Wants League to Stop Massacres

Washington, March 13 – Failure of the United States to declare war upon Turkey during the World War has tied our hands in dealing with the increasing massacres of Christians by Turks in Anatolia, Pontus and other districts of the near east, declares Senator William H. King, of Utah.

King has introduced in the Senate a resolution “deploring the failure of European powers to take effective measures” and requesting the President to bring the atrocities to the attention of the league of nations.

However, King says, it appears “most doubtful” if the resolution will be adopted.  

“We have grown callous,” he says.  “Although it appears that the Turks are proceeding on a definite program for the extermination of the Armenians and Pontian Greeks, we remain indifferent and heedless.”

“Notwithstanding that the Republic which the Armenians established following the war was accorded recognition, the bolshevists on the north and the barbarous Turks in Asia Minor have crushed if not destroyed it.

“If our government had declared war, as it should have done, against the Turkish empire, we would have had a voice in the treaty of Sevres.  That treaty, signed August 10, 1920, by Turkey, with Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan, demands full and complete protection of life and liberty to all inhabitants of Turkey, without regard to birth, nationality, race or religion.

“When Turkey signed the armistice, the persecutions which had continued up to that time ceased.

“But after the treaty of Sevres was signed, it would appear that jealousies entered into the counsels of the allied nations participating in that treaty.  As a result, if they did not actually abandon the treaty, they failed to enforce it.

“Whereupon came a revival of cruelties and persecutions of all Christian peoples within Turkish territory.  

“Unless some steps shall be taken by forces outside of Turkey, there seems to be no hope of salvation for these unfortunate people, whose only offense is that they are Christians.

“Under the regime of Mustapha Kemal, wholesale slaughter and atrocities against Christians have been more violent and deadly than before.

“I have the names of a large number of cities, towns and villages all of which have recently been destroyed and the population either slaughtered or driven into the wilds of Anatolia to perish.

“Churches and monasteries where women and children have sought refuge have been invaded and, after pillaging and plundering, the women and children were butchered or burned in the flaming buildings.

“The gendarmes and the thieves constituting the Turkish bands have reveled in atrocious orgies against the Christian women.

“Certainly there can be no impropriety in this government appealing to the league of nations, which is linked with the Sevres treaty, with a view to securing its intercession to prevent further bloodshed and massacre.