Pillage In Smyrna District -nyt19150419
PILLAGE IN SMYRNA DISTRICT
Christians Murdered at Vourla -- An Appeal to America
APRIL 19, 1915
Special Cable to NEW YORK TIMES. MITYLENE, Friday, April 16, (dispatch to the London Daily News.)-- Merchants who arrived last night from Smyrna draw a gloomy picture of the state of things in the district surrounding that city. While Smyrna itself is quiet, pillage and murder are rife in the villages and smaller towns of the littoral, all Christians going in danger of their lives. At Vourla a Greek notable and others have been killed.
Large Turkish reinforcements arrived last week and defense works are being constructed with the utmost energy, particularly near Vourla. Several more German officers reached Smyrna a few days ago and have taken over the direction of defense preparation.
SYRACUSE, Sicily, (via Paris,) April 18.-- Travelers arriving her from Asia Minor say that bands of Mussulman brigands are committing all kinds of outrages in Smyrna, pillaging, burning property, killing and taking hostages.
The people bringing this reports say the Europeans in Smyrna urgently ask the assistance of the United States cruiser Tennessee, now in eastern waters, or any other forces or influence which America can exercise.
A hard copy of this article or hundreds of others from the time of the Armenian Genocide can be found in The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts From The American Press: 1915-1922