On the 20th of April, 1916, I arrived at Meskene, and found there 3,500
deported Armenians, and more than 100 orphans. A part of the people
have settled here as bakers and butchers, etc., even though Meskene
is but a halting place. All the rest are begging. In every tent there
are sick and dying. Anyone who cannot manage to get a piece of bread
by begging, eats grass raw and without salt. Many hundreds of the
sick are left without any tent and covering, in the open, under the
glowing sun. I saw desperate ones throw themselves in grave-trenches
and beg the grave-diggers to bury them. The Government does not give
the hungry any bread, and no tent to those who remain outside. As
I was in Meskene, there came a caravan of sick women and children
from Bab. They are in an indescribable condition. They were thrown
down from the wagons like dogs. They cried for water; they were given
each a piece of dry bread, and were left there. No one gave them any
water, though they remained a whole day under the hot sun. We had to
work the whole night to ameliorate their condition a little. Among
the orphans there was a small boy of four years old. It was early in
the morning, and I asked him if he had eaten anything. He looked much
amazed, and said: "I have always gazed at the stars, and my dear God
has satisfied me." On my questioning him where his father and mother
were, he said simply that they were dead in the desert.
In Meskene I gathered one hundred children under a tent. I had their
hair cut and their rags washed. They received daily some bread and
some soup. As I had to go further, I sought someone to care for the
orphans. I found a young widow from Hadjin, who asked me if she might
take the children under her care. She belonged to a good family and
had received a good education. She gave herself with an intense love
to the children-work. Ten days after my departure they had sent the
woman with the one hundred children South. I found her a few weeks
later in Sepka, clothed in rags. She had lost her wits, and wandered
about the place asking, "Where are my children? What have you done
with my children?" When she had reached Abu Hara she had spent all
her money and was destitute. The children were scattered--a prey
to hunger. In Der-el-Zor I found two of them, the only survivors;
they said that all the rest had perished.
In Meskene I saw more than 600 deported who had lived in Muara till
now, and who had spent a pitiful sojourn of nine months there. They
were now once more persecuted and sent to different places. Slowly
and wearily they came on with their possessions on their backs. As
nourishment they cook grass, press the water out, and make balls
which they dry in the sun.
On the first of May, I came to Debsy, where I found the above mentioned
six hundred deported, all in despair. They had not even been allowed
to rest once or even to gather grass, but had been cruelly driven
on. On the way I found people dying everywhere, exhausted from hunger
and thirst. They had remained behind the caravan and must perish so
painfully. Every few minutes came a stench of corpses. The gendarmes
beat these stragglers, saying that they pretend to be tired. In Debsy
there are 3,000 deported. In Abu Hara 6,000. In both places the death
rate is one per cent. daily.
In Hama I found 7,000 deported, 3,000 of them hungry and practically
naked. Here there is no grass, the locusts have consumed everything. I
saw the people were gathering locusts and eating them raw or
cooked. Others were looking for the roots of grasses. They catch
street dogs, and like savages pounce upon dead animals, whose flesh
they eat eagerly without cooking. They showed me how they bury the
dead, shallow near the tents.
In Rakka alone there are 15,000 deported in tents. The camp is
situated on both banks of the Euphrates, but these people are not
allowed to enter the city. Rich people are paying from T£30-40 to
get permission from those in authority to live for a length of time
in the city. Everywhere the same lamentable pictures repeat themselves.
In Sepka there are 1,500 persons who have bought the privilege of
establishing themselves there. The rest, 6,000, remain in camps
on the banks of the Euphrates. There is great misery here. Some in
despair throw themselves into the river. In each deportation from
one place to another, at least five or six perish through the brutal
illtreatment of the accompanying gendarmerie. They expect to extract
money from the poor, and exact vengeance with heavy blows when they
receive nothing. Many are transported on boats in the Euphrates.
In Tibne I found 5,000--everywhere we met caravans of deportees. In
every Arabian village there are some families, in every Arabian house
young women and girls. Here the Government is giving 150 gr. of
bread to every poor person daily. Children and grown-ups search
among the garbage heaps for food, and whatever is eatable (chewable)
is eaten. At the butchers' people wait eagerly for scraps.
Of every fifty persons who start from Rakka or Sepka on boats, twenty
arrive, often even less. At the time of my arrival, the Government
had gathered 200 orphans in a house in Der-el-Zor. At my departure
(six weeks later) there were 800. They get daily a little bread and
some soup. In the meantime 12,000 deported came to Der-el-Zor. Every
day we see caravans going in the direction of Mosul. Nevertheless,
at my departure, there were at Der-el-Zor and in its neighbourhood
over 30,000 Armenians. Those who have means are getting permission
to delay. The rest must proceed further. The deported are especially
badly treated in the region of Der-el-Zor. The people are driven
back and forward with whip blows, and cannot even take their most
urgent necessities. On my return I met new caravans everywhere. The
people have the appearance of lost men. We often see a whole row
of ghastly forms rising suddenly out of a grave and asking for
bread and water. They have all dug their graves and lie waiting for
death. People of better standing, who cannot make up their minds
to beg for a piece of bread, lie, when exhausted, on their beds,
till death comes to release them. No one looks after them. In Sepka
a preacher from Aintab told me that parents have often killed their
children. At the Government investigation it was shown that some
people had eaten their children. It has happened that dying people
have been fought over in order to secure their flesh for food.
Another report from the region of Meadine and Ana, south of Der-el-Zor,
where there are thousands of deported, will be sent by the next
mail. Our messenger returned to Aleppo on the 20th June. On the 26th
he was again on a journey to the South.