28
THE KING’S BUSINESS
below. In the evening the houses were seen burning in every direction. All the Armenians in the Gardens, “nearly 30,000 were* now gathered into a district about a f mile square, protected by eighty “teerks” (manned and barricaded houses) besides walls and trenches. The Armen ian force consisted of 1500 trained rifle men and as many more armed with pistols. Their supply of ammunition was not great, they were sparing of it; used pistols when they could, employed all sorts of devices to draw the fire of the enemy, and thus waste their ammunition. They began to make bullets and cartridges, turning out 2000 a day; and gun powder; they made three mortars for throwing bombs. The supply of material for manufacture- o f , these things was limited, methods and implements crude and primitive, but they were happy and hopeful over their ability to keep the enemy at bay. They sent a manifesto to the Turks saying their quarrel was not with their Turkish neighbors' but with one man. Valis might come and go, the two races must live together and they hoped that after Jevdet went there might be peaceful friendly relations between them. The Turks answered in the same spirit, , that they were forced to fight Indeed a protest was signed by many prominent Turks; Jevdet would pay no attention to it. The Armenians took and burned (in mates, however, escaping)- the barracks north of our premises ; aside from this they did not attempt the offensive to any extent —their numbers were too few. They, fight ing for their lives and homes, our sym pathies could not but be wholly on their side, but we strove to keep our actions neu tral. We allowed no armed men to enter the premises. Their leader Aram, in order to help us preserve the neutrality of our premises, forbade the bringing of wounded soldiers to our hospital. Dr. Ussher treated them at.their own temporary hos-\ pital. Jevdet Bey wrote Dr. Ussher on the 23rd that armed men had been seen enter ing our premises and rebels had prepared
entrenchments near us. If at the time of attack one shot was fired from these entrenchments he would be “regretfully compelled” to turn his cannon on our prem ises and completely, destroy them. We might know this for a surety. We ans wered that we were preserving neutrality of our premises by every means in our power. By no law could we be held respon sible for the actions of individuals or organizations outside of our premises. THE SARCASTIC VALI Our correspondence with the Vali was carried on through our official represent ative, Signor Shordone, the Italian con sular agent, and our postman was an old woman bearing a flag of truce. On her second trip she f$ll into a ditch and rising without her white flag was instantly shot dead by Turkish soldiers. Another was found, wounded outside her shack on our premises while sitting there. The Aram said he would permit no further correspond ence until the Vali should answer a letter of Sbordone’s in which the latter had told Jevdet Bey he had no right to expect the Armenians to surrender now, since the campaign had taken on the character of a massacre. Dr. Ussher had known the Vali as a boy, and had always been 'on the most friendly terms, but in a letter to an Aus trian banker who had taken refuge on the German premises, the Vali wrote that one of his officers had taken some Russian prisoners and cannon and he would cause them to parade in front of “his majesty, Dr. Ussher’s fortifications so that he, who with the rebels was always awaiting the Russians, should see them and be content.” This letter ended with the words, “Ishim yok, kefum chok” (I have no work and much fun). While he was no work and and much fun his soldiers and their wild allies, the Kurds were sweeping the coun tryside, massacring men, women and chil dren and burning their , homes. Babies were shot in their mothers’ arms, children were horribly mutilated, women stripped and beaten. The villages were not pre pared for attack; many made no resist-
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