone more
than ten thousand head of cattle and sheep. The result was the utter
disappearance of wealth and the rapid spread of misery so intense,
so hopeless, so distressing in its moral and physical effects as to
have inspired some of its victims with that wild courage which is
akin to despair.
To the depredations of the Kurds, were added the cruel extortions
of the Zaptiehs, or official tax-gatherers. There was absolutely no
redress for Christians who suffered in property, life or limb at the
hands of Mohammedans.
The taxes levied upon Armenians were exorbitant; the bribes that
invariably accompanied them, and were imposed by the Zaptiehs, swelled
to any proportions, and assumed the most repugnant forms, while the
methods employed to collect both constituted by themselves sufficient
justification for the sweeping away of Ottoman rule in Armenia.
To give a fair instance of the different rates of taxation for
Christians and Mohammedans in towns it will suffice to point out that
in Erzeroum, where there are eight thousand Mohammedan houses, the
Moslems paid only three hundred and ninety-five thousand piastres,
whereas the Christians, whose houses number but two thousand, paid
four hundred and thirty thousand piastres.
The barbarities and the enormities and savagery of the Sassoun
massacres left those districts in a most deplorable condition. After
decimating the population, the Kurds burned and utterly destroyed
many villages and drove off all their cattle and sheep and left the
plains as if swept by cyclone and wrecked by earthquake.
The fugitives returning after the Kurdish fiends had returned into the
mountains had neither the means nor the opportunity to cultivate the
soil which their forefathers had possessed for many generations. Their
homes were wrecked, their farms destroyed, and their implements and
cattle seized by the bandit mountaineers, and they themselves were
compelled to seek such shelter as the woods and caves afforded.
It was the Medical Missionary at Van, Dr. Grace W. Kimball whose heart
was so smitten with anguish at the sight of such suffering that she
determined to let the world know what the horrors of Sassoun really
were. In the smitten districts at least five thousand were living in
the mountains and faring little better than the wild beasts.
They were sustaining life on roots and berries and were almost
naked--many wholly so. It is not surprising that this terrible
privation should have bred disease, and, when she wrote, fever and
other physical troubles were carrying the wretched people off in
large numbers. She described the condition of the women and little
children as miserable beyond anything she had ever heard of.
This brave Christian woman did not spend the time in lamenting the
wretchedness of the people among whom she labored, but set about to
find out some practical way of helping them. Food, clothing, and
shelter were the three prime necessities. She gathered the adults
in about one hundred of the fugitive families, and soon had them
employed at making cotton cloth--an industry with which they were
already familiar. She supplied the material, and paid the workers
for their labor, expending in this way about $100 weekly, which was
applied to the relief of the families. By this excellent method, she
gave the needed help to many of the sufferers without pauperizing them,
and she earned the warmest love and gratitude of the Armenians.
But the market for the product of this labor was soon supplied and
the resources of the missionaries were soon exhausted. It was then
that she wrote in the anguish of her soul to this country and this
was the origin of The Christian Herald Relief Fund which collected and
sent many thousand dollars to the centers of massacres and suffering.
Early in October, 1895, Mr. W. W. Howard the commissioner sent by The
Christian Herald of New York to relieve the persecuted and hunger
smitten peasants of Armenia, set forth on his errand of mercy. In
retaliation for his articles on the terrible suffering in Armenia and
its cause, the Turkish government resolved to prevent Mr. Howard from
entering its dominions. Refused permission to pass through Anatolia
he was compelled to go through Russia and Persia, and eventually
was prevented by the Turkish officials from crossing the frontier
opposite Van, a notification of the order for his exclusion being
sent to Mr. Terrell, the American minister at Constantinople, who
cabled the fact to this country.
This, however, did not impede the work of the distribution of the
relief fund as the money was sent to W. W. Peet, Constantinople,
to be distributed by Rev. H. O. Dwight "with special reference to
sufferers in the neighborhood of Van."
The whole country was in fearful peril and Van itself practically
in a state of siege, the trees along the streets having been
leveled to permit the placing of cannon in position to command
the Armenian quarter. A most various phase of the condition was
wholesale exile. Thousands of Armenian villagers, unable to endure
privation longer, or to see their wives and children starve left their
ruined homes and bare fields and poured into the neighboring cities,
unsheltered and hungry.
Meanwhile the good work that the missionaries were doing at Van
and Bitlis led the Duke of Westminster, Chairman of the British
Committee of Relief, and Sir Philip Currie, the British Ambassador
at Constantinople, to designate Messrs. Raynolds and Cole as almoners
of their bounty as they were of the gifts from America.
When these gentlemen first reached the desolated region they were
greatly hindered in caring for the poor by petty officials, but later
on and in view of representations made by the embassies, the opposition
ceased, at least outwardly. Men were set at work rebuilding houses and
food was distributed to the most needy. It was estimated that $40,000
would be needed to feed upwards of five thousand persons until the
next harvest, and a call was sent for further aid from Europe and
America. Finally the bitter hate of the Turkish officials prevailed
and the distribution of supplies was stopped and Messrs. Cole and
Raynolds compelled to return to their homes.
There were one hundred thousand persons in the two hundred towns
and villages in one district alone, who were actually starving,
and the story of one was the story of all sections. No one not in
the actual midst of it could have any comprehension of the extent of
the desolation and of the degree of the suffering. Daily rations of
bread, amounting to two cents for adults and one cent for children,
were delivered to more than one thousand six hundred in one city. Over
four thousand suits consisting of shirt and drawers, were made and
distributed, three hundred mattresses and four hundred quilts were
given. Many were glad of a piece of bagging to put over them. Poor
Armenia! Drenched with the blood of her children, her hills and
valleys resounding with their shrieks and sighs and moans, she stood
the oldest Christian nation in the world--asking for the smallest of
small coins to preserve lives that might yet be given the crown of
martyrdom--a spectacle for the world.
In the first outburst of righteous indignation that blazed out from
all Europe, it seemed as if the Infidel Turkish Government condemned
unanimously by the verdict of all nations for its crimes against God
and humanity, would soon be swept out of Europe and that even its
possessions in Asia Minor would be torn from its grasp and partitioned
among civilized races.
Lord Salisbury, the British Premier, at a public dinner, made an
address which plainly intimated that the patience of Europe was
exhausted, and that the Sultan's folly had sealed the doom of his own
government, if not of the Ottoman Empire. Lord Salisbury recognized
in the present condition of Turkey, the result of its offences against
God. He said:
"Above all treaties, all combinations of the Powers, in the nature of
things, is Providence. God, if you please to put it so, has determined
that persistent and constant misgovernment must lead the government
which follows it to its doom. The Sultan is not exempt any more than
any other potentate from the law that injustice will bring the highest
one on earth to ruin."
These words sounded as if the Prime Minister really meant to do
something to permanently better the condition of Christian Armenia,
but in the light of after events it seemed that Lord Salisbury,
after considerable reflection, concluded to let the Lord settle the
account with Turkey without England's intervention.
There was one man in Constantinople who played a mighty part in the
life and death struggle between Christianity and Islam--Mattheos
Ismirlian, the Armenian Patriarch, but great as was his influence,
he was powerless to relieve the increasing mass of suffering and
misery in all the provinces.
The story of Zeitoun, of its long and brave defence and of its final
capitulation has been already told, but the distress which prevailed
there was simply awful.
The five European Consuls who went to Zeitoun to negotiate for the
submission of the Armenian insurgents telegraphed to their respective
embassies that indescribable distress prevailed among the eight
thousand refugees at that place. The sick, the dying and the dead
were heaped together in all kinds of astonishing places where a little
extra warmth was to be hoped for. Bitter cold prevailed and the women
and girls were devoid of necessary clothing.
Although the inhabitants of Zeitoun gave up their arms, the refugees
shrank from quitting the town through lack of confidence in the
Turks. Only too well founded were their fears, as, a little while
after this disarming, sixteen Zeitounlis were proceeding under the
escort of one gendarme to Albistan to buy wheat or barley; they were
suddenly fallen upon and nine of them were massacred.
It was an awful crime against humanity, the stupidest folly to put
faith in the promises of the Turk where the welfare of a Christian
was at stake.
Fifteen Armenian families were murdered by Kurds in the district
of Tchabakeiour, Bitlis, because, having embraced Islamism, they
returned to Christianity. The authorities declined to recognize them
as Mohammedans, and are said even to have advised them to remain
Christians. This exasperated the Kurds, who decided to exterminate
them.
At many points the lives of our missionaries were in peril but United
States Minister Terrell warned the Sultan that his Government would
be held responsible "If even a hair upon the head of an American
should be touched:" and to enforce that word--a good straightforward,
understandable word, there were three American warships cruising in
Turkish waters.
There is not the slightest doubt but that if the fleets of the Great
Powers had passed the Dardanelles in November, 1894, and demanded
that the outrages against the Armenians should cease, or their guns
would fire on Stamboul, silence would have fallen like that of death
upon the fierce soldiers and fiercer Kurds, in Armenia. But the word
was not spoken, and before God and in the sight of Christendom the
blood of the slain is upon them.
From every quarter of the afflicted country appeals came pouring in,
saying that the suffering was beyond all description and starvation
imminent. "Aid must be sent quickly if lives were to be saved." The
survivors of the Erzingan massacre appealed to the Patriarch at
Constantinople to lay their sore need before the world, and to
"send aid quickly, quickly, quickly." But these were only a few;
similar appeals, heart-moving in their terrible earnestness, kept
coming in from a score of districts where continued massacres made
the trembling survivors almost wish for death, that they might be
spared the pain of witnessing further horrors.
Noble work was done by American missionaries everywhere in
Armenia. Nearly all were engaged in aiding the distressed families,
and it was that fact alone that caused the Turkish officials to demand
their withdrawal, in order that the homeless and destitute Armenians
might be left to die.
Conspicuous among the relief work accomplished was that done at Van
under the direction of Dr. Grace W. Kimball. All who care for the
amelioration of destitution and suffering, cannot fail to see in
the following letter, the practical wisdom which characterized her
work. October 15, 1895, Dr. Kimball wrote:
"The plan of this work is to aid without pauperizing, and to utilize a
part of the great number of workers who are idle and starving because
there is no work to be had. A large proportion of the people of both
city and villages are conversant with the various processes in the
manufacture of coarse cotton and woolen fabrics. This suggested
a simple solution of the work problem. Small sums of money had,
as early as June, come to us for our distressed people. And on the
strength of this money and the increasingly urgent demands for help,
a very simple beginning was made. A bag of wool was bought, weighed
out into pound portions, and whenever a woman came begging for help
or work, her case was investigated, her name registered, and she was
given wool to card and spin. On return of the thread it was weighed
and examined as to quality: the woman was paid at a rate that, it
was estimated, would supply her with bread, and she was given another
lot of wool. The giving of two or three lots of wool in this way was
enough to bring down on us a crowd, and speedily we found a large
business flooding in upon us--one demanding good organization and
a corps of distributors. Cotton was added to our supplies, and all
the processes and tricks of the two trades were quickly investigated,
and every attempt was made to put the enterprise on a sound business
basis. We were able to select at once those whom our hearts had
ached to help to gain a living, and a good corps of helpers was soon
organized. Men to keep the door--and it often took three men to do
this against the clamoring crowd--men to receive and weigh the wool,
cotton and thread; men for the various demands of the Central Bureau.
"For the first two months the work was accommodated in our house,
in the rooms used as a dispensary, and we were in a state of siege
from morning to night. The long lower hall was devoted to a row of
cotton-carders, the twang of whose primitive cards and the dust of
whose work, filled the house from early morning till dark, while a
crowd of wretched men and women was never absent. The accumulation
of thread brought the necessity for weavers, and all the processes
of weaving had to be studied. The demand was met at once by weavers
who were out of work and in dire poverty. The thread was given them
by weight, and the woven goods received by weight; and they in turn
were paid with due regard to the needs of their families. Then to the
children and to some who were too weak and sick to do the heavier work,
yarn was given to be knitted into socks.
"Shortly, we found ourselves in possession of a good stock of cotton
cloth, woolen goods for the loose trousers worn here, and huge
piles of coarse socks. And the question what to do with them came
to the front. The suggestion was made that this work might help and
be helped by the Sassoun Relief work, by our supplying materials for
distribution there. The proposition was submitted to Messrs. Raynolds
and Cole and gladly accepted by them, and this arrangement has been
the means whereby our Bureau could double its efficiency, thanks to
having an assured market for all its produce, without affecting the
same industries here, which on the contrary it should help. Our goods
are done up in bales, loaded on donkeys or ox-carts, and carried
down to the lake harbor. They are received by the miserable little
sailboats that ply the lake, and taken--with prayers for insurance--to
the opposite side of Van Lake, a distance of some sixty miles. Thence
they are transported by horses or carts to Moush, the headquarters
of the Sassoun Commission. The journey takes from ten days to two
or three weeks. In this way we have already sent some two thousand
pairs of socks, and fourteen hundred webs of cloth. The total number
of workers (up to October 15) was as follows:
Spinners of cotton and wool 373
Weavers of cotton goods 49
Weavers of woolen goods 22
Weavers of carpets 5
Carders 9
Spindle Fillers 9
Sizers 4
Weighers, Door-tenders, etc. 5
---
Total 476
"The average of wages per capita for the week was seven piastres,
or about thirty cents. The intense poverty of the people is shown by
the fact that these wages, small as they are, exceed from one-third to
one-half the regular rates for the same work. On the other hand the
demands grow more and more urgent--desperate, I might well say. So
importunate are the crowds that I often have to call a man to pass
me out of the office after my work is done. They beg and weep and
catch at my clothes and will not let me go. And it is maddening to
see such misery, and yet be obliged to turn a deaf ear to so much of
it. We help, through our four hundred and seventy six workers, some
two thousand souls, and this is not in itself, a small thing. But
when it is compared with the vast number of helpless poor about us,
it accentuates our appeal to our more fortunate fellow Christians
for larger help.
"The gratitude of these people is touching in the extreme. Would that
I could send to each one who has given to this work the blessings and
the prayers and the gratitude that are bestowed on them daily. And
yet the cry goes up for more help. Winter cold and rains are upon
us. Thousands have but the thinnest and most ragged clothing, no
shoes or stockings, many no beds, and most no fuel or other winter
provisions. Thousands never taste anything but coarse, dry bread
for weeks and months at a time--and little enough of that--while,
especially in the villages, hundreds have not even that, and are on
the verge of starvation. I doubt not that many will have actually
starved before these words are read in America.
"It is a national tragedy we are witnessing, and we know not what the
end will be. It is also and especially an historical struggle between
Islam and Christianity. Christianity is for the present sadly worsted,
and it remains for Christian Europe, England and America to decide
which shall ultimately be victorious. All that Armenian Christians can
do is to die martyrs to the Faith, and that they have done, are doing,
and will continue to do daily, until help come--help which reaches
not merely Embassies and the Capital, but which penetrates to the
remote villages and mountain fastnesses where the worshippers of the
Cross are to-day at the pitiless mercy of the fanatical Kurd and Turk.
"In closing this incomplete report of our mutual work, let me again
assure all our helpers and coöperators, of the deep appreciation of
their aid and sympathy that is felt, not only by those who receive
their gifts, but by the entire Armenian people. And let me also
remind whomsoever may feel impelled to send us aid that he is not only
aiding a starving people, but is also helping to maintain Christianity
against its most virulent foes."
Early in the following December, Dr. Kimball again wrote: "The bakery
which we opened is taxed to its utmost capacity and beyond, so that
we have been giving orders on another bakery as a temporary thing,
and are having a new bakery fitted up, to be ready in two or three
days. We are now feeding about one thousand five hundred people daily,
and are distributing clothing to these people and hundreds of other
villagers who are in greatest need. We have laid in one thousand five
hundred bushels of wheat and a considerable amount of wood at very
advantageous prices.
"Just here, the man in charge of the bakeries comes and reports that
the Governor is giving out orders for bread to the villagers. This
Governor is a good man, and we do not doubt his good intentions. But
as the treasury is entirely empty, we do not anticipate any very
material assistance from Turkish sources. However little it may be,
it will doubtless be noised abroad, especially in English papers,
as a proof of the tender feelings the Government entertains for its
Christian subjects. The hand that smote will not long comfort. Please
assure all contributors and helpers in this work of Armenian relief,
of the deepest gratitude of the poor people, and of the hearty thanks
of us who are witnesses of their misery. * * *"
The following is a summary of relief work at Van up to January 1st,
1895: Number of employees of Industrial Bureau nine hundred and
eighty-one, representing over nine hundred and fifty families, or
about four thousand seven hundred and fifty persons. Of these four
are overseers, nine master-workmen, six hundred and fifty eight
spinners of cotton and wool, one hundred and fifteen weavers of
cotton, thirty-seven weavers of woolen goods, and the remainder,
carpet weavers, carders, spindle-fillers, sizers, knitters and
sewers of clothing. The manufactures are coarse cotton cloth, woolen
goods, carpets; a kind of heavy jacket worn by the villagers; socks,
ready-made clothing and bedding. The product from July to November
was largely sold to the Sassoun Relief Commission, though small
quantities were distributed here, chiefly among refugees. The supply
is not nearly equal to the demand.
In the Baking Department free bread is given regularly to four hundred
and fifteen families or about two thousand five hundred persons. About
one thousand five hundred persons have received rations for from
a week to a month, while waiting to return to their villages. The
allowance per capita is one and a half pounds a day. Free bread is
being given to the extent of three thousand pounds a day.
At this time, in Harpoot there was still much unrelieved suffering. In
the city the missionaries were giving one thousand five hundred
rations of bread daily. The ladies distributed one thousand two
hundred shirts and drawers, sixty pairs of stockings, one hundred
and forty six mattresses, and two hundred quilts. These garments were
manufactured by the destitute women, with regular wages of three or
four cents a day. At Aintab the missionaries with the relief moneys
were feeding three thousand two hundred and twenty-six persons,
at Erzeroum two thousand five hundred, at Erzingan one thousand,
and also large numbers at Palu, Diarbekir, Oorfa, Arabkir, Malatia,
Marash, Hadjin, Cæsarea, and Sivas.
By Christmas, 1895, generous responses came from all over the land,
though by no means large enough to equal the necessities of the
starving thousands scattered throughout the cities and towns and
villages of Anatolia.
This work of relief was conducted under extraordinary conditions,
the Turkish Government hampering and opposing it at every point and
making it clear to all the missionaries that the deliberate intent
was to allow the Armenians to die of cold and hunger.
Abdul Hamid decreed that the Christians should be exterminated; those
who had survived the massacres at Moush, Sassoun, Dalvorig, Trebizond,
Erzeroum and Harpoot, would die quietly if let alone. They were mere
Christian dogs--all of them, and deserved to perish for the glory of
Allah and his prophet. And when the missionaries, faithful to their
duty, and at the risk of their own lives, continued to extend succor
to the starving ones, their mission buildings were burned down,
their converts slain and they themselves compelled to seek a place
of shelter.
Early in December, 1895, Miss Clara Barton, of Washington, President
of the Red Cross Society, was requested to undertake relief work
in Armenia, and as Turkey belonged to the Red Cross Association,
it was thought that no obstacles would be placed in her way by the
Sultan. Miss Barton quickly responded and prepared to take the field in
person with a corps of trained workers, sailing from New York, January
22, 1896. Upon her arrival at Constantinople the fullest permission
was given for the entrance into Armenia of the Red Cross party and
an apparently active and generous effort was made towards making
their endeavors, journeys, etc., as safe and easy as possible. Miss
Barton took with her many letters of great influence addressed to the
Turkish authorities and other persons in close contact with them, but
in spite of this and the reiterated promise of the Turkish Foreign
Minister to permit the distributors of relief to go to Anatolia,
the necessary irades were withheld by the Sultan and for some time
Miss Barton's work was limited to Constantinople. It was during this
period that the Porte permanently prohibited several leading American
newspapers from entering Turkey.
Early in April, 1896, as the result of the incessant pressure brought
to bear upon the Porte by Mr. J. W. Riddle, United States Chargé
d'affaires, and Sir Philip Currie, British Ambassador, Tewfik Pasha,
the Turkish Foreign Minister, gave assent to the demand that all
relief afforded to the suffering Armenians by the agents of the
Red Cross Society should be distributed unconditionally, with the
exception of one provision, namely, that one member of the Turkish
Relief Commission should be present.
Miss Barton at once despatched one caravan with goods to Marash and
followed it with another including eight physicians and apothecaries
with medical supplies. At Marash, the destitution and misery were
past human imagination. Cold, famine, smallpox and typhoid fever
had carried off four thousand people and twelve thousand refugees
were in need of food, clothing and bedding. There was not a yard of
cotton cloth in the place and no doctors. At Aintab, Oorfa, Harpoot
and Zeitoun the needs were almost as great, and to each of these
points, goods and medical supplies were despatched and distributed
by trustworthy American residents and Miss Barton's Red Cross agents.
Upwards of $70,000 were sent by cable from America to the missionaries
in Armenia, through the American Board of Foreign Missions. Not
one dollar of this amount was lost or failed to reach its proper
field. In many instances the money was given out in the form of bread
and clothing to the starving refugees in Asia, within forty-eight
hours of the time of cabling it from New York. This fact should go
far towards disarming the severe criticisms sometimes heard regarding
the business management of missionary enterprises.