THE KING’S BUSINESS 1039 Everywhere there has been deep sympathy for the Belgians in the awful calamities that have overtaken them in the present war, and for the Poles for the ap palling sufferings which they have endured, but ap
Destruction of the Armenians.
parently neither Belgians nor Poles have suffered anything comparable to the calamities that have overtaken the Armenians. It seems that they are being practically exterminated. In a recent article the Journal de Genieve says: “The extermination is being carried out by three means: massacre, deporta tion, and forced conversion to Islam. Throughout the whole of .the country it is the same story . . . . . The Government has released from prison crim inals whom it has organized and enrolled. - It is these criminals who are in charge of the Armenian convoys, and there is no brutality they do not commit.” A SwiSs correspondent recently returned from Constantinople writes to the Manchester Guardian: “In the street the insolence of the Mussulmans toward the Christians knows no limit; the sons of Turkish families gather in bands and go to the houses of Armenians to decide which of the young women they will rape. In the same way Turkish housewives choose their future residence in Armenian houses under the eyes of the owners. Hooligans threaten and insult Christians in the street. Massacres are stated, on reliable authority, to have already taken place in the city. No Armenians dare to leave their houses..................In the provinces the violence of events surpasses all that can be imagined. Whole towns have been sacked and the inhabitants sent to the interior. At Marsovan the men were told they need not take provisions with them; they would be fed on the, way. Be fore their eyes the town was then burned, and they were taken to a series of graves already prepared, and poleaxed. Some escaped, but were caught. ‘Kill us with your guns,’ they said, as they were taken back. ‘Never,’ was the answer; ‘ bullet costs a hundred paras; you aren’t worth it; better as it is.’ As for the women, they were sold in all the villages on the way to Mosul, so that at the end there were only left cripples, hunchbacks, and other deformed people.” . The Italian Consul at Trebizond, Signor Corrini, writes in the Rome Messagero : ^ ; U ■ • “From June 24 the Armenians in Trebizond were interned; they were then f sent under escort to distant regions, but the fate of at least four-fifths of thefn was death. The local authorities,.and even some of the Mohammedan popula tion, tried to resist and to decrease the number of victims by hiding them, but in vain. The orders from Constantinople were categorical and all had to obey. .................. The scenes of desolation, tears, curses, suicides to savevhonor, sud den insanity, fires, shooting in the streets, in the houses, are impossible to de scribe. “When one has Witnessed for a month daily scenes of this terrible character without being in a position to do anything, one wonders—Have all the wild beasts of the world congregated in Constantinople? Such massacres cry out for the vengeance of all Christendom. If people knew what I know, had seen what I have seen, and heard ivhat I have heard, then all the Christian Powers yet neutral would rise against Turkey and cry anathema against that barbarous Gov ernment.” Nothing so appalling has overtaken any nation in recent years. Who is -responsible? There can be no doubt that whoever is responsible will reap what they have sown, -for God’s law, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 5 :7J) is just as true of nations as it is of individuals.
“The mills of God grind slowly, But they grind exceeding small, And though with patience waits He, With exactness grinds He all.”
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