Says Only Germany Can Save Armenians -nyt19151016a
SAYS ONLY GERMANY CAN SAVE ARMENIANS
Lord Bryce Declares Pressure of Neutral Opinion May Force Her to Act
OCTOBER 16, 1915
LONDON, Oct. 15.--"There is only one power that can stop the Armenian atrocities, and that is Germany," declared Viscount Bryce at a meeting today at the Mansion House in support of the Lord Mayor's Fund in aid of the Armenian sufferers. He declared that the only remedy was to bring the pressure of world opinion, particularly of neutral opinion, to bear on Germany, and force her to take action.
Lord Bryce, who proposed a resolution condemning the reported atrocities, paid tribute to the intelligence and progressiveness of the Armenians, who, he said, were far superior to the Mohammedance, and he declared the case was not so much one of religious fanaticism as it was of deliberate extermination of a people of whom the Turks were envious.
The horrors of the massacre exceeded anything in the history of persecutions declared the speaker. Women and children, he said, had been driven across the Arabian Desert with whips by the Turks, who went mad, and at Trebizond carried their victims out to sea in boats and drowned them. "Women, many of whom were as highly civilized as any of us," he asserted, "had been sold into slavery, where they were Mohammedanized. He declared untrue the excuse offered by Germans for the Turks to the effect that the Armenians had rebelled. saying that the Armenians were quiet and inoffensive until forced to defend themselves.
In seconding the resolution Cardinal Bourne said that the evidence was so strong that even Germany was not able to deny the massacres. Neutrals, he said, should follow the example of Pope Benedict, who wrote a personal protest and plea to the Sultan.
Sir Edwin Pears, who had been the leader of the British bar in Constantinople, apparently surprised his governors by saying that persecution was not an article on Mohammedan faith and that the massacres were deplored by the mass of the Turks.
T. P. O 'Connor mentioned the work of American in raising a fund and also praised the effort to the same end being made by the Lord Mayor.
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