More Gifts Needed For Syrian Relief

Hartford Auxiliary Makes Appeal For Further Aid.

Suffering Still To Be Alleviated.

Thanks Expressed to Local People – Contributions Made.

An appeal to the people of Hartford for further gifts to make the continuance of Armenian and Syrian relief possible is contained in the report of the secretary of the Hartford Auxiliary of the American committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. The report reviews the work already done and tells of the great suffering still to be alleviated. It is as follows:-

“The Hartford Auxiliary of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief wishes to publish a second list of contributions and takes this opportunity once more to express its appreciation of the sympathy and support with which their appeal to the people of Hartford has been met.

“The representatives of the American Committee, in the war stricken districts of Armenia, have carried on a work of relief, the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. Largely through their finely organized efforts, 250,000 Armenian refugees in the Caucasus have been able to tide over the winter months, although there were great privations to endure and the mortality was high, especially among the children. Many of these unfortunate refugees have now returned to their ruined homes and desolate fields in the wake of the Russian armies. Their number is being increased daily by those who are issuing from their hiding places. The relief committee, anxious to help this work of restoration, has just endorsed and forwarded to the United States the urgent appeal which the Russian governor of the heroic Van has addressed to the American people for further help. It must be said that the Russian government itself, as well as the Armenians in Russia and America, have been very generous in their desire to relieve the sufferings of the refugees.

“Bad as the condition of the Armenian refugees in the Caucasus has been, it is in no wise to be compared with that of their more unfortunate brothers who could not escape from the ruthless slaughter and wholesale deportations of the last summer. Talaat Bey’s fiendish prophecy has already come true and the 800,000 survivors – mostly women, little children and old men – are envying the fate of the other 800,000 who have already died through massacres, privations, fatigue, hunger, and the typhus, which is raging in the deportation camps in Northern Syria and elsewhere. The Turkish government has long abandoned all pretences of furnishing bread or money to a Christian people which it has uprooted from its native soil, stripped of all possessions, decimated, and driven to the desert to die. So the Armenian exiles have daily faced starvation and death. It was only through the tireless efforts of the American missionaries and American diplomats that access could be obtained to these helpless victims of an unparalleled barbarity. Lately a few German missionaries and sisters have joined the work of relief and it is to them that we owe some of the most gruesome disclosures in regard to the conditions in the deportation camps. Thousands of people have been found living on nothing but water for many days. In this field the task is difficult, almost superhuman as the workers have to struggle not only against indescribable suffering but also against the ill will of the Turkish authorities. But it is here that American charity with the help of the humanitarian diplomacy of America may score a glorious victory over want, disease and human cruelty. To the youngest nation on earth comes a cry for help from one of the most ancient and useful nations which the present Turkish government has nailed on a cross.

“So once more we appeal to the people of Hartford for further gifts that will make the continuance of the relief work possible. For surely those who are blessed with peace and prosperity in these evil days owe a debt of brotherly compassion and help to those who suffer and lose everything.”

Contributions Received.

The treasurer, Meigs H. Whaplea of the Connecticut Trust & Safe Deposit Company, reports the following contributions since February 1 :-

Mary A. Goodman – $15.00
Annie M. Goodman – $50.00
Mrs. Sarah G. Hull – $10.00
A Friend, East Hartford – $15.00
J. P. Camp, Newington – $1.00
G. M. Mourad – $5.00
Anonymous – $2.26
Harlan A. Frink – $10.00
First Church of Christ in Hartford – $92.88
J. P. Jones – $10.00
First Presbyterian Church of Hartford – $5.20
Sophia G. Palmer – $10.00
Miss Alice Brigham – $15.00
Miss H. M. Brigham – $5.00
Immanuel Congregational Church Sunday School – $55.00
Horace L. Bundy – $100.00
Elizabeth C. Russ – $50.00
Rev. R. R. Parker – $2.00