16 May 1922: Turkish Atrocities Stir Britain to Act, New York Times

nyt 16051922

TURKISH ATROCITIES STIR BRITAIN TO ACT
SHE INVITES US TO JOIN IN INVESTIGATING MASSACRES OF GREEKS
ASKS FRANCE AND ITALY, TOO
ANNOUNCEMENT MADE IN COMMONS - STATE DEPARTMENT HAS INVITATION BUT WITHOLDS COMMENT

The New York Times.
May 16, 1922.

 

Copyright, 1922, by The New York Times Company.
      Special Cable to The New York Times.
   LONDON, May 15. -  Austen   Chamber-
lain, the Government leader,  announced
in the House   of  Commons   today  that
the Secretary of  State   for   Foreign  Af-
fairs had sent proposals to   the   French,
Italian   and American    Governments for
an   immediate  joint   investigation   into
the   grave   charges  brought against the
Turkish Nationalists  of   acts   of   cruelty
and barbarism in the treatment of the
Christian minorities in Asia Minor.
   Mr  Chamberlain   read two  telegrams
from the British High   Commissioner  in
Constantinople, dated May 10.  The first
runs:
   "I have interviewed  at   great   length
Dr. Ward of the Near East   Relief   Com-
mission, who has just   arrived from Har-
poot, which he left   March 15.   He  cor-
roborates the statements as to the treat-
ment   of   minorities   published  May 5.
The Turks appear to be   working   on a
deliberate plan   to get rid of the minori-
ties.
   "Their method has been  to   collect at
Amasia Ottoman   Greeks from   the   re-
gion between   Samsoun  and Trebizond.
These Greeks are marched from Amasia
and   then   back again, until   they   are
eventually   sent through Harpoot to the
East. In this   manner  a   large   number
deportees die on the road from hardship
and exposure.   A large number   of   de-
portees who were being sent to Van and
Bitlis passed  through  Harpoot between
June and December last year.
   "Now  that Spring has come these de-
portations   have   begun  again.   Once
these  gangs   have   passed   Diarbekir,
which is  the   last   American  relief sta-
tion, the   Americans   lose  all track   of
them;   but    Dr. Ward   has little doubt
that   many deportees die in   the moun-
tains east of that place.  
   "The  Turks in preference choose Win-
ter  weather  for driving these deportees
into  the mountains.  The American Near
East  Relief was not  allowed  to   shelter
children  whose parents  had died on the
road.  These  children   were   driven for-
ward  with   other   deportees.  Dr.Ward
himself  last  year  in December counted
150 bodies on the road between Harpoot
and   Malada.   Fellow-workers  saw and
counted 1,500 bodies on the road to Har-
poot, and 2,000 deportees died  on  the
road east of that place.   Two-thirds  of
the Greek deportees   are women   and
children.
   "At present  fresh deportation outrages
are starting in   all parts   of   Asia  Minor,
from the northern seaports to the south-
eastern   district.  A  Turkish  official   at
the head of the educational department
at Harpoot told Mr.  Ward,   as  an  illus-
tration of Turkish   inefficiency,  that   in
1915 the Turks  has not  made  a   clean
job of   masssacres.   He said next  time
the Turks  would   take  care  to do their
work thoroughly.
   "Dr. Ward   endorsed   Signor  Tuozzi's
statement of   January   last that   the de-
liberate   policy  of   the   Turks  is  to ex-
terminate  the  minorities.  He   considers
that   they   are accelerating   their   acti-
vities before the peace settlement, and if
action  is  not taken  soon   the   problem
will be solved by  the   disappearance of
the minorities."

 

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