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European Witness
NEW LIGHT ON THE ARMENIAN MASSACRE
Page 3
Lord Grey, then British Secretary of State, on receiving these documents, wrote to Viscount Bryce:
"My Dear Bryce: It is a terrible mass of evidence, but I feel it ought to be published and widely studied by all who have the broad interests of humanity at heart. It will be valuable, not only for the immediate information of public opinion as to the conduct of the Turkish Government toward this defenseless people, but also as a mine of information for historians in the future.
(Signed) GREY OF FALLODEN"
Various opinions of distinguished people are given as to the credibility of this evidence. Among others, Gilbert Murray, the famous scholar and poet, says:"The evidence of these letters and reports will bear any scrutiny and overpower any skepticism."
An expert on the matter of evidence, Moorfield Storey, formerly President of the American Bar Association, writes cautiously but conclusively:
"In my opinion, the evidence which you print is as reliable as that upon which rests our belief in many of the universally accepted facts of history, and I think it establishes beyond any reasonable doubt the deliberate purpose of the Turkish authorities practically to exterminate the Armenians, and their responsibility for the hideous atrocities which have been perpetrated upon that unhappy people."
Other works to be consulted in this connection, filled with corroborating and overwhelming testimony are: "Beginning Again at Ararat", by Doctor Mabel E. Elliott; "Shall This Nation Die", by Reverend Joseph Naayem; and most convincing of all, the "Secret Report on the Massacres of Armenia", by Doctor Johannes Lepsius, German missionary and President of the German Orient Mission. Doctor Lepsius’ explanation of the necessity for the secrecy of his report, which was made to his "friends of’ the mission, is illuminating:
"Dear Friends of the Mission: The following report which I am sending to you absolutely confidentiality, has been printed as a manuscript. It can not, either as a whole or in part, be given to the public, nor utilized. The censor can not authorize, during the war, publications concerning events in Turkey. Our political and military interests oblige us with imperious demands. Turkey is our ally. In addition to having defended her own country, she has rendered service to us ourselves by her valiant defense of the Dardanelles. Our fraternity of arms with Turkey imposes, then, obligations, but it does not hinder us from fulfilling the duties of humanity."
"But, if we must be quiet in public, our conscience does not, however, cease to speak. The most ancient people of Christianity is in danger of being wiped out, in so far as it is in the power of the Turks; six sevenths of the Armenian people have been despoiled of their possessions, driven from their firesides, and, in so far as they have not accepted Islam, have been killed or deported into the desert. The same fate has happened to the Nestonians of Syria, and part of the Greek Christians have suffered."
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