The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4)
Vol. IV. OCTOBER, 1909. No. 4.
AMERICAN
RED CROSS
BULLETIN
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON D C
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THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
Officers
_President_,
HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT.
_Vice-President_,
ROBERT W. de FOREST.
_Secretary_,
CHARLES L. MAGEE.
_Treasurer_,
HON. CHAS. D. NORTON.
_Counselor_,
HON. LLOYD W. BOWERS.
_Chairman of Central Committee_,
MAJOR-GENERAL GEO. W. DAVIS, U. S. A. (Ret.)
_National Director_,
ERNEST P. BICKNELL.
Board of Consultation
BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE H. TORNEY,
Surgeon-General, U. S. Army.
REAR ADMIRAL PRESLEY M. RIXEY,
Surgeon-General, U. S. Navy.
SURGEON-GENERAL WALTER WYMAN,
U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service.
Central Committee 1908-1909
Major-General GEORGE W. DAVIS, U. S. A. (ret.), _Chairman_.
Brigadier-General GEORGE H. TORNEY, Surgeon-General, U. S.
Army, War Department, Washington, D. C.
Hon. HUNTINGTON WILSON, Assistant Secretary of State,
Department of State, Washington, D. C.
Hon. CHARLES D. NORTON, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, U.
S. Treasury Dept., Washington, D. C.
Medical Director JOHN C. WISE, U. S. N., Navy Department,
Washington, D. C.
Hon. LLOYD W. BOWERS, Solicitor-General, Department of Justice,
Washington, D. C.
President BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER, University of California.
Mr. JOHN M. GLENN, 105 East 22d street, New York, N. Y.
Miss MABEL T. BOARDMAN, Washington, D. C.
Hon. JAMES R. GARFIELD.
Hon. A. C. KAUFMAN, Charleston, S. C.
Hon. H. KIRKE PORTER, 1600 I street, Washington, D. C.
General CHARLES BIRD, U. S. A., Wilmington, Del.
Col. WILLIAM CARY SANGER, Sangerfield, N. Y.
Judge LAMBERT TREE, 70 La Salle street, Chicago, Ill.
Hon. JAMES TANNER, Washington, D. C.
Mr. W. W. FARNAM, New Haven, Conn.
One vacancy.
[Illustration: CONTENTS]
PAGE
Table of Contents 1
Red Cross Officers 2
View of Armenian Quarter, Adana 3
Preface 4
Turko-Armenian Relief. _Illustrated._ 8
By G. Bie Ravndal.
Italian Earthquake Relief. _Illustrated._ 45
Portuguese Earthquake Relief 61
Canal Zone Red Cross. _Illustrated._ 62
By Major C. A. Devol, U. S. A.
Use and Abuse of the Red Cross Brassard 66
By G. H. Richardson, M. D.
Repression of the Abuse of the Red Cross Insignia 67
The Story of the Red Cross 69
Tuberculosis Department. _Illustrated._ 71
1. Christmas Stamps.
2. District of Columbia.
3. Indiana.
4. New York.
5. New Hampshire.
Red Cross Nurses’ Department 81
First Aid Department. _Illustrated._ 84
1. California.
2. Illinois.
3. New York.
4. Pennsylvania.
5. Germany.
6. Great Britain.
Notes. _Illustrated._ 99
List of Red Cross Branches 3d page of cover
Entered at the Post Office, Washington, D. C., as second-class matter.
[Illustration: DESTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN QUARTER IN ADANA]
[Illustration: WILLIAM H. TAFT.]
PREFACE
With the October number of 1909 the RED CROSS BULLETIN brings its
fourth volume to a close. Those who recall the dry little report which
constituted the first BULLETIN, issued in January, 1906, will find a
strong proof of the growth of the American Red Cross by contrasting the
former with the BULLETINS issued during the last year. The Red Cross is
fast becoming a very vital force throughout the world, a force that is
bringing the nations closer together in the bonds of human sympathy,
brotherhood, and peace.
During 1909 our people, by means of the American Red Cross, have been
able to express their sympathy and give their help to thousands of their
fellowmen who have suffered from earthquakes in Italy and Portugal, from
massacres in Turkey, and, just as this BULLETIN goes to press, from
floods in Mexico. In San Francisco the Relief Home and the thousands of
little cottages built after the fire are monuments beside the Golden
Gate to our Red Cross. Again, in sunny Italy the American Red Cross
Orphanage and hundreds of little cottages are witnesses of its zeal and
its sympathy. A picture in this BULLETIN shows some of the cottages it
has helped to build in Portugal, and the Red Cross Day Camps that are
beginning to dot the country over show its unforgetfulness of those who
are victims of the “Great White Plague.” The transport that carried to
China the generous cargo of food supplies provided by the _Christian
Herald_ floated the Red Cross flag; the relief ship _Bayern_, sent out
by the American Relief Committee in Rome under the American Red Cross
flew again that wonderful emblem, and from Beirut comes the news that the
steamer on which our Red Cross committee there shipped relief supplies
to the sufferers from the Armenian massacres sailed under the Red Cross
flag. The ferryboat given by Miss Mary Harriman to the Brooklyn Red
Cross for its tuberculosis work is another ship in what has been called
“The Red Cross Navy.” So the water as well as the land has seen the
beneficence of its labors.
[Illustration: ROBERT W. DE FOREST.
Copyright, Harris-Ewing, ’08.]
Our American Red Cross has suffered a serious loss in the death of Mr.
John C. Pegram, of Providence, Rhode Island. Due to the interest and
energy of Mr. Pegram, Rhode Island founded the first State Branch of the
Red Cross after its reorganization in 1905. From this time until his
death Mr. Pegram was its President, and he has also been a most faithful
and valuable member of the National Central Committee.
We regret that the new plans for a reorganization in regard to State
Branches are not yet in such shape as to be presented in this BULLETIN.
Experience has shown the difficulty of maintaining efficient State
Branches under present regulations. Our States are generally too large
for the officers and members of Committees of a State Branch to hold
frequent meetings, and in many cases it is not wise to concentrate all
officers and members of State Committees in one city. The new plans
leads to the creation of skeleton State Branches, to act only in case
of disasters. The local, county, city, or town chapters will be brought
directly in contact with the National Headquarters at Washington. In case
of disaster in a State, it has been the custom of the Governor of the
State to take prompt action for relief measures. For this reason it is
probable that the Governors of States will be asked to act as Presidents
of their respective State Branches. In appealing to the President of the
United States for assistance, as has been the custom when the calamity
has been of such magnitude that it was not possible for the State to
render all the aid required, the Governor will appeal to the President
of the American Red Cross, so the stricken community will be assured
of assistance from the Government and also from the great national
organization of the Red Cross. The new plans will soon be formulated and
sent to all State officers of our Branches.
[Illustration: MAJ.-GEN. GEORGE W. DAVIS
Copyright, Clinedinst, ’08.]
Arrangements for First Aid Courses on a large scale are fast developing.
In October, under the Red Cross’ auspices, will be held a competition in
First Aid among a number of Miners’ First Aid Corps from different mines
in Pennsylvania. A prize, to be won three times, will be awarded, and
bronze medals to the individual members of the winning team. Plans for
the Nursing Department will receive much consideration. The new Christmas
stamp for the tuberculosis work we trust will prove even more successful
than that of last year, and so our Red Cross sees the future looming
large and vigorous before it.
[Illustration: HON. CHARLES D. NORTON]
If, having proved to our people and to the world at large the use and
value of our American Red Cross, we can now raise our Endowment Fund to a
million dollars, so that by its income we may be always ready to render
First Aid when great national or international disasters occur without
having to wait for contributions to come in, and so that we may continue
and carry on measures of teaching the hundreds of thousands of our men
and women engaged in manufacturing, in mining, in railroading, etc., to
be prepared to help themselves and each other in cases of the innumerable
accidents of every day life, our Red Cross will take its place among the
greatest, most efficient, and most blessed forces not only of our own
country but of the world itself.
TURKO-ARMENIAN RELIEF
AMERICAN RED CROSS BEIRUT RELIEF COMMITTEE.
By G. BIE RAVNDAL, American Consul-General, Chairman.
BEIRUT, SYRIA, June 5, 1909.
Your Committee desires to express its profound appreciation of its
recognition by the American National Red Cross as the latter’s authorized
agents in the matter of extending relief to the sick and destitute of
Asia Minor and Syria in consequence of recent bloody disorders.
Such recognition strengthened our appeals for aid. It implied a thorough
audit of accounts, and also that distribution to the needy would be made,
irrespective of race or creed.
As Americans we have wished that credit for whatever we might be able
to accomplish along the lines of alleviating suffering and destitution
should be given to the American National Red Cross. For this reason, as
well as for purposes of protection, we have displayed the Red Cross flag
in the field as well as at our headquarters in Beirut, and we have also
marked supplies as shipped by us to various local relief agents with the
Red Cross insignia.
Commercially and otherwise, the stricken districts form part of Beirut’s
tributary territory. This city, therefore, is especially suitable as
a point of distribution of relief supplies in the present emergency.
Your Committee, accordingly, was able to and did reach Adana and other
afflicted points before any other relief agency. As soon as other
instrumentalities had been provided for the Adana region, your Committee
concentrated its efforts upon the less favored districts of Alexandretta,
Latakia, Kessab, Antioch, and Marash.
We take pleasure in inclosing herewith a synopsis of the report of Prof.
Harry Gaylord Dorman, M. D., of Beirut, who, while there, was called
upon to superintend the entire medical relief work. Some of Dr. Dorman’s
photographs show the Red Cross well to the front in Adana. We are
grateful to the authorities of the Syrian Protestant College for granting
Dr. Dorman the leave of absence required for the purpose indicated.
Inclosed financial statements, prepared by E. G. Freyer, Esq., our
Secretary and Treasurer, who, as the executive member of your Committee,
has displayed the most commendable zeal and tireless activity, explains
the Committee’s operations up to the present time. Fuller accounts of the
manner in which our cash remittances to Alexandretta, Marash, and Antioch
were used will accompany our final and detailed settlement with the
American National Red Cross. In every instance we have availed ourselves
of the services of American, British, and German missionaries in the
field, individually known to and fully trusted by your Committee, as
distributing agents. Most of them “went through” the massacres of 1895,
and thus acquired experience in relief work. Among such field agents we
would especially mention Rev. Chambers, at Adana; Rev. Dodds, at Mersine;
Rev. Kennedy, at Alexandretta; Dr. Balph, at Latakia; Rev. Maccallum,
at Marash, and Rev. Trowbridge, at large, as having rendered valuable
assistance.
While this is only the American Relief Committee at work, we are fully
aware of the important services rendered by the International Committee
at Adana, of which the British Vice-Consul, Major Doughty-Wylie, is
chairman; Rev. W. N. Chambers (American), Secretary, and the Imperial
Ottoman Bank (French), Treasurer. The latest letter received from Rev.
Mr. Chambers, of Adana, shows that the relief work at that point still
remains at its initial stage (feeding the hungry and nursing the
wounded), and that fresh relief measures are imperatively required.
Rev. T. D. Christie, D. D., President of St. Paul’s College Institute
(American), at Tarsus, under the date of May 29, 1909, indorses an
“Appeal for Help to Cilicia,” issued by an Armenian Bishop, in the
following language:
[Illustration: RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS, BEIRUT.]
“The above is not mere rhetoric; it understates rather than overstates
the case. The needy refugees in these two Provinces of Adana and Aleppo
now number about seventy thousand; the value of the property looted or
destroyed is fifty million dollars. I trust there will be a generous
response to this cry for help. Something is already being done, for which
the men and women on the ground are most grateful; but much more must be
done if disaster is to be averted.”
Your Committee is not prepared to confirm any specific estimate of the
number of destitute refugees. While in some places the devastation is
complete, in other places the crops are left and may yet be saved. We
do know, however, that the general situation in the stricken belt is
extremely pitiable, and that we are perfectly justified in calling upon
the American public for further help.
[Illustration: A SHIPMENT OF SUPPLIES LEAVING RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS AT
BEIRUT FOR LATAKIA.]
In the case of Kessab, we have supplied some mechanic’s tools and
agricultural implements as the best means of obviating the necessity
of issuing rations indefinitely. This policy will be pursued in other
villages which were looted and destroyed, and where the inhabitants are
utterly destitute. Photographs show the steamer which carried our fairly
large shipment for Kessab, and boxes composing the shipment. The steamer
(Italian) flew the Red Cross flag in honor of the occasion.
Your Committee is deeply grateful for the opportunity of doing this kind
of work under the inspiring auspices of the American National Red Cross,
and would assure you that we constantly have in mind performing our task
in such a manner as not to lower the high standard of efficiency and
fidelity to duty set by your noble organization.
_Supplementary Report of July 15._
In continuation of my report of June 14, 1909, I have the honor to submit
the following further observations:
To begin with, the most pressing need called for food and medical aid.
We, therefore, sent doctors and nurses and medical supplies to Adana and
provisions, or cash wherewith to buy food, to various stricken centers,
such as Adana, Tarsus, Alexandretta, Kessab, Antioch, and Marash.
Kessab we also supplied with implements and tools of various kinds, as
the village was utterly looted before being destroyed, and practically
nothing but ruins was left of it. At Aintab and Beirut we have provided
clothing, shoes, and bedding for some destitute orphans.
[Illustration: RED CROSS SUPPLIES, INCLUDING PLOWS, PICKS AND OTHER
TOOLS, BEING TAKEN TO THE STEAMER SAILING FOR KESSAB.]
Fortunately, in many districts the crops were saved. The food problem,
except at certain points, including Kessab, which is not an agricultural
village, will therefore be deprived of its worst terrors until the winter
sets in. There has been and still is a general demand for clothing,
quilts, and blankets, especially from the mountainous regions between
Latakia and Marash. We shall hear more about the need of clothing and
bedding and shelter as the season advances and the cold November rains
begin beating down upon the mountains. Kitchen utensils are urgently
wanted in many districts in which the marauders carried off everything
portable.
But while the initial and most palpable suffering and destitution may be
said to have been provisionally checked, and while preliminary steps are
being discussed with a view to establishing orphanages and asylums for
the fatherless and factories in which to give the widows employment, we
feel that the real pinch is yet to come. After careful investigation, we
are satisfied that relief on an extensive scale will have to be furnished
for months to come, and that the coming winter will to the utmost tax
the capacity of all the relief agencies at work, even if the funds at
their disposal are very materially increased beyond the present ratio of
contribution.
[Illustration: ITALIAN S. S. “ORIONE” FLYING RED CROSS FLAG, LEAVING
BEIRUT FOR LATAKIA.]
Confronted with so many unsolved problems of relief and of rehabilitation
and feeling that some 25,000 destitute fellow-beings in the district
between Marash and Latakia are looking toward this Committee for help,
both for the present and during the approaching season of inclement
weather, we are in duty bound to persevere.
As late as July 8, Rev. Kennedy reported from Alexandretta:
“Nothing has been done in the district so far to reinstate
the refugees in their homes. They have been ordered back to
their villages repeatedly, and even threatened if they did not
obey, but they say they can not go back as long as they have
no houses to return to. What the outcome will be I can not
predict. To rebuild 746 houses, even though many of them are
little better than huts, is no small thing.”
[Illustration: TENTS FURNISHED THROUGH THE RED CROSS RELIEF COMMITTEE FOR
ADANA.]
[Illustration: THIRTY-FOUR ORPHAN GIRLS FROM ANTIOCH BROUGHT TO BEIRUT
UNDER RED CROSS AUSPICES FOR THE GERMAN DEACONESSES OF KAISERSWERTH.
BEDS, BLANKETS, SHOES AND CLOTHING WERE SUPPLIED.]
On July 3 this Committee received an appeal from Miss E. Chambers at
Kessab for $500 for shoes, $250 for cotton cloth, and $5,000 for wheat,
while urgent requests were made for money with which to rebuild houses.
More than 600 houses in Kessab had been ruined by fire and other means
of destruction. We have supplied the money necessary to buy the shoes and
the cloth, but we are unable as yet to provide winter stores or to assist
in rehousing the people.
Regarding the matter of contributions, I would invite attention to the
report of July 12 of the Secretary and Treasurer, Mr. E. G. Freyer,
inclosed herewith. Your Committee’s first call for aid met with a
surprisingly generous response from Syria, enabling us to be the first on
the scene of devastation with help from the outside. The contributions
were not large, but they came in promptly, and as shown by the financial
statement of June 24, from numerous sources.
In the matter of distribution, this Committee has exercised very
special care. We have dealt exclusively with American, British, and
German missionaries in the field, men and women personally known to
ourselves, and in whose trustworthiness and good judgment we had implicit
confidence. We have full assurance that the supplies and the cash
forwarded have been employed where they would accomplish the greatest
amount of good. In that way the piasters or piasters’ worth furnished
have been made to serve important ends. We, therefore, feel that we have
not striven in vain, although the summary of receipts and expenditures
does not run into very large figures.
The number of killed during the recent disturbances is variously
estimated at 15,000 to 30,000, leaving thousands of widows and orphans.
Business practically is at a standstill in the disturbed region. Hundreds
of families wish to emigrate, and some have applied to American consuls
for assistance to that end. It is a sad state of affairs. But emigration
on a large scale at this time, when brighter days obviously are dawning
upon this empire, unquestionably would be both a mistake and a misfortune.
Everywhere the Red Cross has been respected and honored, although the
emblem of official relief work in Turkey is the red crescent.
Your Committee considers it a special and precious privilege to be
permitted to help so many of these afflicted people under the inspiring
auspices of the American National Red Cross. We once more appeal for
further funds.
MEDICAL RELIEF WORK IN ADANA
The Adana massacre was in two sections, the first massacre lasting
from the morning of Wednesday, April 14, for three days, until Friday
afternoon, April 16; the second followed after an interval of eight days,
and lasted for two days, Sunday and Monday, April 25 and 26. The second
massacre was followed by occasional killing of Armenians for five or six
days more.
The feature of the first day was the plundering of the shops in the
Armenian quarter by the Moslem mob. There was much shooting in the city,
and some killing on both sides.
Thursday the shooting and killing was continued with more violence. The
resistance of the Armenians in the Armenian section of the city was,
to a certain extent, successful in preventing the pillaging of a large
part of the Armenian quarter. But in the suburbs, where the Christian
houses stood isolated, in their little vineyards or gardens the mob and
pillaging soldiers had full play. Houses were entered, their inhabitants
shot regardless of sex or age, and then, after having been plundered,
the buildings were set on fire. On this Thursday afternoon the first
assistance to the wounded was given by Mrs. Doughty-Wylie, the wife of
Major C. H. M. Doughty-Wylie, British Consul at Mersine. These two had
come up on the last regular train from Mersine the previous day because
of the report of trouble at Adana. However much of credit may have been,
and rightly, given to the Major for a heroism and courage in these days
of terror that was the means of saving the lives of thousands, his wife
is no less deserving of credit for a brave and tireless devotion to the
needs of the wounded, which has done much to mitigate the suffering that
followed these awful massacres. To this work she brought not only a
love for the details of nursing, but a genius for organization as well,
and a training that prepared her in a peculiar way to fill the need.
She had seen service as army nurse in the Boer war, and for six years
she personally supported and conducted a hospital in Bombay, where she
has nursed through famine and through plague. It surely was a special
Providence that brought these two to Adana at such a time.
[Illustration: RUINS IN ADANA.]
Thursday afternoon it was reported at the Consulate that nine wounded
women and children from the ruined houses of the adjoining suburb had
been brought into the Turkish guard house near the Consulate. A message
to the guard house to ask if medical help could be given was answered
by the curt reply that no assistance was needed as all would be dead
by morning. There was firing on the street and murder abroad, but Mrs.
Doughty-Wylie, taking with her a Greek woman and Dr. Danielides, who had
taken refuge at the Consulate, went over to the guard house. The nine
wounded were on the floor of a small room, lying in pools of blood. In
an adjoining room were two wounded soldiers, one with a broken leg and
one with a flesh wound. After a trip back to the Consulate for dressings,
Mrs. Doughty-Wylie and the doctor dressed the wounds, caring first for
the wounded soldiers. The women and children were then brought over and
placed in a woodshed adjoining the Consulate, while the soldiers were
left to the care of the proper military authorities. This formed the
nucleus of the hospital relief work. There might have been ten instead of
nine in this nucleus but for the fact that even while Mrs. Doughty-Wylie
was at work in the guard house a wounded Armenian seeking its protection
was stabbed to death by the bayonets of the soldiers in full view of the
English Consulate. Of the nine, two died of peritonitis in the course of
a few days; two were discharged cured within two weeks, and others were
convalescing in the hospital five weeks later.
A tenth was added to the list of wounded in the Consulate that afternoon
by the wounding of Major Doughty-Wylie in the right forearm, who, in the
role of peacemaker, was frequently between the fire of the contending
parties.
_End of First Massacre._
Friday morning, about nine o’clock, the bugles sounded the call to cease
firing, and the first massacre ceased. Some four or five wounded men were
brought into the British Consulate, and the little hospital overflowed
into an adjoining Armenian house, where the patients lay in a little dark
room with a mud floor.
On Monday a better house was engaged from a Greek. Here were four small
rooms and a broad veranda, which for three weeks did service for surgical
dressing room and operating room. The hospital was established with
fifteen inpatients and a number of outpatients, who came for dressings.
Dr. Danielides left in the middle of the week, and the work was carried
on by Mrs. Doughty-Wylie, assisted by Miss Alltree and Miss Sinclair
(English), and Miss Avania (Greek), until the arrival of Sick Bay Stewart
Shenton and five first aid marines from the British cruiser _Swiftsure_.
These came on Saturday, eight days after the end of the first massacre,
and with a reinforcement of four more marines two days later they did
thorough and efficient work until they were relieved after three weeks
by a similar crew of men under Sick Bay Stewart Weiber from H. M. S.
_Minerva_. The work of these men, and especially of Mr. Shenton, in
caring for the wounded and in the daily dressing of what, after the
second massacre, amounted to some 200 suppurating wounds, is deserving of
the highest praise.
[Illustration: RUINS IN ADANA.]
In the interval of eight days that elapsed between the first and second
massacres, confidence had begun to be gradually restored. The wounded
were gathered in several places and cared for by Armenian doctors under
the supervision of foreigners. Many of the wounds had gone four days
without being dressed and were in bad condition.
_Work Organized._
On Monday, April 9, three days after the end of the first massacre, work
began to be organized, as follows:
Under the care of Miss Wallis, in the upper Gregorian Church, 60 wounded
women and children, and in the Protestant Boys’ School, 15 wounded men,
together with over 15 outpatients.
Under the care of Miss E. S. Webb, in the Armenian Girls’ School, and in
the lower Gregorian Church adjoining, over 40 wounded, besides 30 sick.
Under the care of the Soeurs de Charite de Ste. Leon, in a large Armenian
house, 25 wounded, besides 130 outpatients.
[Illustration: RED CROSS HOSPITAL (SURGICAL) IN CHARGE OF MRS.
DOUGHTY-WYLIE. IN SIMEONIDES’ HOUSE.]
There were also about a dozen wounded in the Turkish School, and among
the 2,000 or so refugees in the New Market Armenian Boys’ School there
were 50 sick.
In all there were 330 wounded Armenians under treatment, of whom about
half were able to come and go for their dressings. Besides this, there
were some 100 sick among the crowded refugees. The small proportion of
wounded relative to the total number of Armenians killed in the city
during the first massacre—a number estimated at 2,500—is indicative of
the vindictiveness of the killing. The chance of escape was small for a
man, woman, or child once disabled by a wound.
Wounded Moslems were cared for in the government charity hospital outside
the city. There were about 50 inpatients, among whom were said to be
a few Christians, and about 150 outpatients. In the Turkish Military
Hospital there were also about 40 wounded. From 50 to 60 other wounded
Moslems were cared for in their homes. The number of Moslems killed is
unknown, but is said to have been 200, more or less.
_Second Massacre._
[Illustration: AMERICAN RED CROSS HOSPITAL (MEDICAL) ADANA.]
On Sunday, April 25, the aspect of the medical relief work was abruptly
changed by the occurrence of the second massacre. This began at 4 in
the afternoon, with a determined fusillade on the New Market Armenian
School, accompanied by the firing of the building, and followed by the
massacre of most of its 2,000 or more helpless refugees as they sought to
escape from the death trap. Carts piled high with bodies were busy for
the next three days emptying the school playground of its dead. The acute
stage of incendiarism and killing lasted only until the following night,
Monday, April 26, but frequent fires and the shooting of stray Armenians
continued for a week after. This massacre differed from the first in the
absence of any effectual resistance on the part of the Armenians, the
prominent participation of the soldiers in the killing, and in that it
ended with the complete destruction by fire of the Armenian section of
the town, representing something over one-fourth of the city’s area. It
seems also to have been characterized by a peculiarly relentless cruelty;
sick and wounded men, women, and children fell alike before the shots and
bayonets of the pitiless soldiery. The 2,500 who are roughly estimated to
have been killed in this second massacre are, for the most part, victims
of the Armenian School massacre, together with those who were killed
the same afternoon in the lower Gregorian Church and adjoining girls’
school. Of the 70 sick and wounded among the refugees here, most were
either killed or burned. The hospital of the French Sisters was burned at
the same time. Some of the patients were burned with it, but some were
saved by two of the Jesuit Fathers, who carried as many as they could
over to the Church of the Jesuit Boys’ School. Even this proved for them
an uncertain refuge, for the following day the buildings of the Jesuit
School were burned, and its refugees, together with the Jesuit Fathers
themselves, were saved from the blood-thirsty mob only by the timely
intervention of Major Doughty-Wylie. In spite of his fractured arm, he
had a guard from the Vali, and rode about in the endeavor to save life
and restore order.
Monday morning, April 26, it was announced that government protection
would be afforded only to those Armenians who should present themselves
at the Konak or government house. So through the day refugees by the
thousand, among them the sick and wounded, fled to the open space in
front of the Konak, until the Armenian quarter was deserted. Many were
escorted there by Major Doughty-Wylie with a guard of soldiers. Here
they stood waiting helplessly, without food, for many hours. The women
and children were commanded to stand apart from the men, and all were
subjected to a thorough search for arms or valuables. Toward evening they
were told to go, but no provision was made for their going. Like a herd
of frightened sheep, turning back here and there as some new terror faced
them, with a number trampled to death at every fresh panic, husbands
separated from wives, and children separated from parents, dead bodies
lying in the streets, and darkness coming on, they gradually drifted to
the new quarter of the town near the railroad station, where they finally
found refuge in the two great cotton factories—13,000 in Trepanni’s
factory and 5,000 in the German factory. In this flight they were
partially protected by the Macedonian soldiers. Some of them were cut and
wounded as they passed by Arab soldiers, but none were killed.
[Illustration: DOCTORS AND NURSES SENT TO ADANA UNDER AUSPICES OF
AMERICAN RED CROSS AGENTS, BEIRUT.]
The four emergency hospitals in the Armenian district were thus broken
up. On that Monday 120 wounded from these hospitals came down to the
hospital of Mrs. Doughty-Wylie for dressings, most of them destitute of
beds or bedding. The next day, Tuesday, there were over 60 inpatients
under the charge of Mrs. Doughty-Wylie; 100 wounded among the 5,000
refugees in the inclosure of the German factory were segregated in a good
building intended for the use of foreign employees of the factory. There
were no beds for these unfortunates at first. Of this 100 many were but
slightly wounded, so that when the factory was emptied of its refugees
a week later only 50 were left as interne patients. Besides the 60 or
more patients in Mrs. Doughty-Wylie’s hospital, 200 outpatients were also
cared for.
There were thus in the three hospitals about 375 wounded under the care
of foreigners, after the second massacre, not many more than the number
of wounded before the second massacre, for the newly wounded were hardly
more than enough to take the places of the wounded who had been killed or
burned. Besides, the nature of the second massacre was such as to leave
few wounded among those attacked. The kill was usually complete.
Dr. Connell, of H. M. S. _Swiftsure_; Dr. Bouthillier, of the French
cruiser _Victor Hugo_; Dr. Bockelberg, of the German cruiser _Hamburg_,
with a number of sailors and marines from their ships, gave much
assistance.
A number of the native physicians likewise gave their services, though at
first it was hardly safe for the Armenian doctors to do so.
The German Emperor had sent his own ship, the _Hamburg_, post haste from
Corfu to Mersine soon after the first massacre, and the supplies needed
for the German Hospital were to a large extent furnished from the ship’s
stores.
[Illustration: DR. DORMAN MAKING HIS ROUNDS OF THE CAMP. ADANA.]
_Conditions of Refugees._
In the four days following the second massacre the condition of the
refugees in the factories was pitiable. A little raw flour was given
out, even on Monday evening, but for most of the people it was two and
a half days before bread was distributed to them. The suffering was
great. Conditions were not as bad in the German factory as in the Greek
factory, because the inclosure of the former was spacious, and the number
of refugees less. In the Greek factory the 13,000 filled all available
space. The buildings were packed, with people sitting everywhere on the
floor; many crawled under the machinery to find a place to lie. Out in
the yard of the factory the last comers were jammed together tightly,
so that for many there was actually “standing room only.” Among the
refugees here few were wounded, but many sick. There had been an epidemic
of measles in the town before the trouble began, and in the crowding
of refugees from the first massacre there had been a thorough spread of
infection. The two weeks that had elapsed since the beginning of the
first massacre gave time for the incubation period, and now many children
broke out with the rash of measles.
A smallpox scare was of benefit, in that it hastened the evacuation of
the factory. This early turning out of the crowd from the factory was one
of the best steps taken in all the relief work, for although it caused
some few deaths by pneumonia from exposure, it avoided the awful calamity
of an outbreak of typhus fever, such as occurred after the Armenian
massacres of 1895. The moving of refugees into camp from the Trepanni
factory was superintended by Commander Carver, of H. M. S. _Swiftsure_.
By Thursday noon the 13,000 had been divided up into about 30 sections to
facilitate the distribution of bread. On Friday, when it was desired to
empty the factory, it was announced that bread would no longer be given
out in the factory, and each section, according to directions, followed
its own particular bread cart out to the place of encampment, at the
Yenemahalle. Here, without sufficient covering, and for a time without
any tents, families were required to pass nights still cold and chilly,
and days rendered intolerable by exposure to the intense heat of the sun
at midday. Children in the acute stage of measles passed the night on the
bare ground without any covering, and exposure to the chill air resulted
in many cases of broncho-pneumonia, from which, for a time, they were
dying at the rate of ten a day.
[Illustration: AMERICAN RED CROSS HOSPITAL IN CHARGE OF SURGEON MILLER,
OF U. S. S. “NORTH CAROLINA,” ASSISTED BY THREE HOSPITAL CORPS MEN AND
LADIES.]
Two days after the establishment of the camp an attempt was made to
separate the families with measles, and between 300 and 400 of such were
collected by Commander Carver in an orange grove, a quarter of a mile
away from the main Yenemahalle camp.
Tuesday, May 4, eight days after the second massacre, the German factory
was cleared of its 5,000 inmates, and these were located part in an open
camp and part in adjoining houses, which, although rented by Armenians,
had been spared the general destruction because belonging to Turkish
owners. This location was nearly half a mile distant from the Yenemahalle
camp. The people here were fed by German funds, and the place was known
as the “German camp.”
At this time the allowance of rations was doubled in the large
Yenemahalle camp, so that from this time on the people had sufficient
food. But the bread from the emergency bakeries of the first two weeks
was often poorly baked, and many people had diarrhœa, approaching
dysentery, from eating the raw dough that for many was the only food
available during the first two days in the factory. Tuesday night and
Wednesday 500 blankets and 100 quilts, sent from Beirut, were distributed
to the most destitute of the sufferers in the Yenemahalle and measles
camp, but when half of the 13,000 refugees were without covering for
the night, it can be understood that the 600 pieces were woefully
insufficient to go around. A week later 300 more blankets were received
and distributed.
[Illustration: GERMAN HOSPITAL IN GROUNDS OF GERMAN FACTORY WITH
KAISERSWERTH DEACONESSES.]
On this Tuesday a request made to Ashraf Bey, municipal sanitary
inspector, for aid in medical inspection was answered by the sending of
two Turkish doctors and two pharmacists, who, the following day, opened
an emergency pharmacy near the measles camp.
_Red Cross Sends Medical Aid._
Immediately after the second massacre, a call for medical assistance was
sent by the Adana Relief Committee to Beirut, where a Red Cross Relief
Committee had been constituted by Hon. G. Bie Ravndal, American Consul
General; Mr. E. G. Freyer, of the American Presbyterian Mission, and Dr.
Geo. E. Post, of the Syrian Protestant College. This was answered by
sending an Armenian physician, Dr. Armadouni, on Wednesday, April 28,
who, on arrival at Mersine, found that it was impracticable to proceed
farther on account of government restrictions of Armenians. Surgical
supplies sent with him were forwarded to Adana, and he returned to Beirut.
Another still more urgent appeal for doctors came from the Adana Relief
Committee on Friday, April 30. The surgeons from the English and German
ships were necessarily irregular in their attendance, and soon to be
compelled to leave; Armenian doctors were not available, and severe
epidemics were to be expected among the crowded and poorly fed refugees.
In response to this call the American Red Cross Committee at Beirut
sent a medical commission, which reached Adana on Wednesday, May 5,
consisting of two students of the fourth year of the Syrian Protestant
College Medical School, Dr. Kamil Hilal and Dr. Fendi Zughaiyar; Miss
MacDonald, a Canadian, who had been teaching in Jerusalem, and Dr. H.
G. Dorman, of the Syrian Protestant College, who is the writer. With us
was a complete hospital outfit of surgical instruments, sterilizers,
sterilized dressings and sutures, and a supply of condensed milk, tinned
soups, drugs, etc. Miss MacDonald was succeeded later by Miss Davis, who
arrived May 10. The size of the Beirut delegation was increased later by
the arrival, on May 12, of Mr. Bennetorossian, of the third year in the
Syrian Protestant College Medical School, and on May 20 by Dr. Haigazum
Dabanian, who had been released by Dr. Torrence, of the Tiberias Mission,
from his engagement in the English hospital there that he might assist in
the Adana relief work. The two senior medical students were Syrians who
spoke Turkish; the last two men were Armenians and deserving of especial
credit in coming to Adana at this time, for they knew that in so doing
they ran the risk of government suspicion and arrest.
[Illustration: FRENCH FLAG FLYING OVER FRENCH DISPENSARY.]
With the delegation going from Beirut, although not sent by the Red Cross
Society, were two Kaiserswerth Deaconesses from the Johanniter Hospital
in Beirut, Sister Louisa and Sister Hannah. These two sisters were sent
in response to an appeal from the captain of the _Hamburg_. They took
the German hospital in charge from the time of their arrival in Adana
and inaugurated a reign of cleanliness and order that made the German
hospital a pleasure to behold.
On Tuesday, May 6, as the doctors from the English and German ships were
compelled to leave, the writer was asked by the Relief Committee to take
entire charge of the medical work. I began with a survey of conditions.
In the German hospital were 23 men and 25 women and children now under
the care of the two German Deaconesses; 15 or 20 outpatients were coming
in for daily dressings.
In Mrs. Doughty-Wylie’s hospital were 17 men and 20 women and children,
and in the railroad freight house, under her care, were 21 men and 4
women; 160 outpatients were having their dressings done at this hospital.
In the American Girls’ School were 15 women and children, under the care
of Miss Wallis and Dr. Salibian. Some 10 or 15 wounded outpatients were
also dressed at the daily clinic held by these two in the Yenemahalle
camp.
Thus there were at this time, in all, 305 wounded under the care of
foreigners.
[Illustration: PHARMACISTS AND DOCTORS IN FRONT OF ARMENIAN EMERGENCY
PHARMACY IN YENEMAHALLE CAMP.]
Except for the need of a surgeon in charge of Mrs. Doughty-Wylie’s
hospital, the surgical work seemed well in hand and likely to be of
lessening urgency, while the medical need was just getting into its prime
and had been so far almost entirely neglected. In the Yenemahalle and
German camps some 200 were reported as sick, while in the measles camp
between 75 and 100 children were suffering from the sequence of measles,
bronchitis, pneumonia, otitis, and from diarrhœa and dysentery, as the
result of bad food. A discouraging feature of the outlook was the lack
of bedding to protect the sick from exposure, and another difficulty was
the absence of milk or soup for the hundreds who could eat nothing else.
When people die from starvation, it is usually not for lack of something
to put in their stomachs. Their hunger compels them to swallow things
unfit for food and a fatal diarrhœa or dysentery is the result. For the
children, made sick by eating dough during the days in the factory, the
rations of the camp, consisting at first of coarse and half-cooked beans
(fule), were as impossible food as is grass to a healthy man. Only a
limited supply of milk at famine prices was at this time available. There
was sometimes two cups of milk a day, sometimes one, and sometimes none
for the sick babies, and consequently the little ones were fading away
quickly. Happy were the mothers who were nursing their own children, but
it was sad to see little ones starving where the mother was too sick to
nurse. I was reminded of the work of thoughtless hunters, who kill the
parent birds in nesting time and leave the little ones to starve in the
nest. Day by day the rows of little unnamed graves were lengthened near
the measles camp. Heart rending scenes of mothers beseeching help for
their dying babies were common. Some babies were killed in the massacres
by cutting and shooting, and perhaps there the Turks were the more
merciful.
The camps were rapidly becoming foul from lack of sanitary restrictions.
Swarming flies were zealous to convey infection, and it only needed a
good hard rain, such as is common in Adana at this time of the year,
to spread an epidemic of typhoid or dysentery that would have been
impossible to combat.
These were the needs of the camps: Cleanliness, milk, bedding, efficient
medical attendance, medicines, and pharmacists. All these needs were
gradually supplied in the course of the next ten or twelve days.
[Illustration: CAMP LIFE, ADANA.]
The first week’s work after our arrival seemed rather discouraging,
although constant progress was made. The camps were rigorously cleaned
under threat of short rations. Fortunately the rain held off, and in time
the camps became relatively sweet and clean. After a week and a half the
refugees began moving back to their ruined homes, and the relief of the
congested condition of the camp was a constant lessening of the menace
of epidemic outbreak. Until medical force became reinforced, we had to
cover the field among us as best we could. Sickness was on the increase,
and once the daily reports handed in by the head men of the camp sections
showed 400 sick in camp, of whom 75 were reported as “very sick.”
The medical staff at first was quite inadequate for the work of visiting
all these sick. The two Turkish doctors and the two pharmacists found the
life too strenuous for much more than half a day’s work at a time. It was
several days before we were able to do more than make sure that the very
sick were seen by a doctor each day.
There was also a shortage of drugs. The remedies needed were few and
simple, but they were needed in large quantities. This lack was soon
supplied from the drug shops in Mersine. There was a shortage of bottles
to put fluid medicines in, and medicines when not taken on the spot were
dispensed in finjans, old tin cups, or anything that would hold fluids.
One man at the dispensary, whose prescription for castor oil had been
filled, in spite of protestations, into his own mouth, when he was told
to go finally made clear that it was for his wife that he wanted the
medicine.
_Conditions Improve._
These rough and ready methods gradually passed as better organization
became possible. Dr. Peoples, newly arrived for American mission work in
Mersine, joined the medical staff in Adana on May 9, and gave valuable
assistance in various branches of the work. After a week, on May 12, the
returning French Sisters of Charity, among whom were two experienced
nurses, opened a pharmacy and clinic for the refugees of the German camp.
On Sunday, May 16, an Armenian delegation, sent by the Armenians of
Constantinople, consisting of three senior medical students, one doctor,
and two pharmacists, opened a well-equipped pharmacy, which they had
brought with them, in the Yenemahalle camp.