Correspondence Respecting Disturbances in Herzegovina and Montenegro in 1861-1862 In spring 1861, the sultan announced in a proclamation reforms in Herzegovina, promising among other things freedom to build churches, the use of bells and the opportunity for Christians to acquire landed property: Cf. FO 424/26 (No. 320, Inclosures 1,2,3, in No. 167, Aali Pasha to the Representatives of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia, 30 April and 1 May 1861). Consul William R. Holmes to Sir Henry Bulwer Bosna-Serai, May 21, 1861 [?] With regard to the concessions of the Proclamation, I would remark that the most important, if not all of them, have been long since nominally accorded here, and, I believe, in the Herzegovina, but never carried out in fact, as the insurgents are well aware. For instance, the promise of permission to build churches as other Christian subjects of the Porte seems delusive, when it is known here that one of the Christian communities – the Orthodox Greeks – have collected money to build a church, but are prevented from doing so on the frivolous pretext of its being near a mosque, the said mosque being more than 150 yards from the site proposed for the church, and hardly visible from it. The admirable arrangement between the farmers and proprietors of land, made some time ago with the deputation who proceeded from Bosnia to Constantinople for that purpose, is well known to have remained a dead letter. Every possible obstacle is still thrown in the way of the purchase of land by Christians, and very often after they have succeeded in purchasing and improving land, it is no secret that on one unjust pretext or another it has been taken from them. [p. 111] FO 424/26 (No. 71, in No. 177, extract) Holmes to Bulwer Correspondence Concerning Cases of Alleged Religious Persecution in Turkey (1873 – 1875) Sir Henry Elliot to Earl Granville Therapia, October 10, 1873 I delayed answering your Lordship?s despatch No. 208 of the 1st September in reference to the Christians of Gradiska and of Bosnia in general, till I should have received a statement of the circumstances, which was being drawn up by the Porte, and of which I have now the honour to inclose a copy. [?] Almost all her Majesty?s Consuls concurred in reporting that the nominal equality of Mussulmans and Christians before the law, which had never thoroughly existed in practice, was now in most provinces more illusory than it had been a few years ago, and it was necessary for the [Ottoman] government to show that it was determined to enforce it. [pp. 6-7] FO 424/34 (No. 361, in No. 6, extract) Elliot to Granville, London Vice-Consul William K. Green to Sir henry Elliot Damascus, November 19, 1874 I have the honour to report that, the day before yesterday, some Christians came to me in considerable alarm and informed me that in the most crowded part of the bazaar a Derwish was shouting at the top of his voice the following words: - "The measure has now been filled to the brim; it needs to be cleaned until it is cleansed;" and that the Derwish was, at the same time, making signs with his hands, indicating in this country of the cutting of throats. My informants told me that the Moslems understood the Derwish to be preaching against the Christians, and as this belief was confirmed to me by Mohammedans, I thought it proper to call upon the Acting Governor-General, Essad Pasha being absent at Tripoli, with reference to the riots at that place, and to urge him to have the Derwish arrested. The Naib Effendi thanked me for my action in the matter and promised to have my suggestion carried out. Yesterday I was again visited by native Christians who came to relate to me the alarming accounts that had been received by them of a riot at Horus on the 9th instant, when three bodies of Mohammedans invaded the Christian quarter from separate directions and so frightened its inhabitants that they sought refuge in the churches and the buildings attached to them. The Moslems appear to have been excited by an endeavour of the Christians to obtain justice from the authorities for the murder of the guard of their quarter, who was shot down a few nights before, when opposing the escape of some thieves who had broken into a Christian house. I also made a representation to the Naib Effendi on this subject, and he informed me that he had already directed the Lieutenant-General of the district of proceed at once in person to Horus from Hamah to institute an investigation into the cause of the disturbance and to punish the rioters. [pp. 122-23] FO 424/34 (No. 25, Political. Inclosure in No. 188) Green to Elliot, Therapia Part I. Correspondence Respecting Affairs in The Herzegovina (July to December 1875) Vice-Consul J.H. Dupuis to Sir Henry Elliot Adrianople [Edirne], November 20, 1875 [?] Previous to Bairam it was believed by the Bulgarians that the Turks were planning a general massacre of the Christians, but happily nothing came of it. My informant adds that he inclines to think that the apprehensions were not altogether groundless, that the Turks were thoroughly armed, and that even Turkish prisoners in Philipopoli were secretly provided with deadly weapons. In conclusion, he informs me, that no attempts at insurrection will be made soon, as the Christians feel themselves powerless, but the Government needs to institute very great reforms without delay, or a more serious attempt will be made at the first favourable opportunity. I beg leave also to acquaint your Excellency that private intelligence reaches me from Philipopoli that the reforms promised by the Imperial Government cannot be carried out, because the ruling classes and the Turks generally are of opinion that these reforms will operate to their disadvantage; that the Central Government doubtless is sincere in its desire to ameliorate the condition of the Rayahs, but the dominant race in the different vilayets and towns think that improving the condition of Christians means nothing less than their own destruction and ruin. Under these circumstances it is believed that reforms cannot be adopted, and that matters will eventually be allowed to pass back into the old channels. It is, however, said that if the public press were free, the Government would be in a better position to learn the real state of the country. The present distracted state of affairs will necessitate great changes in all the administrative departments of the empire, and unless this be done, and greater liberty accorded to the press, no benefits can possibly accrue to the country. [pp. 338-39] FO 424/39 (No. 773. Inclosure, in No. 523, extract) Dupuis to Elliot, Therapia Part II. Further Correspondence Respecting Affairs in The Herzegovina (January to March 1876) Acting Consul Edward B. Freeman to the Earl of Derby Bosna Serai, December 30, 1876 [1875] I have the honour to report to your Lordship that assemblies of the chief Mussulmans of this town have lately been held in some of the mosques and at the private houses of influential persons. [?] It would appear that the Bosnian Mussulmans have prepared a petition to the Sultan, making grave complaints against the Government officials of the province. I am not aware that they implicate any of the authorities in particular, or bring any special accusations against them, but they state that they have indirectly been the cause of the present insurrection by maladministration, and by stirring up the mutual hatred and jealousy of Christians and Turks. The represent to His Majesty that formerly they lived as brothers with the Rayah population and would seem to imply that the present unsatisfactory relations have only been engendered since the introduction of the [reforms of the] "Tanzimat" by the Serdar Ekrem Omer Pasha some five-and-twenty years ago, and they ask permission to be allowed to make their own terms with the insurgents. In fact, their aim appears to be to restore the feudal system that existed formerly in these provinces, and to reduce the Christian peasants to their ancient state of serfdom; in their ignorance, believing that it can be done, and that it would restore tranquillity to the country. It is also stated that they have protected [themselves] against the nomination of a Christian to the newly-created Mutessariflik of Gatzko (in Herzegovina). There is no doubt that the position of the Christians, especially of the townspeople, has immeasurably improved during the last quarter of a century; but I do not think that the agricultural population is materially much better off than it was thirty years ago, when the native "Beys" and "Spahis" were all powerful. Every proprietor was then supreme master of the peasants located on his lands, and, in a rude way, afforded them protection. Cases of ill-usage were doubtless not uncommon, but as the peasant could look to no one for redress for his grievances, it was his interest to endeavour to content and conciliate his master. Of late years, however, he has been taught to look to the Ottoman Government and its employes for protection, and under a just administration he would have found his position greatly ameliorated; but as the motive power of the whole system of Government has been bribery, corruption, and religious fanaticism, a most uneven justice has been meted out in all cases between rich and poor, between Mussulman and Christian, and the complaints of the latter have not only, as a rule, brought down upon him the chastisement of his Government, but they have also been the cause of his incurring the hatred of his master and oppressor. No doubt the Ottoman officials have much to answer for, but it may also be said in their defence that they are so tied down in all their actions by the local Medjlises that the Governor of a Province or a district, possessed of the best intentions, is almost powerless to do good or to administer justice. Anything like municipal Government I believe to be quite impossible in the present ignorant and fanatical state of the population, both Christian and Mussulman. [p.34] FO 424/40 (No 24. Political, No. 56, extract) Freeman to Derby, London Memorandum by Consul-General and Judge Sir P. Francis on the New Judicial Reforms contemplated in the Sultan?s recent Irade of 20th October and the Firman of 12th December 1875 to the Earl of Derby Constantinople, January 5, 1876 [?] The Porte hitherto has not appointed independent judges. Indeed, the modern perversion of the Oriental idea of justice is a concession to a-suitor through grace and favour, and not the declaration of a right, on principles of law, and in pursuance of equity. The latest appointments to the judgeship, ever since the promulgation of the Firman, do not inspire one with confidence as to the genuine desire of the Government for an independent and incorruptible judicial body. [p. 78] [?] It appears that one object – a very respectable one in itself – of the new Firman is to admit the evidence of Christians or non-Moslems before the tribunals of the country. This has been done indireclty, and not by enacting that Christian witnesses shall henceforth be heard before the Sheriat [i.e., the religious Courts], but by ordaining that suits between Moslem and non-Moslem shall be transferred to the "Nizanie" Tribunals, where there shall be no religious objection to Christian evidence being received. Unfortunately, however, the Naibs [Judges under the religious law] are to be nominated as residents of all the local Courts of Appeal, and it is a question whether to Christian evidence thus admitted much weight will be attached by Presidents, who, with their conscientious belief in the Koran and their religious education, will undoubtedly regard the evidence of Christians as valueless henceforth as heretofore. It is true that the Firman observes with great verbal emphasis that the scrupulous observance of the law is a protection against arbitrary acts, and shall consequently be the object of the constant attention of the Tribunals; but hitherto such vague phrases in Hatts and Firmans have had no value. The whole wording of the clauses under consideration are so vague, wide, loose, and periphrastic that they admit of any interpretation which hereafter the Government may choose to adopt. In the provinces, and perhaps even in the metropolis, it is proposed, if I read the Firman right, to introduce the most foolish, mischievous, and in Turkey utterly impossible system of popular election of Judges and Members of Tribunals. Universal suffrage and, I believe, vote by ballot, have seriously been proposed for a country where elections are unknown, and the habit of thus expressing an opinion upon public subjects is utterly alien to the habits of the people. Even if Judges could be so elected, they would certainly be badly elected, and the proposition looks like a mockery suggested to the authors of the Firman by extraneous advice which has been adopted in pure ignorance. Any acquaintance, however slight, with the people, their institutions, and the Government, would be enough to show that those who made such a proposition can have no good or practical intention; for it amounts to introducing the worst features of an ultra-democratic Government into one of the most arbitrary and autocratic of Empires. [pp. 78-79] FO 424/40 (No. 27, Inclosure, in no. 136, extract) Francis to Derby, London Vice-Consul Charles A. Brophy to Sir P. Francis Bourgas, April 9, 1876 (Bourgas: port on the Black Sea in present-day Bulgaria) I HAVE the honour to submit to you some remarks upon the execution or non-execution, in this province [Bosnia], of the Imperial Irade [Decree], dated December 12, 1875. [?] 1. After a pretty wide experience of Christian agas [notables] in the province, I am convinced that they are nothing but machines for signing any document presented to them by the Judge or the Governors. 2. "All cases arising between non-Mussulmans, or between them and Mussulmans, are to be decided by Civil Law, to the exclusion of [that of] the Sheri" (the Shari?a, Koranic law); this most important provision, upon which hinges the acceptance or rejection of Christian evidence, is in the province either absolutely disregarded or resolutely defied; the Judges say openly "we are Sherah Memourlari, officers placed here to judge according to the Sheri; it is the only law we can recognise, and it is the only law we shall administer." I have known many instances, since the publication of the Irade, in which stolen cattle having been recovered, and Christians being ready to prove the ownership, their evidence has been refused, and Mussulman witnesses demanded, even if the village from which the cattle have been stolen in exclusively rayah the Judge will still insist upon the production of Mussulman witnesses, and if the plaintiff does not choose to lose his property, he is obliged to suborn a couple of Turks or Mussulman gipsies. No point in the whole of the Irade will meet with such opposition as this substitution in certain cases of the civil for the sacred law, and I doubt whether the members of the Ulema will, in practice, ever thoroughly concede it, they consider this innovation as a fundamental alteration in a system which according to their views is unalterable as long as Islamism exists, and as being a virtual negation of their religion. The aversion on the part of the naibs and cadis to the application of the civil law has been much more strongly marked since the publication of this Irade than before, although the same orders were long ago received, but as they have now been more formally and authoritatively promulgated, the action of the Ulema seems to take the shape of a definite protest, none the less strong that it shows itself merely in passive resistance. [pp. 410-11] FO 424/40 (No. 49. Consular. Inclosure in No. 806, extract) Brophy to Francis, Constantinople Jihad and Slavery in Nineteenth-Century Sudan A few years ago quantities of slaves were sent from Abyssinia by Abu Anga and from Fashoda by Zeki Tummal (officers of the Khalifa?s army), as well as from Darfur and the Nuba mountains by Osman Wad Adam (the Khalifa?s cousin), and were generally sold by public auction for the benefit of the Beit el-Mal (Bayt al-Mal, the state treasury, made up of tithes, taxes on all booty, and confiscated property, as well as fines), or the Khalifa?s (Abdullah al-Ta?ashi ?Khalifat al-Mahdi? was proclaimed successor to the Mahdi ?Muhammad Ahmad? by the latter before his death in 1885) private treasury. The transport of slaves is carried on with the same execrable and heartless cruelty which characterises their capture. Of the thousands of Abyssinian Christians seized by Abu Anga, the majority were women and children; and under the cruel lash of the whip they were forced to march on foot the whole distance from Abyssinia to Omdurman [facing Khartoum]; wrenched from their families, provided with scarcely enough food to keep body and soul together, barefooted, and almost naked, they were driven through the country like herds of cattle. The greater number of them perished on the road; and those who arrived in Omdurman were in so pitiable a condition that purchasers could scarcely be found for them, whilst numbers were given away for nothing by the Khalifa. After the defeat of the Shilluks, Zeki Tummal packed thousands of these wretched creatures into the small barges used for the transport of his troops, and despatched them to Omdurman. Hundreds died from suffocation and overcrowding on the journey; and, on the arrival of the remnant, the Khalifa appropriated most of the young men as recruits for his body-guard, whilst the women and young girls were sold by public auction, which lasted several days. Hungry, and in many cases naked, these unfortunate creatures lay huddled together in front of the Beit el Mal. For food, they were given an utterly inadequate quantity of uncooked dhurra [corn]. Hundreds fell ill; and for these poor wretches it was also impossible to find purchasers. Wearily they dragged their emaciated bodies to the river bank, where they died; and as nobody would take the trouble to bury them, the corpses were pushed into the river and swept away. But a worse fate than this befell the slaves, who had the misfortune to be sent from Darfur along the broad stretches of waterless desert, which lie between that province and Omdurman. These miserable creatures were mercilessly driven forward day and night; and it would be impossible for me to describe here the execrable measures adopted by these brutal slave-drivers to force on their prey to their destination. When the poor wretches could go no further, their ears were cut off as a proof to the owner that his property had died on the road. Some of my friends told me that on one occasion they had found an unfortunate woman whose ears had been cut off, but who was still alive. Taking pity on her, they brought her to El Fasher, where she eventually recovered, whilst her ears had been duly exposed in Omdurman as proof of her death. Latterly no large caravans of slaves have arrived in Omdurman, because the majority of the slave-producing districts, such as Darfur, have become depopulated, or, in some cases, the tribes, such as the Tama, Massalit, etc., have thrown off allegiance to the Khalifa. Consignments, however, still come from Reggaf; but, owing to the long and tedious journey, numbers of them perish on the way. As the supplies from Gallabat, Kordofan, and Darfur have considerably diminished, the Khalifa now allows the Emirs to sell slaves to the itinerant Gellabas (petty itinerant traders, dealing mainly in slaves); and the latter are obliged to sign a paper giving a descriptive return of their purchase and the amount paid. They are permitted to re-sell on the same conditions. There is of course a daily sale of slaves in Omdurman; but the purchase of male slaves is forbidden, as they are looked upon as the Khalifa?s monopoly, and are generally turned into soldiers. Any one wishing to dispose of a male slave must sent him to the Beit el Mal, where a purely nominal price is paid for him; and he is then, if likely to make a good soldier, recruited for the mulazemin, but if unsuitable, he is sent off to work as a labourer in his master?s field. The sale of women and girls is permissible everywhere, with the proviso that a paper must be signed by two witnesses of the sale, one of whom, if possible, should be a Kadi, certifying that the slave sold is the actual property of the vendor. This system was brought into force because slaves frequently ran away from their masters, were caught and sold by other persons as their own property, and thus theft of slaves was a very common practice in Omdurman. They were frequently enticed into other people?s houses, or secretly induced to leave the fields, then thrown into chains and carried off to distant parts of the country, where they were sold at very low rates. In accordance with the Mohammedan Law, slaves cannot be witnesses; and, being well aware of their inferior position, these stolen creatures, as long as they are kindly treated, are not dissatisfied with their lot. In Omdurman itself, in an open space a short distance to the southeast of the Beit el Mal, stands a house roughly built of mud-bricks, which is known as the Suk er Rekik (slave-market). Under the pretext that I wanted to buy or exchange slaves, I several times received the Khalifa?s permission to visit it, and found ample opportunity for closely observing the conduct of the business. The Slave-market at Omdurman Here professional slave-dealers assemble to offer their wares for sale. Round the walls of the house numbers of women and girls stand or sit. They vary from the decrepit and aged half-clad slaves of the working-class, to the gaily-decked Surya (concubine); and as the trade is looked upon as a perfectly natural and lawful business, those put up for sale are carefully examined from head to foot, without the least restriction, just as if they were animals. The mouth is opened to see if the teeth are in good condition. The upper part of the body and the back are laid bare; and the arms carefully looked at. They are then told to take a few steps backward or forward in order that their movements and gait may be examined. A series of questions are put to them to test their knowledge of Arabic. In fact, they have to submit to any examination the intending purchaser may wish to make. Suryas, of course, vary considerably in price; but the whole matter is treated by the slaves without the smallest concern. [pp. 554-57] Rudolf C. Slatin The Armenian Question The Massacres of 1894-1896 [?] The acceptance of a program of reforms was the signal for new massacres in Asia. According to the most trustworthy documents, the minimum number of victims during the last three months of 1895 was thirty thousand, and even this figure does not take into account the massacres which took place outside localities where consuls lived. The most moderate assessment for the years 1894, 1895 and 1896, is two hundred and fifty thousand murdered. In the majority of cases, if not all, collusion between the Turkish authorities and the soldiers has been established with certainty. Did we witness here a sudden outburst, a fierce bout of fanaticism? On the contrary, everything indicates that a methodical plan for the extermination of the Armenians was made and carried out in cold blood. History has not recorded a similar crime since the sixteenth century. Every area inhabited by Armenians was steeped in blood: massacres, tortures, unspeakable brutalities, profanation of churches, forced conversions to Islam, this is what we have here for three months. At Diyarbakir, the massacre lasted for three days, starting every morning at a signal given from the top of the minarets; there were wretches who, having been mutilated, were made to eat their own flesh; for others, seated and chained, their children were placed on their laps and cut into slices: there were three thousand dead; in the vicinity, a hundred and twenty villages were burned by order of the government. Erzerum was also the scene of nameless cruelties; the massacres began at the governor?s palace and claimed three thousand victims. The soldiers amused themselves by flaying Armenians, whom they hung up like sheep in a butcher?s shop; others were coated with petrol and burned; children were not spared. The high imperial commissioner, Shakir Pasha, prevented nothing <18 October>. At Mush, Bitlis, Van, Harput, Sivas, Cesarea [Kayseri, Anatolia], Malatia, etc., the same horrors occurred followed naturally by extreme misery, which in its turn claimed victim after victim. [?] Not only none of the murderers of 1895 was punished, but an extraordinary court was constituted to judge Armenians accused of conspiracy; a large number, including priests, were sentenced to capital punishment or imprisonment. At the same time, the sultan, seeing conspiracy everywhere, allowed, or took, severe measures against the Young Turks and the softas [theologians]; several of them had their throats cut or were drowned; many disappeared mysteriously. Last August [1895], the Armenians formed a plot to seize several important points in Constantinople; they only succeeded in occupying the Ottoman bank, from where they only escaped with their lives thanks to the intervention of the [European] embassies. A general massacre immediately stained the capital with blood <26 August>. [?] It is no exaggeration to estimate the number of victims at six thousand, several of whom were killed in cold blood after arrest. At Has-Keui, a central district of Constantinople inhabited by Armenians, twenty men remained from five hundred. Women were driven mad by fear and horror. The roads streamed with blood; hundreds of corpses were thrown into the Bosphorus. Muslims and even the imam of the mosque of Eyub protected and saved Christians! It is currently said in Constantinople: "The Master allowed Armenians to be killed" (see Victor Berard, Revue de Paris ?15 December 1896?; and the British government Blue Book. Documentation in MAE.DD Vol.6 ?Armenie-Macedoine-Turquie?, Affaires Armeniennes: Projet de Reformes dans l?Empire Ottoman. 1893-1897, and Affaires Armeniennes ?Supplement?. 1895-1896 ?Paris, 1897?). [?] At the time of the Congress of Berlin (1878), the Armenians handed over secretly to the representatives of the powers, a memorandum summarizing their aspirations and grievances. It said: "Leaving aside everything which constitutes and protects political equality, a Muslim authority would not be able to acknowledge and practice two things, without belying its religion: freedom of conscience and equitable justice, those two essential functions of any government. Freedom of conscience in Turkey means no more than the freedom of the Christian to become Muslim. A Muslim authority will never tolerate, and has never tolerated, conversion to Christianity by a Muslim, not even by a Christian who had at some time became a Muslim. It is not possible to cite a single example of such a conversion which has been tolerated. The principle of freedom of conscience is only applicable to the different Christian Churches in their relations with one another. The same applies to equitable justice. Except by the laws which are an integral part of it, the religion exerts no influence on the administration of justice when it concerns Christians between themselves; but the Muslim who wrongs a Christian will always be privileged in the face of justice, which only acknowledges, and will only acknowledge, the testimony of Muslims". [pp. 981-83] "Les affaires armeniennes", Revnue encyclopedique (Paris, 1896) Two Eye-Witness Accounts of the Armenians during World War I Palestine, 1915 [?] It has been more than proved (of their own admission!) that it was the Germans who "organized" the control and "correction" of the Armenians. Yet, these messengers from hell, who claim to be superior to others in many things, also describe themselves as "better Christians" than all the others (do relish William?s prose?) (William II, German Emperor). No, the Turks have promised that only 500,000 of the 2,500,000 Armenians living in the empire will be left at the end of the war. As far as these promises are concerned, have faith in the Turks. They are on the way to keeping their word. On our roads [in Palestine], one sees long files of young and old men engaged in forced labour: from time to time, someone sick enough is borne on the shoulders of a helpful comrade in misfortune; sometimes, someone lying on the road whose sufferings will soon have ceased. Even better: these wretches are pursued along the [railway] line of the Hedjaz: old men, old women, children. Sometimes they are allowed to camp down. No bread, no clothing, not a [piece of] cloth on their heads [as protection] against sun or cold, not a tool with which to work. Yet these wretches sometimes have the courage to ask: Will we stop here at last? The reply is invariably: "It is not known!? and the worst torture is added to all the rest: the torture of uncertainty. In many places, it is forbidden to give alms to this hapless people. Even better: do you know what was done with the young girls and young women? ! Yes, as soon as you read my question, you, who know Islam, have guessed. However, this will not stop me telling you: THEY HAVE BEEN SOLD! Yes, yes: sold, every girl from the age of seven or eight upwards. They are not expensive. Although it is difficult to feed even the animals in this starving country, there were found among the "faithful", bidders ready to pay from five to a hundred francs for a piece of white flesh. Do not console yourself with the idea that I am reporting gossip! Vain consolation! Things seen, witnessed, proven, official! Very small girls torn from their mothers, young brides taken from their husbands, young girls "kaffirs" [infidels] become the slaves of the debauchery of the "faithful"! The children of a race of martyrs, a race which is claimed to be physically beautiful, and which is undeniably of an acute superiority of intelligence. [?] As for me, I no longer have teeth to gnash, who?s turn is it now?! For I came into my country, on the holiest ground, on the road from Jerusalem, and I asked myself if we were in 1915 or in the days of Titus and Nebuchadnezzar. For I, a Jew, I forgot that I was Jewish – it is very difficult to forget this "privilege"! – and I asked myself if I had the right to weep solely for the grief of my nation and if Jeremiah [8:21] did not shed his tears of blood for the Armenians too?! And, lastly since the Christians – some of whom sometimes claim a monopoly of works of Love, of Charity and of Solidarity – are silent, there is need once again for a son of the Old Race who disregards the Pain, overcomes the Torture, or denies the Death which for twenty centuries is offered to us more often than is our share; it would need a drop of blood from the Patriarchs and of Moses, of the Macabbees from arid Judea, of Jesus, the dreamer by the side of the blue lake of sweet Galilee, and of Bar Kochba; it would need a drop of the blood that had escaped from the slaughter, to rise up and say: Look! You who refuse to open your eyes. Listen! You whose ears refuse to hear! What have you done with the secrets of Love and Charity entrusted to you?! To what purpose has served the spilled streams of our blood?! What are you doing in Life with your lofty words?! And while a night?s journey from here thousands and thousands of Englishmen, Canadians and Australians – all volunteers who have come to fight – remain inactive, a few Arab dogs and Turkish hyenas are wallowing in a charnel-house which they create and maintain. And to know that whips would suffice to drive out all this cowardliness. Alas! The torture of being powerless and disarmed. The valiant soldiers who would arouse a Halleluya of liberation and joy do not come ? But tomorrow an official will come and teach us that the "Hasan" mosque of Jaffa is sacred and infinitely respectable because ? a bandit built it with stones from stolen houses, and that some Muslim wearing an immaculately white "Lafeh" [gown] is worthy of respect and honour because he keeps well imprisoned in his harem two Armenians, bought "on the cheap", or, to use the words of the Holy Bible, "for a pair of shoes". Forgive this tone, lieutenant! The roots of my past are in this country, my dreams for the future too; [?] I have my whole heart here and it is bleeding and wailing, forgive me. And while the accursed Germans flood the world with their printed lies, their treachery built into professions of faith [?], why are you silent?! Silent scorn and mistrust are fine, but did not Ecclesiastes say: "A time to keep silence, and a time to speak." [?] Especially, as honest people, should one not speak out, and is it a young, rebellious Jew who once again must do it?! [?] Extract from a report in French "PRO ARMENIA" (Athlit, 22 November 1915) by Absalom Feinberg (Absalom Feinberg ?1889-1917?. Born at Gedera ?Palestine?. Agronomist and cofounder with Aharon Aaronsohn of Nili, the Palestinian Jewish intelligence service, which worked with British intelligence during World War I. He was assassinated by Bedouins near Gaza while travelling to Egypt in January 1917. A palm tree grew from the date seeds in his pocket. In 1967, after the six Day War, his remains were discovered under the tree indicated by a Bedouin and buried in Israel on Mount Herzi) to Lt.C. Z. Wooley, British naval officer in Port Said, Egypt. Iraq, 1915-1917 Letters in French from D. Sasson, headmaster of the Alliance Israelite Universelle boys? school at Mosul, to the president of the AIU in Paris Constantinople, 3 April, 1919 [?] As I am reflecting in order to coordinate my ideas and describe to you with some precision the situation of Mosul during this war, I am overwhelmed by a feeling of sickness and embarrassment; for I find that the pen is too imperfect an instrument to convey truthfully all the horrors that I have seen, all the images which today fill my mind. When I remember again, only a few months afterwards, the painful scenes which we have witnessed; when I think of that crowd of gaunt, fleshless spectres, their faces white as corpses, filing through the streets and over countryside in search of a carcass or a few herbs to cheat their hunger; when I think of others, with limbs and cheeks bloated with air, who came to ask for alms, collapsing from exhaustion on my doorstep, I come to the point of doubting myself. Was it a nightmare? What pen, what words could ever describe the distress, the agony of Mosul in 1918? What words could render the evil sight of those children?s heads severed from their bodies and paraded in the streets to summon weeping mothers to recognize their stolen children, stolen in the street by ferocious starvelings, for whom this was the last resort? However improbable this may appear, it is – unless I am still dreaming – something I have seen, a reality experienced. [p.1] D. Sasson, report No. 4 (extract) Archives, AIU, Iraq I.C.2. Constantinople, April 30, 1919 [?] 1915 saw the massacre of the Armenians; 1916 saw – O divine vengeance – the explosion of a dreadful epidemic. The fetid decomposition of Armenian corpses which were found abandoned in the open fields; those that were foolishly thrown into the nutritive waters of the Tigris emitted vengeful germs of inexorable diseases which, alas, mowed down an entirely innocent population. There was typhoid fever, malaria, yellow fever, cholera. The uninterrupted exodus of deportees and emigrants brought with it exanthematic typhus, the most terrible of calamities, which decimated the population and which unfortunately claimed an immense and harsh tribute from our coreligionists. Oh! What a sad Passover it was that year! It found our quarter in mourning and almost every family weeping at the grave of a deceased or at the bedside of someone agonizing. [pp. 2-3] D. Sasson, report No. 5 (extract) Archives AIU, Iraq I.C.2. Constantinople, July 20, 1919 [?] At last, in 1917, after the fall of Baghdad, a few young Christians appealed to me for the organization of a collection on behalf of the wretched Armenians deported to our town. This hapless mass, that had miraculously escaped the executioners? knives and the fatigues of a forced march of several months, swarmed in our streets, a prey to the pangs of hunger and condemned to the horrors of the most abominable persecution. Some of them – women and children of good family, with a refined education – had a few savings in local banks; but a cruel order had forbidden all these financial establishments to make payments to the deportees from the funds which they held for them. It seemed as if the government, not having been able to exterminate all of them by fire and sword, wanted to eliminate them by hunger and disease. For months on end we watched, impotent and distressed, the arrival of these interminable convoys of women and children, emaciated, exhausted, yellow and pitiable, reminiscent of the most atrocious persecutions in the period of the Inquisition. They arrived with the hope of at last settling somewhere, happy nonetheless to have escaped death thus far. Their fathers, husbands, brothers, sons – in fact all the males of their families – had been massacred, slaughtered before their eyes with an abominable refinement of cruelty. And, on the road to exile, all those women and children, who were not able to follow the convoy, fell pierced by the bayonets of the savage horde charged with escorting them. Able-bodied young girls were dragged off and subjected to the most horrible and despicable acts. Never was barbarity practised with so much cruelty on women and children. The survivors in rags, emaciated more dead than alive, dragged themselves pitiably through our streets. To see them stream past, it was impossible to say precisely whether these ghosts were naked or clad, if these figures were those of animals or human beings. The number of these deportees in our town alone arose to more than eight thousand, but it is said that a similar number were not able to follow the convoy and were killed on the road. And, actually, the roads round about were strewn with corpses; the Tigris washed up swollen unrecognizable corpses on its banks every day. Horror of horrors, it was forbidden to be affected or to show pity. This was one more sentence of death, slow and painful, still more cruel than the massacres by sword and fire to which their male compatriots, or their travelling companions, had succumbed. And the authorities did not think that the presence of this wretched throng, in these horrible conditions, could constitute a danger for the town. Did they want to kill two birds with one stone: abolish the Armenian race and reduce the number of Arabs by debauchery and epidemics? The wife of a merchant from Harput, a tall woman, blond and about forty years old, had seen her husband, her uncle and her sixteen-year-old son shot before her eyes. She herself was condemned to leave behind her property and possessions and to take the road of exile with her two children, aged three and eight. However, before she set out on the journey, the wretched woman burned her face and cut her lower lip and the tip of her nose. On the road, her elder daughter was thrown into the water, being unable to follow the convoy. After many attempts, this woman was taken in by a Chaldean family of Mosul, who had had business connections with her husband before the war. This woman spoke French. I learned that she had thus disfigured herself so as not to be forced to serve as an instrument of pleasure for her executioners. "I could have killed myself", she told me one day, "but my two little daughters were still alive and I did not want to abandon them; and then", she added, "I am anxious to see the end of this war, I want to know if God exists". A few days later, a visit by the minister of war, Enver Pasha, was announced. In order to prevent any awkward incident, any violent act arising from despair, the deportees were assembled and divided into two camps: one was penned into a closed area and the other forced to leave for Dayr al-Zur. This hapless woman left with the last group. I later learned that she had died on the road. Poor woman! Her bruised heart had not had the joy of seeing that God exists and that his justice which she had entreated and which she wanted to see, had finally been revealed. Be that as it may, we tried to organize a small subscription on behalf of these poor wretches. But the police having got wind of the matter were hot on our heels and arrested me, among a number of others, making a thorough search of my house. As they found nothing suspicious – and after many applications by some prominent friends – I was released after being held for ten hours, with formal recommendations not to concern myself any longer with such matters. [pp. 5-7 D. Sasson, report No. 10 (extract) Archives, AIU, Iraq I.C.2.