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 /Document 
 1 No. 266 
 
 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST 
 
 I: 
 
 REPORT OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN MILITARY MISSION 
 TO ARMENIA 
 
 By 
 
 Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord 
 
 U. S. ARMY 
 
 (APPENDIX ONLY) 
 
 PRESENTED BY MR. LODGE 
 April 13, 1920.— Ordered to be printed 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 
 1920 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page, 
 Letter to Secretary of State submitting report of American Military Mission to 
 
 Armenia ' 3 
 
 History and present situation of Armenian people 4 
 
 Political situation and suggestions for readjustment. 11 
 
 Conditions and problems inArolved.in a mandate for Turkey and Transcaucasia. 20 
 
 The military problem 21 
 
 Conclusions 24 
 
 EXHIBITS. 
 
 [Appended at end of report.] 
 
 A, — -Map showing routes, including distances, covered by the mission. (See frontis- 
 piece.) (Not printed.) 
 
 B. — .Joint letter, October 15, 1919, from Armenian patriarch, Catholic Armenian 
 patriarch, and the Vekil of Armenian Protestant communities to Gen. Harbord. 
 
 C. — Statement of Mustapha Kemal Pasha concerning organization, objects, "League 
 for the defense of the rights of Anatolia and Roumelia." 
 
 D. — Gen. Harbord's letter of October 9, 1919, to Mustapha Kemal Pasha. 
 
 E. — Declaration of the Congress of Sivas. 
 
 F. — Resolution of National Congress of Sivas addressed to the Senate of the United 
 States of America requesting that Senatorial committee visit and investigate : 
 conditions within the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 G. — Population and resources. 
 
 LIST OF APPENDIXES. 
 
 A. — Political factors and problems, by Capt. Stanley K. Hornbeck, Ordnance Depart-' 
 
 ment, United States Army. i 
 
 B. — Government in Turkey and Transcaucasia, by Lieut. Col. Jasper Y. Brinton, : 
 
 judge advocate. United States Army. 
 C. — Public and private finance of Turkey and Transcaucasia, by Prof. W. W. Cumber- 
 land. 
 D. — Commerce and industry in Tm'key and Transcaucasia, by Trade Commissioner; 
 
 Eliot Grinnell Mears. 
 E. — Public health and sanitation, by Col. Henry Beeuwkes, Medical Corps, United 
 
 States Army. 
 F. — Population; industrial and other qualities; maintenance, by Lieut. Col. John; 
 
 Price Jackson, Engineers, United States Army. 
 G.^ — Climate, natural resources, animal industry, and agriculture, by Lieut. Col. E. ' 
 
 Bowditch, Infantry, United States Army. 
 H. — Geography, mining, and boundaries, by Maj. Lawrence Martin, General Staff, 
 
 LTnited States Army. 
 I.— The press of Turkey and Transcaucasia, by Maj. Harold W. Clark, Infantry, 
 
 United States Army. 
 J. — The military problem of a mandatory, by Brig. Gen. Geo. Van Horn Moseley, . 
 
 General Staff, United States Army. 
 K. — Transport and communications in Asia Minor and the Transcaucasus, by William 
 
 B. Poland, Engineer member of the mission. 
 L.— Bibliography. gT ^^ ^ 
 
T[S/95 
 
 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAE EAST. 
 
 American Military Mission to Armenia, 
 On Board TJ. S. S. Martha Washington, October 16, 1919. 
 
 From: Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord, United States Army. 
 
 To: The Secretary of State. 
 
 Subject: Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia. 
 
 The undersigned submits herewith the report of the American 
 Military Mission to Armenia. The mission, organized under aluthority 
 of the President, consisted of Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord, United 
 •States Army; Brig. Gen. Frank R. McCoy, United States Army; 
 Brig. Gen. George Van Horn Moseley, United States Army; Col. 
 Henry Beeuwkes, Medical Corps, United States Army; Lieut. Col. 
 John Price Jackson, United States Engineers; Lieut. Col. Jasper Y. 
 Brinton, judge advocate. United States Army; Lieut. Col. Edward 
 Bowditch, jr., Infantry, LTnited States Army; Commander W. W. 
 Bertholf, United States Navy; Maj. Lawrence Martin, General Staff, 
 United States Army; Maj. Harold Clark, Infantry, Ignited States 
 Army; Capt. Stanley K. JEornbeck, Ordnance Department, United 
 States Army (chief of Far Eastern Division, An:erican Commission 
 to Negotiate Peace); Mr. William B. Poland, chief of the American 
 Relief Commission for Belgium and Northern France; Prof. W. W. 
 Cumberland, economic advisor to the American Comirjission to 
 Negotiate Peace; Mr. EUot Grinnell Mears, trade commissioner, 
 Department of Commerce, with other officers, clerks, interpreters, 
 etc. 
 
 The instructions to the mission w^ere to — - 
 
 Proceed without delay on a Government vessel to Constantinople, Batum, and such 
 other places in Armenia, Russian Transcaucasia, and Syria, as will enable you to 
 carry out instructions already discussed with you. It is desired that you investigate 
 and report on political, military, geographical, administrative, economic,. and other 
 considerations iuA^olved in possible American interests and responsibilities in that 
 region. 
 
 The mission proceeded by ship to Constantinople. From there it 
 traveled by the Bagdad Railway to Adana near the northeastern coast 
 of the Mediterranean Sea; the scene of the massacres of 1909, and the 
 principal city of the rich Province of Cilicia, where two days were spent 
 visiting Tarsus, and the ports of Ayas and Mersina; thence continued 
 by rail via Aleppo to Mardin ; from there by motor car to Diarbekir, 
 Kharput, Malatia, Sivas, Erzinjan, Erzerum, Kars, Erivan, and 
 Tiflis; thence by rail to Baku and Batum. Erivan, Tiflis, and Baku 
 are the capitals, respectively, of the Republics of Ai^menia, Georgia, 
 and Azarbaijan, and Batum is the seat of the British military govern- 
 ment of the Georgian district of that name. Members of the mission 
 also traveled by carriage froi^i Ula-Kishla to Sivas; from Sivas to 
 Samsun; visiting Marsovan where there is much apprehension among 
 the Armenian population at this time; from Trebizond to Erzerum; 
 
 3 
 
4 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAE EAST. 
 
 by horseback from Khorasan to Bayazid; from Erivan to Nakhichevan, 
 near the Persian border. The Armenian Catholicos, His Holiness 
 Kevork V, was visited at Etchmiadzin the historic seat of the Arme- 
 nian Church, with its ancient cathedral dated from 301 A. D. The 
 mission traversed Asia Minor for its entire length and the Trans- 
 caucasus from north to south and east to west. All of the Vilayets 
 of Turkish Armenia were visited except Van and Bitlis, which were 
 inaccessible in the time available, but which have been well covered 
 by Capt. Niles, an Army officer who inspected them on horseback in 
 August, and whose report corroborates our observations in the neigh- 
 boring regions; as well as both Provinces of the Armenian Republic, 
 and the Republics of Azarbaijan and Georgia. The Turkish frontier 
 was paralleled from the Black Sea to Persia. On the return voyage 
 from Batum the mission visited Samsun, the port of one of the world's 
 great tobacco regions, and Trebizond, the latter a principal port on 
 the south shore of the Black Sea, terminus of the ancient caravan 
 route to Persia, of historic interest as the point where the Greek 
 10,000 reached the sea under Xenophon over 2,300 years ago. 
 
 The mission spent 30 days in Asia Minor and Transcaucasia, and 
 interviewed at length representatives of every Government exer- 
 cismg sovereignty m that region, as well as mdividual Turks, Arme- 
 nians, Greeks, Kurds, Tartars, Georgians, Russians, Persians, Jews, 
 Arabs, British, and French, including Americans for some time domi- 
 ciled in the country. It also gave consideration to the views of the 
 various educational, religious, and charitable organizations sup- 
 ported by America. In addition to this personal contact the mission 
 before leavmg Paris was in frequent conference with the various dele- 
 gations to the peace conference from the regions visited. It has had 
 before it numerous reports of the American Committee for Relief in 
 the Near East, and Food Administration, and that of the mission of 
 Mr. Benjamin B. Moore, sent by the peace conference to Transcau- 
 casia, as well as the very complete library on the region, its geography, 
 history, and governments, loaned by the Librarian of Congress, the 
 American Mission to Negotiate Peace, and others. It has listened to 
 the personal experiences of many witnesses to the atrocities of 1915, 
 and benefited by the views of many persons whose knowledge of the 
 various peoples in the regions visited is that obtained by years spent 
 among them. 
 
 The mterest, the horror, and sympathy of the civilized world are 
 so centered on Armenia, and the purpose and work of this mission 
 so focus on that blood-soaked region and its tragic remnant of a 
 Christian population that this report should seem to fall naturally 
 under the followmg heads: (a) History and present situation of the 
 Armenian people; (6) the political situation and suggestions for read- 
 justment; (c) the conditions and problems involved in a mandatory; 
 (d) the considerations for and against the undertaking of a mandate. 
 
 The report is accordingly so presented. 
 
 THE HISTORY AND PRESENT SITUATION OF ARMENIAN PEOPLE. 
 
 The Armenians were known to history under that name in the 
 fifth century B. C, and since that period have lived in the region 
 where their misfortunes find them to-day. Their country is the 
 great rough tableland, from 3,000 to 8,000 feet above the level of the 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAK EAST. Q 
 
 sea, of which Mount Ararat is the dominant peak. In ancient times 
 it touched the Mediterranean, Caspian, and Black Seas. In later 
 days it has dwindled to about 140,000 square miles, an area about 
 as large as Montana, without political identity, but existing in 1914 
 in two parts, the eastern belonging to Russia, which consisted of Kars 
 and Erivan, and some portions of the present territory of Azarbaijan: 
 the remainder being Turkish Armenia, comprised in the Villayets of" 
 Van, Bitlis, Erzerum, Diarbekir, Kharput, and Cilicia, though Ar- 
 menians were scattered more or less throughout the whole of Trans- 
 caucasia and Asia Minor. Armenia was an organized nation 1,00G' 
 years before there was one in Europe, except Greece and Rome. For 
 over 12 of the 25 centuries of its history Armenia enjoyed independ- 
 ence within borders that shifted with the events of the times. Its 
 last king, Leon VI, an exile from his own land, spent his last years 
 in the effort to bring about an understanding between France and 
 England, then in the struggle of the Hundred Years War, and actu- 
 ally presided at a peace conference near Boulogne in 1386, which 
 brought about the understanding which led to the end of that war. 
 Armenia was evangelized by Apostles fresh from the memory of our 
 Lord, as early as 33 A. D., and as a nation adopted Christianity and 
 founded a National Church in 301 A. D., which has outridden the 
 storms of the centuries, and is vital to-day. Armenia was the first 
 nation to officially adopt Christianity, with all that act involved in a 
 pagan world. 
 
 The first two centuries following the foundation of the church 
 were a golden age of Armenian literature, witnessing the invention 
 of an Armenian alphabet; the translation of the Bible into the 
 vernacular; the thronging of Armenians to the grea,t centers of 
 learning at Athens, Rome, and Alexandria; and the development of 
 a flexible literary language, one of the great assets of national life. 
 
 By its geographical location on the great highway of invasion 
 from east to west the ambitions of Persia, the Saracens and the 
 rising tide of Islam, and the Crusades found Armenia the extreme 
 frontier of Christianity in the East. Persians, Parthians, Saracens, 
 Tartars, and Turks have exacted more martyrs from the Armenian 
 church in proportion to its numbers than have been sacrificed by 
 any other race. The last Armenian dynasty was overthrown by the 
 Sultan of Egypt 78 years before the fall of Constantinople to Mahomet 
 II in 1453. From that time until to-day the story of their martyrdom 
 is unbroken. In the Persian, the Roman, the Byzantine, the Armen- 
 ian found Aryan kinsmen and tyranny was tempered with partial 
 autonomy. Even the Saracen was a high racial type and reciprocal 
 adjustments had been possible. The Turk to whom they now fall 
 prey was a raiding nomad from central Asia. His mainsprings of 
 action were plunder, murder, and enslavement; his methods the 
 scimitar and the bowstring. The Crusades were long ended. Europe 
 busy with her own renaissance contented herself with standing on 
 the defensive against the Moslem, and the eastern Christian was 
 forgotten. For more than three centuries the Armenian people 
 figure little in the history of the times, though at an earlier period 
 16 Byzantine Emperors were of that race, and ruled the eastern 
 Empire with distinction. Many individuals, and even colonies, 
 however, played a part in distant lands. Europe, India, and Persia 
 welcomed them. They were translators, bankers, scholars, artisans, 
 
6 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 artists, and traders, and even under their tyrannical masters filled 
 posts which called for administrative ability, became ambassadors and 
 ministers, and more than once saved a tottering throne. They 
 carried on trades, conducted commerce, and designed and constructed 
 palaces. Nevertheless as a race they were forbidden military service, 
 taxed to poverty, their property confiscated at pleasure, and their 
 women forced into the harems of the conqueror. Such slavery leaves 
 some inevitable and unlovable traces upon the character, but in the 
 main the Armenian preserved his religion, his language, and his 
 racial purity, persecution bringing cohesion. 
 
 Time, temperament and talent eventually bro\;ght most of the 
 industry, finance, commerce, and much of the intellectual and ad- 
 ministrative work of the Ottoman Empire into Armenian hands. 
 
 The progress of events in Europe brought about in the early 
 nineteenth century a revival of interest in the forgotten Near East. 
 As early as 1744 the treaty of Kainardje had placed Imperial Russia 
 in the r61e of a protector of the Christians of the Near East, an atti- 
 tude many times under suspicion by contemporary statesmen, but 
 whatever its motives, the only genuine attempt by any European 
 nation to afford such protection to helpless Armenia. A plebiscite 
 in Russian Armenia, if fairly held, would probably vote a reconsti- 
 tuted Russia into a mandatory for that region. 
 
 With Armenian consciousness of their own capacity to trade, to 
 administer, and to govern in the name of others, tliere came in the 
 last quarter of the nineteenth century the opportunity to throw their 
 weight into the scale for the reform of Turkey from within, at a time 
 when the dismemberment of Turkey was balanced in European 
 politics against the possibility of her self-redemption. In 1876 a 
 constitution for Turkey was drawn up by the Armenian Krikor 
 Odian, secretary to Midhat Pasha the reformer, and was pro(;laimed 
 and almost immediately revoked by Sultan Abdul Hamid. 
 
 The foregoing inadec[uate]y sketches the story of the wrongs of 
 Armenia down to our own times. From 1876 it is a stor}^ of massacre 
 and of broken and violated guaranties. 
 
 The Russo-Turkish War ended in 1877 by the treaty of San Stefano, 
 under which Russia was to occupy certain regions until actual reforms 
 had taken place in Turkey. This treaty, through British jealousy of 
 Russia, was torn up the following year and the futile treaty of Berlin 
 substituted, asking protection but without guaranties. Meantime 
 there had been the convention of Cyprus, by which that island passed 
 to Great Britain, and the protection of Turkey was promised for the 
 Armenians in return for Great Britain's agreement to come to the 
 aid of Turkey against Russia. A collective note of the powers in 
 1880 was ignored by Turkey. Then followed the agreement of 1895, 
 which was never carried out, and the restoration of the constitution 
 of 1876 in 1908. A further agreement in 1914 was abrogated at the 
 entrance of Turkey in the war — -and the last of the series is a secret 
 treaty of 1916 between Great Britain, France and Russia, the exist- 
 ence and publication of which rests on Bolshevik authority, by which 
 Armenia was to be divided between Russia and France. Meanwhile 
 there have been organized official massacres of the Armenians ordered 
 every few years since Abdul Hamid ascended the throne. In 1895, 
 100,000 perished. At Van in 1908, and at Adana and elsewhere in 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. -7 
 
 Cilicia in 1909, over 30,000 were murdered. The last and greatest 
 of these tragedies was in 1915. Conservative estimates place the 
 number of Armenians in Asiatic Turkey in 1914 over 1,500,000, though 
 some make it higher. Massacres and deportations were organized in 
 the spring of 1915 under definite system, the soldiers going from town 
 to town. The official reports of the Turkish Government show 
 1,100,000 as having been deported. Young men were first summoned 
 to the government building in each village and then marched out and 
 killed. The women, the old men, and children were, after a few days, 
 deported to what Talaat Pasha called "agricultural colonies," from 
 the high, cool, breeze-swept plateau of Armenia to the malarial flats 
 of the Euphrates and the burning sands of Syria and Arabia. The 
 dead from'this wholesale attempt on the race are variously estimated 
 from 500,000 to more than a million, the usual figure being about 
 800,000. 
 
 Driven on foot under a fierce summer sun, robbed of their clothing 
 and such petty articles as they carried, prodded by bayonet if they 
 lagged; starvation, typhus, and dysentery left thousands dead by the 
 trail side. The ration was a pound of bread every alternate day, 
 which many did not receive, and later a small daily sprinkling of 
 meal on the palm of the outstretched hand was the only food. Many 
 perished from thirst or were killed as they attempted to slake thirst 
 at the crossing of running streams. Numbers were murdered by 
 savage Kurds, against whom the Turkish soldiery afforded no pro- 
 tection. Little girls of 9 or 10 were sold to Kurdish brigands for a 
 few piastres, and women were promiscuously violated. At Sivas an 
 instance was related of a teacher in the Sivas Teachers' College, a 
 gentle, refined Armenian girl, speaking English, knowing music, 
 attractive by the standards of any land, who was given in enforced 
 marriage to the beg of a neighboring Kurdish village, a filthy, ragged 
 ruffian three times her age, with whom she still has to live, and by whom 
 she has borne a child. In the orphanage there maintained under 
 American relief auspices, there were 150 "brides," being girls, many 
 of them of tender age, who had been living as wives in Moslem homes 
 and had been rescued. Of the female refugees among some 75,000 
 repatriated from Syria and Mesopotamia, we were informed at Aleppo 
 that 40 per cent are infected with venereal disease from the lives to 
 which they have been forced. The women of this race were free from 
 such diseases before the deportation. Mutilation, violation, torture, 
 and death have left their haunting memories in a hundred beautiful 
 Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that region is seldom free from 
 the evidence of this most colossal crime of all the ages. Yet immunity 
 from it all might have been purchased for any Armenian girl or comely 
 woman by abjuring her religion and turning Moslem. Surely no faith 
 has ever been put to harder test or has been cherished at greater cost. 
 
 Even before the war the Armenians were far from being in the 
 majority in the region claimed as Turkish Armenia, excepting in a 
 few places. To-day we doubt if they would be in the majority in a 
 single community even when the last survivors of the massacres and 
 deportations have returned to the soil, though the great losses of 
 Turkish population to some extent offset the difference brought 
 about by slaughter. We estimate that there are probably 270,000 
 Armenians to-day in Turkish Armenia. Some 75,000 have been 
 repatriated from the Syrian and Mesopotamian side, others are slowly 
 
8 CONDITIONS IN" THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 returning from other regions, and some from one cause or another 
 remained in the country. There are in the Transcaucasus probably 
 300,000 refugees from Turkish Armenia, and some thousands more in 
 other lands, for they have drifted to all parts of the Near East. The 
 orphanages seen throughout Turkey and Russian Armenia testify to 
 the loss of life among adults. They are Turkish as well as Armenian, 
 and the mission has seen thousands of these pathetic little survivors 
 of the unhappy years of the war. Reports from 20 stations in 
 Turkey show 15,000 orphans receivmg American aid, and undoubtedly 
 the number demandmg care is double this, for many were seen cared 
 for under the auspices of the Red Crescent, the organization which in 
 Moslem countries corresponds to our Red Cross. Twenty thousand 
 are being cared for at the expense of the various relief agencies in the 
 Transcaucasus. On the route traveled by the mission fully 50,000 
 orphans are to-day receivmg Government or other organized care. 
 We estimate a total of perhaps half a million refugee Armenians as 
 available to eventually begm life anew in a region about the size of 
 New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, to which would be added those, 
 not refugees, who might return from other lands. The condition of 
 the refugees seen in the Transcaucasus is pitiable to the last degree. 
 They subsist on the charity of the American relief organizations 
 with some help, not great, however, from their more prosperous 
 kmsmen domiciled in that region. Generally they wear the rags 
 they have worn for four years. Eighty per cent of them suffer from 
 malaria, 10 per cent from venereal troubles, and practically all from 
 diseases that flourish on the frontiers of starvation. There are also 
 the diseases that accompany filth, loathsome skin troubles, and great 
 numbers of sore eyes, the latter especially among the children. The 
 hospitals are crowded with such cases. 
 
 The refugees in Russian Armenia have hitherto drifted from place 
 to place, but an effort is now being made by the administration of 
 Col. Haskell to concentrate them in several refugee camps. The 
 winter season will see many deaths, for the winters there are ex- 
 tremely severe, fuel is scarce, and shelter inadequate. Medicines 
 are scarce and very dear. Quinine cost approximately $30 a pound. 
 On the Turkish side of the border where Armenians have returned 
 they are gradually recovering their property, and in some cases have 
 received rent for it, but generally they find things in ruins, and face 
 winter out of touch with the American relief, and with only such 
 desultory assistance as the Turkish Government can afford. Things 
 are little if any better with the peasant Turks in the same region. 
 They are practically serfs equally destitute, and equally defenseless 
 against the winter. No doctors or medicines are to be had. Vil- 
 lages are in ruins, some having been destroyed when the Armenians 
 fled or were deported; some during the Russian advance; some on 
 the retreat of the Armenian irregulars and Russians after the fall of 
 the Empire. Not over 20 per cent of the Turkish peasants who went 
 to war have returned. The absence of men between the ages of 20 
 and 35 is very noticeable. Six hundred thousand Turkish soldiers 
 died of typhus alone, it is stated, and insufficient hospital service 
 and absolute poverty of supply greatly swelled the death lists. 
 
 In the region which witnessed the ebb and flow of the Russian and 
 Turkish Armies, the phj^sical condition of the country is very deplor- 
 able. No crops have been raised for several years and the land 
 
CONDITIONS IIT THE NEAE EAST. 9 
 
 ordinarily cultivated has gone to weeds. Scarcely a village or city 
 exists which is not largely in ruins. The country is practically 
 treeless. 
 
 Where the desperate character of the warfare with its reprisals of 
 burning and destroying as one side and then the other advanced, 
 has not destroyed the buildings, which are generally of abode, the 
 wooden beams have been taken for fuel and the houses are ruined. 
 In the territory untoucned by war from which Armenians were 
 deported the ruined villages are undoubtedly due to Turkish deviltry, 
 but where Armenians advanced and retired with the Russians their 
 retahatory cruelties unquestionabh rivaled the Turks in their 
 inhumanity. The reconstruction of this country will be little short 
 in difficulty of its original reclamation from virgin wilderness in 
 days when tne world was young. 
 
 Where the Russian went he built fine macadam highways, and even 
 the main Turkish roads generally built during the war, over which our 
 mission traveled, were passable, and some quite good. All highways 
 are rapidly going to ruin for lack of maintenance. A country once 
 fairly equipped for motor traffic is shding back to dependence on 
 the camel caravan, the diminutive pack donkey, and the rattly^ 
 ramsnackly araba wagon. The ox is the principal draft animal. A 
 good highway existed from Erzerum to Trebizond, on the line of the 
 most ancient trade route in the world, that from Persia to the Bl.ack 
 Sea, through which, in all ages, the carpets and jewels of Persia 
 have reached the western world. The distance is about 150 miles. 
 The freight rate is now between $145 and S150 per ton. 
 
 In the portion of Turkey traversed we heard of brigandage, but 
 experienced no inconvenience. Apparently the Turkish Government, 
 inefficient and wicked as it sometimes is, can control its people, and 
 does govern. In the region once policed by Russia the relaxation 
 from its iron hand has been great, and life and property are unsafe 
 in many regions. Our mission was fired upon by Kurds in Russian 
 Armenia and several motor cars struck by buUets, and over half the 
 party were kept prisoner one night by Moslems who claimed to have 
 been driven from their villages by Armenians. 
 
 In Azarbaijan we were also fired upon. Train wrecks for robbery 
 are frequent on the Transcaucasian Railroad, and the Georgian 
 Government took the precaution to run pilot engines ahead of our 
 train for safety. The highways are unsafe even to the suburbs of 
 the large towns. Practically every man in Georgia and Azarbaijan, 
 outside the cities, carries a rifle. If he desires to stop a traveler on 
 the highway he motions or calls to him, and if unheeded fires at him. 
 
 The relief work consists of the allotment made to the Transcaucasus 
 from the unexpended balance of the hundred millions appropriated 
 by Congress for relief in allied countries, and of the funds contributed 
 through the American Committee for Relief in the Near East. All 
 circumstances considered, the relief administration in the Trans- 
 caucasus seems to have been conducted with more than average 
 energy. It has rescued the refugees there from starvation, and 
 brought the name of America to a height of sympathy and esteem 
 it has never before enjoyed in this region. It extends now through- 
 out the Near East, and is felt by the wild, ragged Kurd, the plausible 
 Georgian, the suspicious Azarbaijan, the able Armenian, and the 
 
10 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAE EAST. 
 
 grave Turk with equal seriousness. With it or probably because 
 of it there has come widespread knowledge of the Fourteen Points 
 submitted by the President, and ''self-determination" has been 
 quoted to the mission by wild Arabs from Shamar and Basra, by 
 every Government in Transcaucasia; by the mountaineers of Daghe- 
 stan, the dignified and able chiefs of the Turkish Nationalist move- 
 ment at Sivas and Erzerum, and the nomad Kurds who 10 minutes 
 before had fired at our party thinking us to be Armenians. Un- 
 doubtedly some charges of corruption on the part of native officials 
 connected with the relief could be substantiated. Charges of par- 
 tiality favoring Christian against Moslem in equal distress are not 
 infrequent. Due to inexperience, to difficulties of communication 
 and other causes there has been inefficiency on the part of American 
 officials and employees. Enthusiastic young Americans out of 
 touch with the sources of their funds, confronted with the horrors of 
 famine in a refugee population, drew drafts on the good faith and 
 generosity of their countrymen, procedure not usual in the business 
 world, but drafts that were honored nevertheless. Any criticism of 
 unbusinesslike methods must be accompanied with the statement of 
 work accomplished, which has been very great and very creditable 
 to America and her splendid citizens who have so generously con- 
 tributed to this cause. Col. Haskell has reorganized the work in the 
 Transcaucasus and is getting better results. In some way funds 
 must be found and this work must be continued and the people be 
 sustained until they can harvest a crop. If seed is available for 
 planting, a crop should be due in August, 1920. Even this prospec- 
 tive amelioration only applies to those repossessed of their lands. 
 
 There is much to show that, left to themselves, the Turk and the 
 Armenian when left without official instigation have hitherto been 
 able to live together in peace. Their existence side by side on the 
 same soil for five centuries unmistakably indicates their interde- 
 pendence and mutual interest. The aged Vali of Erzerum, a man 
 old in years and in official experience, informed us that in his youth, 
 before massacres began under Abdul Hamid, the Turk and the 
 Armenian lived in peace and confidence. The Turk making the 
 pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina left his family and 
 property with his Armenian neighbor; similarly the Armenian on the 
 eve of a journey intrusted his treasures to his Turkish friend. Testi- 
 mony is universal that the massacres have always been ordered from 
 Constantinople. Some Turkish officials were pointed out to us by 
 American missionaries as having refused to carry out the 1915 order 
 for deportation. That order is universally attributed to the Com- 
 mittee of Union and Progress, of which Enver Bey, Talaat Bey, and 
 Djemal Pasha were the leaders. A court has been sitting in the capital 
 practically since the armistice, and one man, an unimportant subordi- 
 nate, has been hung. Talaat, Enver, and Djemal are at large, and a 
 group of men charged with various crimes against the laws of war 
 are at Malta in custody of the British, unpunished, except as re- 
 strained from personal liberty. Various rumors place Enver Bey as 
 scheming in the Transcaucasus, and a French officer is authority for 
 the statement that he has been in Tiflis within two months conferring 
 with Government officials. This man is in Turkish eyes a heroic 
 iigure; risen from obscurity by his own efforts, allied by marriage to 
 
CONDITIONS IF THE NEAR EAST. 11 
 
 the Imperial House of Osman, credited with military ability, the 
 possibilities of disturbance are very great should he appear in com- 
 mand of Moslem irregulars on the Azarbaij an- Armenian frontier. 
 
 Such are conditions to-day in the regions where the remnant of 
 the Armenian people exist; roads and lands almost back to the wild; 
 starvation only kept off by American relief; villages and towns in 
 ruins; brigandage rampant in the Transcaucasus; lack of medicines 
 and warm clothing; winter coming on in a treeless land without coal. 
 We saw nothing to prove that Armenians who have returned to their 
 homes in Turkey are in danger of their lives, but their natural appre- 
 hension has been greatly increased by unbalanced advice given by 
 officers on the withdrawal of foreign troops from certain regions. 
 The events at Smyrna have undoubtedly cheapened every Christian 
 life in Turke}", the landing of the Greeks there being looked upon by 
 the Turks as deliberate violation by the Allies of the terms of their 
 armistice and the probable forerunner of further unwarranted aggres- 
 sion. The moral responsibility for present unrest throughout Turkey 
 is very heavy on foreign powers. Meantime, the Armenian, unarmeil 
 at the time of the deportations and massacres, a brave soldier by 
 thousands in the armies of Russia, France, and America during the 
 war, is still unarmed in a land where every man but himself carries a 
 Tifle. 
 
 THE POLITICAL SITUATIOX AND SUGGESTIONS FOR READJUSTMENT. 
 
 In seeking a remedy for political conditions which shriek of misery, 
 ruin, starvation, and all the melancholy aftermath, not only of hon- 
 orable warfare, but of beastial brutality unrestrained by God or man, 
 but which nevertheless prevail under an existing government with 
 which the powers of Europe have long been willing to treat on terms 
 of equality, one's first impulse is to inquire as to the possibility of 
 reform from within. The machinery of government existing, can it 
 be repaired and made a going concern, affording to its people the 
 guarantees of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness which the 
 modern world expects of its governments ? The case of the Turkish 
 Empire was duly presented to the peace conference in Paris on June 
 17 last by the Turkish Grand Vizier, Damad Ferid Pasha, in which 
 he admitted for the Turkish Government of the unhappy region 
 under consideration, the commission of "misdeeds which are such as 
 to make the conscience of mankind shudder with horror forever," 
 and that "Asia Minor is to-day nothing but a vast heap of ruins." 
 In the reply made by the council of ten of the peace conference, to 
 the plea of the Grand Vizier for the life of his Empire, the probability 
 of that Government being able to accomplish reforms from within 
 which will satisfy modern requirements and perhaps make amends 
 for past crimes, is well weighed in the following words: 
 
 Yet in all these changes there has been no case found either in Europe or in Asia 
 or in Africa in which the establishment of Turkish rule in any country has not been 
 followed by a diminution of prosperity in that country. Neither is there any case to 
 be found in which the withdrawal of Turkish rule has not been followed by material 
 prosperity and a rise in culture. Never among the Christians in Europe, nor among 
 the Moslems in Syria, Arabia, or Africa has the Turk done other than destroy wherever 
 he has conquered. . Never has he shown that he is able to develop in peace what he 
 lias gained in war. Not in this direction do his talents lie. 
 
12 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAB EAST. 
 
 It seems likely, therefore, that as far as the Armenians are con- 
 cerned, the Turk has had his day and that further uncontrolled 
 opportunity will be denied him. 
 
 With the break-up of Russia the Transcaucasus found itself adrift. 
 This Transcaucasian region is ethnographically one of the most com- 
 plicated in the world. In all ages it has been one of the great high- 
 ways for mankind. Here stragglers and racial remnants have lodged 
 during all the centuries that the tides of migration have swept the 
 base of the great Caucasus Range, until to-day its small area contains 
 five great racial groups, divided into some 40 distinct races. Nine 
 of these have arrived in comparatively recent times, but the remaining 
 31 are more or less indigenous. There are here 25 purely Caucasian 
 races. This racial diversity is complicated by the fact that with the 
 exception of the fairly compact group of Georgians, and one of Tartars, 
 these peoples are inextricably commingled throughout the region. 
 Their civilization varies from the mountain savage to individuals 
 of the highest types. Of the 40 distinct races, the most important 
 groups are the Georgians, the Azarbaijanese Tartars, and the 
 Armenians. 
 
 A Transcaucasian confederation formed by all the peoples in that 
 region was followed by an alignment in three small Republics, Georgia, 
 Azarbaijan, and Armenia. Georgia is Christian and its Iberian 
 population are in the majority; Azarbaijan is Tartar and Moslem; 
 Armenia is made up of the former provinces that composed Russian 
 Armenia, less the part that went to Azarbaijan in the split, and the 
 majority of its people are the blood brothers of the Armenians of 
 Turkey in Asia. These republics have been recognized by none of the 
 powers except Turkey. The Armenian Republic seeks at the peace 
 conference a union with the Turkish Armenians and the creation of an 
 Armenian state to include Russian Armenia and the six Turkish Vila- 
 yets (Van, Bitlis, Diarbekir, Kharput, Sivas, Erzerum) and Cilicia, to 
 be governed by a mandatory of the great powers during a transition 
 state of a term of years in which Armenians of the dispersion may 
 return to their homes, and a constituent assembly be held to deter- 
 mine the form of the eventual permanent Government. Georgia 
 and Azarbaijan ask independence at the peace conference with cer- 
 tain adjustments of disputed boundaries in which all Transcaucasia 
 is interested. 
 
 Both Georgia and Azarbaijan, living on the salvage from the wreck 
 of Russia, have persuaded themselves that the civilization and 
 governmental and business machinery they have taken over have 
 been theirs from the beginning. The Georgians, with a church of 
 their own antedating that of Russia and traditions of a Georgian 
 dynasty of Armenian origin which reigned in Tiflis for a thousand 
 years before Russia took o^er the country in 1802, are a ver3^ proud 
 and plausible race. They have been much influenced by the proxim- 
 ity o'f bolshevi'sm, fly the red flag of revolution over their own, and 
 have nationahzed land, taking it from the original owners without 
 compensation, to sell to peasants. This measure has been unsatis- 
 factory to both peasant and proprietor. The Azarbaijanese ar& 
 Tartars by blood and Moslem by religion and sympathy. The varied 
 topography of their little country and the diversity of its products- 
 make them more independent of outside help than either of the other 
 
COISTDITIONS IN THE ISTEAR EAST. 13 
 
 Transcaucasian Republics. Both Georgian and Azarbaijan Govern- 
 ments live in terror of the forces of Deniken coming south of the 
 Caucasus Mountains. Georgia- has her little army on her northern 
 frontier: and Azarbaijan has a tacit agreement with Gen. Deniken 
 to refrain from hostilities against him in return for- immunity from 
 attack by his gunboats on the Caspian Sea. 
 
 The Russian Armenians are the blood brothers of those in Turkey, 
 and came under Russian domination in 1878. They absorbed many 
 Russian manners and customs, and the wealth and ability of the 
 race gave them a predominant role in the Transcaucasus under 
 Russia. Tiflis, which was the Russian capital, has probably the 
 largest Armenian population of any city in the world except New 
 York and Constantinople. They are friendly to Deniken and a 
 reconstituted Russia, and their refusal to join Georgia and Azar- 
 baijan against Deniken caused the break-up of the Transcaucasian 
 Federation. 
 
 The dominant civilization in Transcaucasia is Russian. Every- 
 thing worth while in the country is due to Russian money and 
 Russian enterprise. Besides this common bond, these countries are 
 interdependent in the matter of transportation. From Tiflis, the 
 capital of Georgia, a railroad runs west to the Black Sea at Batum 
 and east to the Caspian Sea at Baku, the capital of Azarbaijan; and 
 south to Erivan, the capital of the Republic of Armenia. The road 
 is one of system, of the Russian gauge, with the three radii from 
 Tiflis, each ending in a different country, somethng like the following: 
 
 Batum Tiflis Baku. 
 
 On Black Sea (Georgia.) On Caspian Sea 
 
 <British military government.) 
 
 (Azarbaijan) 
 
 Erivan. 
 (Inland Armenia.) 
 
 Under Russia the road was, of course, under one management, 
 with shops, rollling stock, and policy in common. Georgia now 
 controls the shops, Azarbaijan the oil fuel, and each of the three 
 such rolling stock as it can get. No one of the three trusts the 
 others; no through or continuous traffic is possible without an 
 outside power guaranteeing the return of the rolling stock when it 
 passes from one jurisdiction to another. Georgia does not hesitate 
 to embargo freight against Armenia, and from her position of vantage 
 simply censors the railroad traffic to that unfortunate country. 
 Azarbaijan controls the fuel supply and combines with Georgia 
 against Armenia, which alone of the three has nothing by which to 
 
14 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 exert leverage. The railroad can neither be consolidated nor 
 properly operated under native control. Roadbed and rolling stock 
 are rapidly deteriorating. An example of the power of Georgia over 
 Armenia is that the latter is not permitted to import either arms or 
 ammunition, though under almost constant menace from its neighbors. 
 
 The three Governments from an occidental standpoint are noAV 
 thoroughly ineffi-cient, without credit, and undoubtedly corrupt. 
 Alone each faces inextricable financial difhculties. Religious differ- 
 ences, added to racial, threaten to embroil them unless brought 
 under a common control. Two of them have no outlet to the Black 
 Sea except through Georgia over the railroad. They have no present 
 intermonetary, postal, or customs union, and, as stated, no definite- 
 agreement for common control and use of the railroad, and are in 
 continual squabbles over boundaries. Azarbaijan has no educated 
 class capable of well administering a government; Georgia is threat- 
 ened by bolshevism; Armenia is in ruins, and partial starvation. All 
 our investigation brings conviction that the people in each would 
 welcome a mandatory b\ a trustworthy outside power. Russian 
 Armenia would to-da}^ probably vote a mandate to Russia if that 
 power were reconstituted. Georgia recalls its ancient independence 
 and was never thoroughly reconciled to Russian ride. Azarbaijan, 
 Tartar and Moslem, feels a double tie to Turkey and distrusts the 
 Christian, but the more intelligent people realize that outside control 
 is inevitable and even necessary to their relations with Christain 
 countries and that Turkey is beyond consideration. So closely are 
 the countries related geographically, commercially, and by the habit 
 of generations that this mission not onl)" believes that a mandatory 
 is necessary for them, but that it is imperative from the standpoints 
 of peace, order, efficiency, and economy that the same power shall 
 exercise a mandate over them all, leaving for the present their interior 
 boundaries unsettled. The ultimate disposition or form of govern- 
 ment of these States, other than that they may look forward to 
 autonomy but not necessarily, independence, should in our opinion 
 not now be announced. Their capacity for self-government and 
 their ability to sustain amicable and workable relations among 
 themselves remain to be tested under control b}^ such power as may 
 be induced to undertake its supervision, facing a long period of 
 tutelage for possibly unar)preciative and ungrateful pupil*, much 
 expense, probably diplomatic embarrassment from a reconstitution 
 of Russia, and little reward except the consciousness of having con- 
 tributed to the peace of the world and the rehabilitation of oppressed 
 humanity. 
 
 The covenant of the League of Nations contemplates that ''cer- 
 tain communities /or mcrZy belonging to the Turkish Empire" shall 
 be subject to a mandatory power for an unstated period, thus appear- 
 ing to recognize in adva,nce the dismemberment to some degree of 
 that Empire. (The italic is ours.) This, in connection with the 
 arraignment of the Turkish Government in the reply of the peace 
 conference, partly quoted on page 15 ante (see page 6), may not unrea- 
 sonably be construed to apply to any or all parts of the Turkish 
 Empire, as fast as they reach a certain stage of development. As 
 between actual dismemberment and a receivership for his entire 
 country, the Turk would beyond doubt prefer a mandatory for the 
 whole Empire as it may stand after adjudication by the peace confer- 
 
COXDITIOXS IX THE ISTEAE EAST. 15 
 
 ence. Bad as lie is, without the pale of consideration from many 
 standpoints, there would seem to be no objection to action taken in 
 his interest and in line with his preference if the interest and inclina- 
 tion of the world lie in the same direction. 
 
 A power which should undertake a mandatory for Armenia and 
 Transcaucasia without control of the contiguous territory of Asia 
 Minor — ^Anatolia — and of Constantinople, with its hinterland of 
 Koumelia, would undertake it under most unfavorable and trying 
 conditions, so difficult as to make the cost almost prohibitive, the 
 maintenance of law and order and the security of life and property 
 uncertain, and ultimate success extremely doubtful. With the 
 Turkish Empire still freely controlling Constantinople, such a power 
 would be practically emasculated as far as real pawer is concerned. 
 For generations these peoples have looked to Constantinople as the 
 seat of authority. The most intelligent and ambitious Armenians 
 have sought the capital as a career. The patriarch of the Armenian 
 Church in Constantinople, although subordinate in matters of doc- 
 trine to the Catholicos at Etchmiadzin, is in reality the political head 
 of the Armenian people by his location in Constantinople. Every 
 people in the Empire is numerously represented at the capital, the 
 Armenians reaching before the war the number of 150,000, with 
 business connections ramifying to distant corners of the entire country. 
 To no small degree the future business and industrial development of 
 their native land will depend upon these men. Transportation lines 
 and commerce center at Constantinople. Before the war Constanti- 
 nople was the most important port in Continental Europe, reckoned 
 upon the basis of shipping clearances. There are well-informed busi- 
 ness men who believe it is destined to become the third most important 
 commercial city in the world. But, through generations of habit, 
 unless put under a mandatory, Constantinople will continue to be a 
 whirlpool of financial and political currents. Concession hunting, 
 financial intrigue, political exploitation, and international rivalries 
 will center there in the future as in the past. Concerted international 
 action for administration of Constantinople is impracticable. All 
 concerts for governmental action are cumbersome; all concerts must 
 have a leader to secure effectiveness, and were it possible to agree 
 upon one power which should really lead, the reality of a mandate 
 would exist with the handicap of a camouflage concert. In any con- 
 cert for the future government of Constantinople there would still 
 exist the temptation for single powers to play politics and befriend 
 Turkey for value received. There must be actual control, for respon- 
 sibility without authority is worse than useless in a land of oriental 
 viewpoints. 
 
 As Americans supposed to be disinterested, this mission was the 
 recipient of confidences from the various sources. Turks when not 
 deriding foreign efforts were deploring their effect on their unfor- 
 tunate Empire. Without dependable centralized control of Con- 
 stantinople, a power exercising mandate in Armenia would be crippled 
 in administration, restricted in trade development, ridden by con- 
 cessionaires, dependent on Turkish discredited diplomacy for redress 
 of local and boundary grievances, and in extreme case practically cut 
 off from communication with the western world. It is believed that 
 allied sentiment is so crystallized in the opinion that Constantinople 
 
16 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 must be placed under a mandatory that it may safely be assumed 
 for the purposes of this report that this will be done. 
 
 Conceded that there shall be a mandate for Armenia and Trans- 
 caucasia and one for Constantinople and Anatolia, there are many 
 considerations that indicate the desirability of having such mandates 
 exercised by the same power. If separate powers exercised such 
 mandate the inevitable jealousies, hatreds, exaggerated separatist 
 tendencies, and economic difficulties would compel failure. With all 
 its faults the Turkish Empire is an existing institution and it has some 
 rusty blood-stained political machinery which under control of a 
 strong mandatory can be made to function. The peoples in question 
 live in adjacent territory and whether they wish it or not are neigh- 
 bors. A single mandatory for the Turkish Empire and the Trans- 
 caucasus would be the most economical solution. No intelligent 
 scheme for development of railroads for Transcaucasia and Armenia 
 can be worked out without extension into Anatolia. Natural high- 
 ways through the high mountains of Armenia are few, and transpor- 
 tation development will, with proper feeders, at best be costly and 
 difficult; without access into Anatolia it will be impossible. For 
 many years the expenses of exploitation will not be met by equivalent 
 receipts. This situation would be alleviated by control of both 
 regions. With Constantinople, Anatolia, and Armenia in different 
 hands, the manufacturers and exporters of Armenia could not hope 
 for an equal share in the commerce and trade of the Near East. 
 
 The Armenian Patriarch, the head of the Armenian Protestants, 
 and others at Constantinople, on our return from Armenia, called 
 and volunteered the belief that the Armenian question could not be 
 settled within the boundaries of that country, and that they were 
 prepared to pass under a single mandate which should include the 
 other parts of the Turkish Empire. In a later written statement, 
 however,^ they modified this, stating that while ''Different nations 
 of this Empire may enjoy the help of the same mandatory power" 
 they felt that to bring Armenia under the same system of adminis- 
 tration as that of the Turks would defeat the object of the develop- 
 ment of Armenian ideals, "because by assuring the individual rights 
 of a people the national rights and ideals of the same people can not 
 necessarily be assured"; that "Giving a good government to the 
 whole Turkish Empire will not induce the Armenians to gather to 
 their native land. They will still be a scattered people, etc." 
 
 A party of distinguished Turks, including a former cabinet minister 
 of high standing and a diplomat who for eight years represented his 
 country at one of the European courts, stated that as between the 
 independence of Turkey as it existed in 1914, and a mandate for the 
 Empire given to the United States they greatly preferred the latter, 
 and. believed that they spoke for the educated classes of all Turkey. 
 
 It has been very evident to this mission that Turkey would not 
 object to a single disinterested power taking a mandate for her terri- 
 tory as outlined in the armistice with the Allies, and that it could 
 be accomplished with a minimum of foreign soldiery, where an attempt 
 to carve out territory for any particular region would mean a strong 
 foreign force in constant occupation for many years. The aim of the 
 Nationalist, or National Defense Party, as its adherents style it, as 
 
 I See Exhibit B, joint letter, Oct. 15, 1919, from Armenian Patriarch, Catholic Armenian Patriarchat, 
 and the Vekil of Armenian Protestant Community. 
 
CONDITIOITS IN THE NEAB EAST. 17 
 
 stated by Mustapha Kemal Pasha, its head, is the preservation of the 
 territorial integrity of the Empire under a mandatory of a single dis- 
 interested power, preferably America. 
 
 The mission, while at Sivas, had a conference with the chiefs of 
 this party, which held a congress at Erzerum in July and one at Sivas 
 in September. This movement has been the cause of much appre- 
 hension on the part of those interested in the fate of the Armenians, 
 to whose safety it has been supposed to portend danger. The leader, 
 Mustapha Kemal Pasha, is a former general officer in the Turkish 
 Army, who commanded with distinction an army corps at the Dar- 
 danelles, and appears to be a young man of force and keen intelli- 
 gence. He is supposed to have resigned from the army to lead this, 
 movement. It sought, as a means to its end, the overthrow of the 
 Ferid Pasha cabinet, which has since fallen, claiming that it was 
 entirely under the influence of one of the great powers which itself 
 desires a mandate for the Empire. While professing entire loyalty 
 to the Sultan the Nationalist leader had gone to the extremity of 
 cutting all official telegraph communications between the capital 
 and the interior, pending the removal of the cabinet. The fall of the 
 Damad Ferid Pasha ministry in October would seem to put the Empire 
 behind the movement, for the Turkish officials in the interior were 
 already identified with it. In a statement given out on October 
 15, Mustapha Kemal ^ said: 
 
 The Nationalist Party recognized the necessity of the aid of an impartial foreign 
 country. It is our aim to secure the development of Turkey as she stood at the armi- 
 stice. We have no expansionist plans, but it is our conviction that Turkey can be 
 made a rich and prosperous country if she can get a good government. Our Gov- 
 ernment has become weakened through foreign interference and intrigues. After 
 all our experience we are sure that America is the only country able to help us. We 
 guarantee no new Turkish violences against the Armenians will take place. 
 
 The events of the Greek occupation of Smyrna and the uneasiness 
 produced by the activities and propaganda of certain European 
 powers have so stirred the Turkish people in the long interval since 
 the armistice that the mission fears that an announcement from 
 Paris at this time of an intention to carve from Turkey a State of 
 Armenia, imless preceded by a strong military occupation of the 
 whole Empire, might be the signal for massacres of Christians in 
 every part of the country. There is no wisdom in now incorporat- 
 ing Turkish territory in a separate Armenia, no matter what the 
 aspirations of the Armenians. Certainly it is unwise to invite trou- 
 ble which may be avoided by the consolidation of the mandate region 
 under a single power. Under one mandatory they will be neighbors. 
 Under two or more they will be rivals, their small differences sub- 
 jected to the interminable processes of diplomatic representation, 
 with the maintenance of duplicate and parallel establishments in 
 many lines of governmental activity. Only under a single manda- 
 tory can the matter of ultimate boundaries be deferred, which is 
 believed by this mission to be important. 
 
 in the proposition to carve an independent Armenia from the 
 Ottoman Empire there is something to be said on the part of the 
 
 iSee Exhibits "C," Statement of Mustapha Kemal Pasha concerning organization, objects, "League 
 for the Defense of the Rights of Anatolia and Roumelia"; "D," Gen. Harbord's letter, Oct. 9, 1919, to 
 Mustapha Kemal; "E," Declaration of the Congress of Sivas; "F," Resolution of National Congress of 
 Sivas addressed to Senate of the United States of America requesting tliat senatorial committee vsit and 
 investigate conditions within Ottoman Empire. 
 
 S. Doc. 266, 66-2 2 
 
18 CON'DITIONS IN THE ITEAR EAST. 
 
 Turk; namely, that his people even when all the refugees shall have 
 returned to their homes, will be in the majority in the region con- 
 templated for a reconstituted Armenia — and they were in the majority 
 before the deportations took place^ — even though due, as it may be, to 
 the gerrymandering of provincial boundaries and the partial extermi- 
 nation of a people. Notwithstanding his many estimable qualities, 
 his culture, and his tenacity of race and religion, the Armenian 
 generally does not endear himself to those of other races with whom 
 he comes in contact. The Armenian stands among his neighbors 
 very much as the Jew stands in Russia and Poland, having as he does, 
 the strong and preeminent ability of that race. He incurs the penalty 
 which attaches among backward races to the banker, the middleman, 
 and the creditor. Unjust as it may be, the sentiment regarding him 
 is expressed by this saying current in the Near East: ' 'The Armenian 
 is never legally in the wrong; never morally in the right." Even the 
 American missionary, who in so many instances has risked his life 
 for his Armenian charges, does not as a rule personally like the 
 Armenian as well as he does the more genial but indolent and pleasure- 
 loving Turk. The Armenian is not guiltless of blood himself; his 
 memory is long and reprisals are due, and will doubtless be made if 
 opportunity offers. Racially allied to the wild Aryan Kurd he is 
 cordially hated by the latter. Kurds appealed to this mission with 
 tears in their eyes to protect them from Armenians who had driven 
 them from their villages, appealing to be allowed to go back to their 
 homes for protection against the rigorous winter now rapidly ap- 
 proaching on the high interior plateau. The Kurds claim that many 
 of their people were massacred under the most cruel circumstances 
 by Armenian irregulars accompanying the Russian Bolshevists when 
 the Russian Army went to pieces after the collapse of the empire. 
 
 Similar claim is made by the people of Erzerum, who point to 
 burned buildings in which hundreds of Turks perished, and by the 
 authorities of Hassan-Kala, who give the number of villages de- 
 stroyed by the Armenians in their great plain as 43. According to 
 British Consul Stevens, at Batum, these statements were verified by 
 a commission which examined into the allegations and on which 
 Armenians had a representation. In Baku the massacre of 2,000 
 Azarbaijanese by Armenians in March, 1918, was followed by the 
 killing of 4,000 Armenians by xizarbaijanese in November of the same 
 year. From the standpoint of this mission the capacity of the 
 Armenian to govern himself is something to be tested under super- 
 vision. With that still in doubt the possibility of an Armenian 
 minority being given authority over a Moslem majority against whom- 
 its hearts are" filled with rancor for centuries of tyranny, may well 
 justify apprehension. There are very many who believe that the 
 best elements of the Armenian race have perished. It is believed 
 that with the reestablishment of order in their native country many 
 of those who have emigrated to other countries will return. That, 
 however, can only come with time, and even then it is doubted if 
 many of the wealthy and influential Armenians long domiciled in 
 happier lands wiU return to their somewhat primitive ancient home, 
 even though such absentees have raised their voices most loudly for 
 an autonoinious Armenia. Certainly with arbitrary boundaries on the 
 Anatolia side determined only by xirmenian wishes, expediency, 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 19 
 
 tradition, or even verified historical claims of former occupation, with- 
 out regard to the present population, the mandatory powers for both 
 Anatolia and Armenia should inaugurate government by placing a 
 cordon of trustworthy foreign soldiers from the Black Sea to the 
 Mediterranean. With a single power in control of both peoples and 
 boundaries unannounced except as they have hitherto existed, such 
 difficulties would not arise. Against such combination of authority 
 and postponement of delimitation of boundaries is to be weighed the 
 unchangeable belief of many that the Turk at the end of his tutelage 
 will still be the Turk, bloodthirsty, unregenerate, and revengeful, and 
 that it is unthinkable that Armenia shall ever again form part of a 
 country which may be governed by him; that the sufferings of cen- 
 turies should now be terminated by definite and permanent separation 
 of Armenia from Turkey, and that this plan seems to contemplate a 
 tutelage of indefinite length. To this th,e reply is that the Armenian 
 should have no fear to submit his case to the League of Nations — the 
 court of the world — and that he must in the meantime prove his 
 capacity not only to govern himself but others, and that at the behest 
 of the great powers a plebiscite could be had and the mandatory at 
 any time be terminated by detachment of his territory from Anatolia 
 as well as now and with much greater safety to him and convenience 
 to his benefactors. 
 
 The conclusion of the American military mission to Armenia is 
 that the remed}^ for the existing conditions in Armenia and the 
 Transcaucasus is a mandatory control to be exercised by a sino;le 
 great power. The Armenian question can not be settled in Armenia. 
 It can not be finally settled without answering two questions: 
 
 What is to be done with Turkey ? 
 
 What is Russia going to do i 
 
 Pending the ultimate settlement of these questions the mission 
 believes that, for reasons set forth, the power wTiich takes a mandate 
 for Arme7iia should also exercise a mandate for Anatolia, Roumelia, 
 Constantinople, and Transcaucasia; the boundaries of the Turkish 
 vilayets of Armenia and Anatolia and the interior boundaries of 
 Russian Armenia, Georgia, and Azarbaijan to remain substantially 
 as they are for the present. The divisions of such mandate are an 
 administrative detail to be worked out by the mandator}'' power. 
 Good administration indicates that there should be some inter- 
 mediate authority between the provinces and the capital. A natural 
 subdivision of such a mandate as has been indicated would probably 
 be: Roumelia, city of Constantinople (federal district), Anatolia, 
 Armenia, district of Transcaucasia (less Russian Armenia). 
 
 The inclusion of the whole Turkish Empire under the government 
 of a single mandatory would be simpler and ])roportionately more 
 economical than to divide it. A plebiscite fairly taken would in all 
 probability ask for an American mandate throughout the Empire. 
 Sj^ria and Mesopotamia, however, not being considered essential to 
 the settlement of the Armenian c^uestion or as being the field for 
 possible American responsibilities and interests in the Near East as 
 contemplated in the instructions to the mission, because actually 
 occupied by France and Great Britain at this time, have been con- 
 sidered by us as excluded from oui' considerations, as is for a similar 
 reason Arabia. In its belief that the Armenian problem is only to 
 be solved by a mandatory which should include also Constantinople, 
 
20 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAE EAST. 
 
 Anatolia, Turkish Armenia, and the Transcaiicasus, the mission has 
 the concuiTence of many Americans whose views by reason of long 
 residence in the Near East are entitled to great weight. Such 
 Americans are practically a unit in believing that the problems of 
 Armenia, Anatolia, Constantinople, and Transcaucasia must be con- 
 sidered as an inseparable whole. 
 
 The mission has a strong conviction that the nation which may be 
 induced by its colleagues to undertake this mandate should be one 
 prepared to steadfastly carry out a continuity of policy for at least 
 a generation, and to send only its most gifted sons to leadership in 
 the work without regard to political affiliations. Only on the cer- 
 tainty of continuity of a nonpartisan policy would the best men 
 forsake their careers in their own country to take up its burdens in 
 these eastern lands. No disinterested nation would undertake such 
 a mandatory except from a strong sense of altruism and international 
 duty to the peace of the world in this breeding place of wars and at 
 the unanimous wish of other parties to the covenant of the League of 
 Nations. 
 
 No duty of modern times would be undertaken under so fierce a 
 glare of publicity. Such nation would hold the center of the inter- 
 national stage with the spotlight from every foreign office and from 
 every church steeple in the world focussed upon it. No nation could 
 afford to fail, or to withdraw when once committed to this most 
 serious and difficult problem growing out of the great war. No nation 
 incapable of united and nonpartisan action for a long period should 
 undertake it. 
 
 THE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN A MANDATE FOR TURKEY 
 
 AND TRANSCAUCASIA. 
 
 This report has heretofore endeavored to consider the conditions 
 and questions of which it treats in the abstract sense applicable to 
 any nation which might be induced to assume the task of a practical 
 regeneration of this region. Its interest for our country, however, 
 lies in the possibility that the United States may be called upon by 
 the world to undertake the task, and the necessity therefore of know- 
 ing what it would mean for America. The problems for the United 
 States would not be identical with those of any other nation which 
 might undertake it. A not too sympathetic Old World,, without 
 pretensions to altruism or too much devotion to ideals, will expect 
 of America in the Near East the same lofty standards shown in Cuba 
 and the Philippines — the development of peoples rather than of 
 material resources and commerce. Distance, our time-honored 
 detachment from the affairs of the Old World, our innocence from 
 participation in the intrigues which have hitherto characterized 
 intercourse with the Turk, our freedom from bias through the neces- 
 sity of considering moslem public opinion in other parts of the world, 
 and the fact that we have no financial interest in the great foreign 
 debt of the Ottoman Empire, give America a viewpoint a,nd an 
 advantage in approaching the situation that are enjoyed by no other 
 great power. 
 
 A great part of the work of the mission has been devoted to a con- 
 sideration of the situation as it would affect our own country should • 
 it be invited to asume a mandate in the Near East. The problem as 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAE EAST 21 
 
 a whole has been kept in mind while individual members of the 
 mission have made special inquiry into different matters of which 
 knowledge is necessary to reach an intelligent appreciation of the 
 difficulties to be solved in this region. Each of these studies con- 
 stitutes a unit on the subject with which it deals, too important to 
 justify the risk of an attempt at epitomizing for this report. They 
 are therefore submitted as appendices as follows : 
 
 A. Political Factors and Problems, by Capt. Stanley K. Hornbeck. Ordnance 
 Department, United States Army. 
 
 B. Government in Turkey and Transcaucasia, by Lieut. Ciol. Jasper Y Brinton 
 judge advocate. United States Army. ' " 
 
 C. Public and Private Finance of Turkey and Transcaucasia, by Prof W W 
 Cumberland. 
 
 p. Commerce and Industry in Turkey and Transcaucasia, by Trade Commissioner- 
 Ehot Grmnell Mears. 
 
 E. Public Health and Sanitation, by Col. Henry Beeuwkes, Medical Corps United 
 States Army. ' 
 
 F. Population; Industrial and Other Qualities; Maintenance, by Lieut Col John 
 Price Jackson, Engineers, United States Army. 
 
 G. Climate, Natural Resources, Animal Industry, and Agriculture bv Lieut Col 
 E. Bowditch, Infantry, United States Army. 
 
 TT-?- 9??^^^P^y' fining and Boundaries, by Maj. Lawrence Martin, General Staff 
 United States Army. ' 
 
 I. The Press of Turkey and Transcaucasia, by Maj. Harold W. Clark Infantry 
 United States Army. ' *' ' 
 
 J. The Military Problem of a Mandatory, by Brig. Gen. George Van Horn Moselev 
 General Staff, United States Army. . ' 
 
 „ K._ Transport and Communications in Asia Minor and the Transcaiicasus by 
 William B. Poland, engineer member of the mission. 
 
 L. Bibliography. 
 
 THE MILITAEY PROBLEM. 
 
 Our country has so recently sent its young manhood to war over- ' 
 seas, and the heart of the Nation is so sensitive to any enterprise 
 which calls for its sons to serve as soldiers in distant lands, that the 
 greatest interest attaches to the miUtary problem involved in any 
 mandate to which our people may ever give consideration. 
 
 The immediate problems which would lie before the Ai^my and Navy 
 of a mandatory power in Turkey and Transcaucasia are: ' 
 
 (a) The suppression of any disorder attendant upon withdrawal of 
 occupymg troops and the initiation of the government. 
 
 (6) The maintenance of order until a constabulary could be or- 
 ganized for the rural pohce of the mandatory region. ' 
 
 (c) To help organize and train a native constabulary. 
 
 (d) To constitute a reserve for moral effect; for possible actual use 
 in supplementmg the local constabulary in case of emergency; and 
 tor the prestige of the mandatory government in a region which has 
 been governed by force since the beginning of historv. 
 
 The inauguration of a mandatory government would be followed 
 at a very early date by the withdrawal of the foreign troops now 
 oecupymg the region and by the dissolution, as soon as practicable, 
 ol the permanent mihtary establishments now maintained by Turkey 
 arid Transcaucasia, The United States acceptmg the mandate at 
 the rec[uest of the other great powers and of the peoples interested, 
 no resistance to her troops would be anticipated. On the contrary 
 they would doubtless be welcomed. No problem of external defense 
 ol the country occupied would exist. 
 
22 COIsTDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 (a) The present occupying force of the region under consideration, 
 Roumelia, Constantinople, Anatolia, and Transcaucasia, excluding five 
 Greek divisions occupying Smyrna, is the Army of the Black Sea and 
 the troops in Cilicia, comprising about 50,000 of the British, French, 
 Italian, and Greek Governments. The regular troops of Turkey and 
 Transcaucasia to be disbanded in the same region at the convenience 
 of the mandatory government aggregate about 92,000 men. The 
 gendarmerie of Turkey amounts to about 30,000 men. The loss of 
 man power in Turkey has been appalling, and too many men are still 
 absent from work and carrying rifles. 
 
 It is not thought that any serious disorder would attend this substi- 
 tution of the troops of the mandatory power for the army of occupa- 
 tion and for the native regular forces. 
 
 (h) During the formation of an efficient native constabulary, a 
 period of six months to a year, small garrisons would have to be fur- 
 nished along the railroads and in isolated towns, especially on the old 
 frontiers, where feeling runs high between races. This would give 
 security while the various nationals are being repatriated, reconstruc- 
 ting their homes, and adjusting themselves to new conditions. The 
 suppression of outlaw bands, which already exist in some localities, 
 and the formation of which in eastern countries invariably follows the 
 disbandment of armies after a long war, would call for constant use 
 of a certaui number of United States troops pending the completion 
 of the constabulary organization for service. During this period the 
 disarmament of the civilian population would be accomplished. 
 
 (c) The first duty of a mandatory would be to guarantee the safety 
 of life and property through the country, and to this end its earliest 
 efforts should be directed to the establishment of a native rural police 
 or constabulary for the suppression of brigandage, outlawry, and other 
 crimes outside the towns. This force, with a military organization, 
 should be a force of peace officers as that term is used in our own 
 country, empowered to make arrests of criminals of all kinds, serve 
 warrants, execute orders of arrest, etc. While decentralized in its 
 administration, and destined eventually to operate in small bodies, 
 it should be a Federal force, cooperatmg with but not serving under 
 provincial officials. Its personnel should absorb the best elements 
 of the present gendarmerie, and also provide suitable employment 
 for deserving officers of the disbanded armies. For a considerable 
 period its highest officers would necessarily be Americans, but as fast 
 as the quality of the native officers justifies, the force should become 
 native. The strength of the constabulary should be such as to enable 
 it to take over the whole task of maintaining order outside the towns 
 and release American troops at the earliest practicable date. Coinci- 
 dent with the organization of the constabulary would be the creation 
 of efficient municipal police. 
 
 (d) Considering the uncertain character of the neighboring popu- 
 lations, the traditional lawlessness of migratory Kurds and Arabs, 
 and the isolation of certain regions where the temptation to reprisals 
 for past wrongs will be strong for at least a generation, a certain force 
 must be kept in hand to supplement the native constabulary^ when 
 needed. Such a force will also be necessary for general moral effect. 
 Its mere existence will prevent organized disorder on a scale too large 
 for a peace force to handle. Such a force would be stationed near 
 
.COFDITIOFS IF THE NEAR EAST. 23 
 
 the capita], trained for quick expeditionary work, and sent where 
 needed. 
 
 The character of the troops should be suited to the purpose for 
 w^hich used. For expeditionary purposes, marines or infantry with 
 artillery would be best. For moral effect in the interior and during 
 the period of constabulary, organization cavalry w^ould be preferable. 
 A small efficient air service should be maintained. The aeroplane is 
 not only a means of very rapid communication, but its value for deal- 
 ing with a distant small problem among half -wild tribes can not be 
 overestimated. The country much resembles Mexico, and the con- 
 ditions would be not unlike our border cavalry service. A regiment 
 of railway engineers would be a necessity. During the initial period 
 of the mandatory, troops would be needed in connection with the 
 general problem of sanitation and cleaning up, and an extra propor- 
 tion of sanitary troops would be necessaiy. 
 
 Estimates of the necessary number of mandatoiy troops vary 
 greatly — from 25,000 to 200,000. Conditions change so rapidly that 
 plans made to-day for the use of troops might be obsolete in six 
 months. Uncertainty as to the time the mandate will be tendered 
 and accepted make estimates merely approximate. Under conditions 
 as they exist to-day the undersigned believes that a force of two 
 American divisions, with several hundred extra officers, or a total 
 force of 59,000 would be ample. Such force would be specially or- 
 ganized; one aeroplane squadron; a minimum of artillery; not to ex- 
 ceed one regiment of 75 's motorized; a minimum of the special serv- 
 ices ; four times the usual number of sanitar}^ troops ; four regiments 
 of cavalry, with minor changes in organization at the discretion of the 
 senior general officer on duty with the mandatory government. This 
 force should be substantially reduced at the end of two years, and by 
 50 per cent at the end of the third year. After that some further 
 reduction could be slowly effected, but the irreducible minimum 
 would be reached at about the strength of one division. 
 
 The annual cost for the force of the army above stated would be 
 at the maximum: 
 
 For the first year $88, 500, 000 
 
 At the end of two years perhaps 59, 000, 000 
 
 At the end of thiee years 44, 250. 000 
 
 with thereafter a continuing appropriation of that sum less such 
 amount as the local revenues could afford, probably a very substan- 
 tial fraction of the cost. 
 
 To offset our expenditures there would be available at least a part 
 of, the naval atnd military budget hitherto used for the support of the 
 disbanded armies in the region, in Turkey before the war this 
 totaled about $61,000,000 annually for the army, including $5,000,000 
 for the navy. 
 
 The naval establishment should consist of a station ship for the 
 capital, and probably one each for Smyrna, Mersina, Batum, and 
 Baku, to meet local needs in quick transportation of troops. A 
 transport of light draft capable of carrying a complete regiment 
 should be permanently on station at the capital. Four to six 
 destroyers would be needed for communication and moral effect. 
 Collier, repair, and hospital service afloat should be in proportion. 
 Old ships of obsolete type would probably answer for all except the 
 station ship at the capital and the destroyers. Some ships of the 
 
24 CO]lsrDITlON"S IN THE WEAR EAST. 
 
 Turkish Navy, of which there are over 30, could doubtless be used 
 with American crews soon to be replaced by natives. 
 
 The naval establishment might not entail any additional Federal 
 appropriations. Ships and personnel could probably be drawn from 
 existing establishment; the only additional expense would probably 
 be the difference in cost of maintenance in near eastern and home 
 waters. 
 
 It is very important that a proper military and naval setting be 
 given the mandatory government at the beginning. In no part of 
 the world is prestige so important, and in no region have people been 
 so continuously governed by force. The mandatory coulct at the 
 outset afford to take no unnecessary risks among such a population 
 in densest ignorance as to our resources and our national traits. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS, 
 
 This mission has had constantly in mind the moral effect to be 
 exercised by its inquiry in the region visited. Very alarming reports 
 had been received from Transcaucasia for several months before its 
 departure fi^m France, particularly as to organized attacks by the 
 Turkish Army impending along the old international border between 
 Turkey and Russia. The itinerary of the mission through Turkey 
 was planned with those reports before it and with the intention of 
 observing as to their truth and if possible to exert a restraining 
 influence. We practically covered the frontier of Turkey from the 
 Black Sea to Persia, and found nothing to justify the reports. The 
 Turkish Army is not massed along the border; their organizations are 
 reduced to skeletons; and the country shows an appalling lack of 
 people, either military or civilian. At every principal town through 
 which we passed the chief of the mission held a conference with the 
 Turkish officials. Inquirj^ was made as to the Christian Community, 
 some were always interviewed; the interest of America in its own 
 missionaries and in the native Christians was invariably emphasized; 
 the Armenian deportations, the massacres, and the return of the 
 survivors were discussed on each occasion, as well as other matters 
 intended to convince Turkish officials that their country is on trial 
 before the world. The visit of the mission has had a considerable 
 moral effect in securing the safety of Christian lives and property 
 pending action by the peace conference. 
 
 We would again point out that if America accepts a mandate for 
 the region visited by this mission, it will uadoubtedly do so from a 
 strong sense of international duty, and at the unanimous desire — 
 so expressed at least — of its colleagues in the League of Nations. 
 Accepting this difficult task without previously securing the assurance 
 of conditions would be fatal to success. The United States should 
 make its own conditions as a preliminary to consideration of the 
 subject — certainly before and not after acceptance, for there are a 
 multitude of interests that will conflict with what any American 
 would consider a proper adn*nistration of the country. Every 
 possible precaution against international complications should be 
 taken in advance. In our opinion there should be specific pledges in 
 terms of formal agreements with France and England and definite 
 approval from Germany and Russia of the dispositions made of 
 Turkey and Transcaucasia, and a pledge to respect them. 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 25 
 
 Of particular importance are the following: 
 
 Absolute control of the foreign relations of the Turkish Empire, 
 no ambassador, envoy, minister, or diplomatic agent to be accredited 
 to Turkey, and the latter to send none such abroad. 
 
 Concessions involving exclusive privileges to be subject to review 
 if shown to be contrary to the best interests of the State. 
 
 Concessions undesirable from the standpoint of the mandatory 
 upon which work has not been started to be canceled. Compensation 
 to be allowed to holders when necessary. 
 
 The system by which specified revenues are assigned for particular 
 purposes to be discarded. All revenues to be controlled by the 
 treasury, and all creditors to look only to the treasury as the source 
 of payment. 
 
 Foreign control over Turkey's financial machinery to cease, mean- 
 ing the dissolution of the coimcil of administration of the Ottoman 
 public debt, reserving the right to retain some individual members of 
 the council as advisors because of their familiarity with Ottoman 
 finances. 
 
 All foreign obligations of the Empire to be unified and refunded. 
 
 Those countries receiving territory of the Turkish Empire, e. g., 
 Syria and Mesopotamia, to assume their reasonable share of the paper 
 currency, of the foreign obligations, and of obligation for possible 
 reparation payments. 
 
 Abrogation, on due notice, of existing commercial treaties with 
 Turkey. 
 
 All foreign Governments and troops to vacate territorial limits of 
 mandate at dates to be fixed by the mandatory power. 
 
 Consent to many of these measures would not easily be obtained. 
 Many nations now have some sort of financial control within the 
 Ottoman Empire, and they would not see this control taken away 
 without protest. 
 
 It needs no argument, however, to show that the United States 
 could not submit to having her financial policies controlled from 
 foreign capitals. The refunding of the debt, possibly witK a reduc- 
 tion of the capital amount, would raise a storm of protest, but it 
 should be insisted upon. Otherwise an American administration 
 would be embarrassed and run the risk of being discredited. 
 
 The mission has not felt that it is expected to submit a recom- 
 mendation as to the United States accepting a mandate in the Near 
 East. It, therefore, simply submits the following summary of rea- 
 sons for.and against such action, based on aU information obtainable 
 during six weeks constant contact with the peoples of the region : 
 
 REASONS FOR. ' REASONS AGAINST. 
 
 1. As one of the chief contributors to 1. The United States has prior and 
 the formation of the League of Nations, nearer foreign obligations, and ample 
 the United i^tates is morally bound to responsibilities with domestic problems 
 accept the obligations and responsibili- growing out of the war. 
 
 ties of a mandatory power. 
 
 2. The insurance of world peace at the 2. This region has been a battle ground 
 world's cross-ways, the focus of war infec- of militarism and imperialism for cen- 
 tion since the beginning of history. turies. There is every likelihood that 
 
 ambitious nations will still maneuver for 
 its control. It would weaken our position 
 relative to Monroe doctrine and probably 
 eventually involve us with a reconsti- 
 
26 
 
 coNDiTioisrs iisr the near east. 
 
 3. The Near East presents the greatest 
 humanitarian opportunity of the age — 
 a duty for which the United States is 
 better fitted than any other— as witness 
 Cuba, Porto Rico, Philippines, Hawaii, 
 Panama, and our altruistic policy of de- 
 veloping peoples rather than material 
 resources alone. 
 
 4. America is practically the unani- 
 mous choice and fervent hope of all the 
 peoples involved . 
 
 5. America is already spending mil- 
 lions to save starving peoples in Turkey 
 and Transcaucasia and could do this with 
 much more efficiency if in control, ^^lo- 
 ever becomes mandatory for these regions 
 we shall be still expected to finance their 
 relief, and will probably eventually fur- 
 nish the capital for material development. 
 
 6. America is the only hope of the Ar- 
 menians. They consider but one other 
 nation, Great Britain, which they fear 
 would sacrifice their interests to Moslem 
 public opinion as long as she controls hun- 
 dreds of millions of that faith. Others 
 fear Britain's imperialistic policy and her 
 habit of staying where she hoists her flag. 
 
 For a mandatoiy America is not only 
 the first choice of all the peoples of the 
 Near East, but of each of the great powers, 
 after itself. 
 
 American power is adequate; its record 
 clean; its motives above suspicion. 
 
 7. The mandatory would be self-sup- 
 porting after an initial period of not to 
 exceed five years. The building of rail- 
 
 'roads would offer opportunities to our 
 capital. There would be great trade ad- 
 vantages not only in the mandatory re- 
 gion, but in the proximity to Russia, 
 Roumania, etc. 
 
 America would clean this hotbed of dis- 
 ease and filth as she has in Cuba and 
 Panama. 
 
 8. Intervention would be a liberal edu- 
 cation for our people in world politics; 
 give outlet to a vast amount of spirit and 
 energy and would furnish a shining ex- 
 ample. 
 
 tuted Russia. The taking of a mandate 
 in this region would bring the United 
 States into the politics of the Old World, 
 contrary to our traditional policy of 
 keeping free of affairs in the Eastern 
 Hemisphere. 
 
 3. Humanitarianism should begin at 
 home. There is a sufficient number of 
 difficult situations which call for our 
 action within the well-recognized spheres 
 of American influence. 
 
 4. The United States has in no way 
 contributed to and is not responsible for 
 the conditions, political, social, or eco- 
 nomic, that prevail in this region. It 
 •will be entirely consiiStent to decline the 
 invitation. 
 
 5. American philanthropy and charity 
 are world wide. Such policy would com- 
 mit us to a policy of meddling or draw 
 upon our philanthropy to the point of 
 exhaustion . 
 
 G. Other powers, particularly Great 
 Britain and Russia, have shown con- 
 tinued interest in the welfare of Armenia. 
 Great Britain is fitted by experience and 
 government, has great resources in money 
 and trained personnel, and though she 
 might not be as sympathetic to Armenian 
 aspirations, her rule would guarantee 
 security and justice. 
 
 The United States is not capable of sus- 
 taining a continuity of foreign policy. 
 One Congress can not bind another. 
 Even treaties can be nullified by cutting 
 off appr'opriations. Nonpartisanship is 
 difficult, to attain in our Government. 
 
 7. Our countiy would be put to great 
 expense, involving probably an increase 
 of the Army and Navy. Large numbers 
 of Americans would serve in a country of 
 loathsome and dangerous diseases. It is 
 questionable if railroads could for many 
 years jiay interest on investments in their 
 very difficult constiTiction. Capital for 
 railways would not go there ' except on 
 Government guaranty. 
 
 The effort and money spent would get 
 us more trade in nearer lands than we 
 could hope for in Russia and Roumania. 
 
 Proximity and competition would in- 
 crease the possibility of our becoming in- 
 volved in conflict with the policies and 
 ambitions of states which now our friends 
 would be made our rivals. 
 
 8. Our spirit and energy can find scope 
 in domestic enterprises, or in lands south 
 and west of ours. Intervention in the 
 Near East would rob us of the strategic 
 advantage enjoyed through the Atlantic 
 which rolls between us and probable foes. 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 27 
 
 9. It would definitely stop further 
 massacres of Armenians and other Chris- 
 tians, give justice to the Turks, Kurds, 
 Greeks, and other peoples. 
 
 10. It would increase the strength and 
 prestige of the United States abroad and 
 inspire interest at home in the regenera- 
 tion of the Near East. 
 
 11. America has strong sentimental 
 interests in the region; our missions and 
 colleges. 
 
 12. If the United States does not take 
 responsibility in this region, it is likely 
 that international jealousies will result in 
 a continuance of the unspeakable misrule 
 of the Turk. 
 
 13. "And the Lord said unto Cain, 
 Where is Abel thy brother? And he 
 ■said: 'I know not; am I my brother's 
 keeper?'" 
 
 Better millions for a mandate than 
 •billions for future wars. 
 
 Our reputation for fair dealing might be 
 impaired. Efficient supervision of a 
 mandate at such distance would be diffi- 
 cult or impossible. We do not need or 
 wish further education in world politics. 
 
 9. Peace and justice would be equally 
 assured under any other of the gi'eat 
 powers. 
 
 10. It would weaken and dissipate our 
 strength which should be reserved for 
 future responsibilities on the American 
 continents and in the Far East. Our line 
 of communication to Constantinople 
 would be at the mercy of other naval 
 powers, and especially of Great Britain, 
 with Gibraltar and Malta, etc., on the 
 route. 
 
 11. These institutions have been re- 
 spected even by the Turks throughout 
 the war and the massacres ; and sympathy 
 and respect would be shown by any 
 other mandatory. 
 
 12. The peace conference has definitely 
 informed the Turkish Government that 
 it may expect to go under a mandate. It 
 is not conceivable that the League of 
 Nations would permit further uncon- 
 trolled rule by that thoroughly discred- 
 ited government. 
 
 13. The first duty of America is to its 
 own people and its nearer neighbors. 
 
 Our country would be involved in this 
 adventure for at least a generation and in 
 counting the cost Congress must be pre- 
 pared to advance some such sums, less 
 such amount as the Turkish and Trans- 
 caucasian revenues could afford, for the 
 first five years, as follows; 
 
 FIRST YEAR. 
 
 General government |100, 000, 000 
 
 Communications, railroads, 
 
 etc 20, 000, 000 
 
 Relief, repatriation, educa- 
 tion, etc 50, 000, 000 
 
 Army and Navy 88, 500, 000 
 
 Sanitation 17, 000, 000 
 
 Total 275, 000, 000 
 
 SECOND YEAR. 
 
 General government 75, 000, 000 
 
 Communications, railroads, 
 
 etc 20, 000, 000 
 
 Relief, education, etc 13, 000, 000 
 
 Army and navy 59, 000, 000 
 
 Sanitation, etc'. 7, 264, 000 
 
 Total 174,264,000 
 
 THIRD YEAR. 
 
 (General government 50, 000, 000 
 
 Communications, railroads, 
 
 etc 20,000,000 
 
28 
 
 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 THIRD YEAR — Continued. 
 
 Relief, education, etc $4, 500, 000 
 
 Army a^ navy 44, 250, 000 
 
 Sanitatpi, etc 5, 000, 000 
 
 Total 123,750,000 
 
 FOURTH YEAR. 
 
 General government 25, 000, 000 
 
 Communications, railroads, 
 
 etc 20, 000, 000 
 
 Relief, education, etc 4, 500, 000 
 
 Army and navy 44, 250, 000 
 
 Sanitation, etc 3, 000, 000 
 
 Total 96,750,000 
 
 FIFTH YEAR. 
 
 General government 15, 000, 000 
 
 Communications, railroads, 
 
 etc 20,000,000 
 
 Relief, education, etc 4, 500, 000 
 
 Army and navy 44, 250, 000 
 
 Sanitation, etc 2, 000, 000 
 
 Total 85,750,000 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 Total first year 275, 500, 000 
 
 Total second year 174, 264, 000 
 
 Total third year 123, 750, 000 
 
 Total fourth year 96,750,000 
 
 Total fifth year 85,750,000 
 
 Grand total 756, 014, 000 
 
 14. Here is a man's job that the world 
 says can be better done by America than 
 by any other. America can afford the 
 money; she has the mtn; no duty to her 
 own people would suffer; her traditional 
 policy of isolation did not keep her from 
 successful participation in the Great 
 War. Shall it be said that our country 
 ■Jacks the courage to take up new and 
 difficult duties? 
 
 Without visiting the Near East it is not possible for an American 
 to reahze even faintly the respect, faith, and affection with which 
 our country is regarded tliroughout that region. Whether it is the 
 world-wide reputation which we enjoy for fair dealing, a tribute per- 
 haps to the crusading spirit which carried us into the Great War, 
 not untinged with hope that the same spirit may urge us into the 
 solution of great problems growing out of that conflict, or whether 
 due to unselfish and impartial missionary and educational influence 
 exerted for a century, it is the one faith which is held alike by Chris- 
 tian and Moslem, by Jew and Gentile, by prince and peasant in the 
 Near East. It is very gratifying to the pride of Americans far from 
 home. But it brings with it the heavy responsibihty of deciding 
 great questions with a seriousness worthy of such faith. Burdens 
 that might be assumed on the appeal of such sentiment would have 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 29 
 
 to be carried for not less than a generation under circumstances so 
 trying that we might easily forfeit the faith of the world. If we 
 refuse to assume it, for no matter what reasons satisfactory to our- 
 selves, we shall be considered by many millions of people as having 
 left unfinished the task for which we entered the war, and as having 
 betrayed their hopes. 
 Respectfully submitted. 
 
 James G. Haebord, 
 Major General, United States Arm-y, Chief of Mission. 
 
 Note.- — The mission is indebted for assistance to the American high commissioner, 
 E,ear Admiral Mark L. Bristol, United States Navy, and to Consul General G. B. 
 Ravndal at Constantinople, to American Consuls Jackson at Aleppo, and Doolittle 
 at Tiflis, as well as to the allied high commissioner to Armenia, Col. W. N. Haskell, 
 United States Army. Acknowledgments are also made to Dr. Mary Mills Patrick, 
 president of the Woman's College of Constantinople; to the authorities of Robert Col- 
 lege, particularly Prof. Hussein Bey; and to Messrs. Barton, Chambers, Christie, 
 Rlggs, Partridge, Prof. Robert P. Blake, of National University, Mr. Benjamin Burgess 
 Moore, chief American political intelligence mission to the Transcaucasus, Tiflis, 
 and Misses Graff am and Fenanga, as well as to various other representatives of the 
 American committee for relief in the Near East, and of the several missionary centers. 
 All of these devoted missionaries have passed years of exile in this country, offering 
 their lives for its betterment, and have the high respect of not only the people among 
 whom they live, but of the various foreign representatives to whom they are known. 
 American missions and schools have for 100 years produced striking and far- 
 reaching results in Asiatic Turkey, and are a credit to our country. The mission is 
 also under obligation to government officials in all the countries visited, from whom 
 it has received nothing but courteous assistance in Its work. 
 
 Exhibit C. 
 
 CONDENSED MEMGRANDLTM CONCERNING THE ORGANIZATION AND 
 POINTS OF VIEW OF THE LEAGUE FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE RIGHTS 
 OF ANATOLIA AND ROUMELIA. 
 
 I. Our league was not in existence when the Sublime Porte signed 
 the armistice of September 30, 1919. 
 
 After the conclusion of this convention on the basis of tlie principle 
 of nationalities as formulated by President Wilson, our nation firmly 
 entertained the hope that it would obtain a just peace and was eagerly 
 looking forward to such a consummation. As a matter of fact, the 
 carrying out of the armistice gave arbitrarily rise on the part of the 
 Entente Powers to daily increasing transgressions and violations of 
 its clauses. 
 
 The non-Moslem elements with which we have led a joint existence 
 ab antique, encouraged by the favor shown to them by the Entente 
 Powers, broke into open attacks on the dignity and rights of the 
 nation and State. 
 
 Constantinople, the seat of the caliphate and throne, was occupied 
 by the forces of the Entente Powers in a brutal and oppressive form. 
 The police and the gendarmerie having been placed under the control 
 of the occupying powers. This constituted a de facto interference 
 with the administration of the capital and the independence of the 
 country. 
 
 The regions of Adana and Adalia were occupied right up to Koniah. 
 The cession of Smyrna and the surrounding territory as well as of 
 
30 CONDITIOlSrS IF THE FEAR EAST. 
 
 Thrace to Greece and the creation of an extensive Armenian State in 
 eastern Anatolia on the one hand, and of a Repiibhc of the Pontus 
 along the Black Sea shore of the Empire on the other hand, began to 
 be seriously discussed. 
 
 It was natural, under these circumstances, that the Turkish nation 
 should feel deepl}^ affected b}^ these operations directed against the 
 integrity of its territory and independence as well as against its dig- 
 nity and other legitimate rights. 
 
 On the other hand, the Chamber of Deputies, in session at Con- 
 stantinople, having been dissolved, the cabinets which came to power 
 in succession and were composed of incapable individuals "did not 
 derive their authority from the national forces and escaped the con- 
 trol of the representatives of the nation. Presently it was realized 
 that these cabinets were not only lacking in the necessary qualities 
 for defending the rights and dignity of the nation, but that they 
 actually lent themselves to the satisfaction of the ambitions of the 
 foreign powers, principally England, in*whose hands they had become 
 simple toys. 
 
 Thus it came to pass that the nation, which began to feel seriously 
 concerned about its existence, felt the necessity of manifesting 
 directly its power and administrative action by its personal inter- 
 vention. 
 
 As a consequence, national organizations sj)rang up spontaneously 
 in every part of the country. 
 
 Of these national organizations the following are the principal: The 
 Erzeroum Association for the Defense of the Fatherland; the Diar- 
 bekir Association for the Defense of the Fatherland; The Cilicia Asso- 
 ciation for the Defense of National Rights; The Smyrna Association 
 for the Defense of National Rights (this association latterly assumed 
 the name of "Association for Defending the National Rights and Pre- 
 venting Cession of Territory") ; The Thrace and Pasha Hi Association 
 (this association having combined with the associations of Western 
 Thrace adopted the general denomination of "Association of Thrace") 
 A number of associations were also formed in Constantinople, of which 
 the National Unity Association is the principal. 
 
 These associations have no connection whatsoever with the- 
 existing political parties or those in course of formation. On the 
 contrary, they are entirely free from all political ambition and owe 
 their existence exclusively to the common aim of safeguarding the 
 territorial mtegrity and other rights of the Nation and State. They 
 are all acting under the same influences and causes. 
 
 II. It was while these associations formed throughout the country 
 were busy extending their organization in a perfectly orderly and 
 peaceful manner — they were lookmg forward with confidence to the 
 assertion of the principles of right and justice — that the Greeks 
 occupied Smyrna and the environing country under the patronage of 
 the Entente Powers and committed on this occasion untold atrocities. 
 The Greek troops and the local Greeks who had joined them in arms 
 started a general massacre of the Mussulmen population in which the 
 oflScials and Ottoman officers and soldiers as well as the peaceful 
 inhabitants were indiscrimmately put to death and subjected to- 
 forms of torture and savagery worthy of the Inquisition and con- 
 stituting in any case a barbarous violation of the laws of humanity. 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 31 
 
 Naturally the outcry was great among the Mussulmeu population. 
 It appealed for help. The voice thus raised by the innocent and 
 tormented Mussulmen of Smyrna reverberated throughout the land. 
 The whole nation rose as one man to oppose the barbarously hostile 
 action of the Greeks. Meetings were organized in the towns and even 
 in the villages and telegrams dispatched by the hundred to the 
 Entente Powers and the whole civilized world, tearfully appealing for 
 protection and help.- These solicitations of a whole people for a 
 reversion to the laws of humanity and justice remained unheard. On 
 the contrary the Greeks extended the zone of their operations to the 
 continued accompaniment of their first atrocities. In Constantinople 
 the oppressive measures of the English acting in conjunction with the 
 Central Government took a severer form. The Italian forces in 
 Adalia were increased. In Cilicia the Mussulmen population con- 
 tinued to be subjected to insult and outrage and reenforced measures 
 were adopted for the suppression of Turkish authority. The Greek 
 bands whose activity was directed from Constantinople and Smyrna 
 indulged in increased outrages at the expense of the Mussulmen 
 element. 
 
 At this juncture the Ferid Pasha cabmet, which in no wise repre- 
 sents the feelings and wishes of the nation, was invited to send a dele- 
 gation to Paris. The treatment with which our delegates met at the 
 congress was only another instance added to so many others of the 
 offensive attitude so easily adopted toward Turkey. 
 
 III. The nation, realizing that salvation resided in the formation of 
 a general and joint organization acting in perfect unity. The popu- 
 lation of Trebizond and Erzeroum took steps in June, 1919, in view of 
 the convocation of a congress in the latter town which was to bring 
 about the unification of the eastern vilayets. At the same time a 
 resolution was adopted at Amassia for the meeting of a congress at 
 Sivas for the unification of the whole of Anatolia and Koumelia. 
 
 On the 23d of July, 1919, the first of the intended congresses met at 
 Erzeroum. It was composed of the elected representatives of all the 
 vilayets, subprefectures, and cazas of eastern Anatolia. It remamed 
 in session 15 days. (The proclamation embodying its essential reso- 
 lutions, system of organization, aims, and points of view is in principle 
 the same as that of the congress that followed at Sivas and is annexed 
 in the Turkish original to this memorandum.) 
 
 On the fourth of September 1919, the second Congress met at Sivas. 
 It was composed of the elected representatives of western Anatolia 
 and Roumelia and, acting in the name of eastern Anatolia, a body of 
 fully empowered delegates elected by the Congress of Erzeroum. 
 The latter Congress having already established the principal basis 
 of action of the national movement, the Sivas Congress completed 
 its deliberations and adopted its resolutions in the course of a week. 
 (These resolutions as mentioned above are annexed to the present 
 memorandum.) 
 
 At this general Congress it was once more established that all those 
 parts of the Empire which were under Turkish authority at the time 
 of the conclusion of the armistice between the Sublime Porte and the 
 Entente Powers formed one joint block of territory and that our 
 compatriots of the same faith formed a united body pursuing one 
 aim in perfect unison. This Congress took the name of "League for 
 the Defense of the Risihts of Anatolia and Roumelia.'' In this 
 
32 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 fashion the whole nation and the Ottoman Army which is recruited 
 from among; the sons of the nation and whose primary duty is the 
 defense of the Fatherland form the sources of our strength. 
 
 A "committee of representatives" was elected with powers to pur- 
 sue the common end and to administer the affairs of the organization. 
 
 IV. As shown in the annexed regulations, the foremost object of 
 our league is, on the one hand, to constitute the national forces into 
 a factor for the maintenance of the territorial integrity of the Ottoman 
 Fatherland within the borders already mentioned and for the defense 
 of the national independence and the rights of the caliphate and 
 throne and, on the other hand, to establish the supremacy of the 
 national will. 
 
 Concerning our non-Moslem compatriots with whom we have lived 
 together for such a long time (Armenians, Greeks, Jews, etc.) we have 
 no other point of view or feeling than to be sincerely animated with 
 the best intentions toward them and to consider them entitled to 
 perfect equality with ourselves. We are absolutely certain that if 
 the country is freed from the evil influences and suggestions which 
 have been at work in its midst so far, the different races of the Empire 
 will live in peacewith one another and lead, in common, a happy and 
 prosperous life. 
 
 The high and pure aims which are ours exclude all aggressive in- 
 tentions against the Entente Powers. It will be natural and inevitable 
 for us, however, to defend ourselves and retaliate in answer to attacks 
 in a material form upon our existence in violation of the laws of 
 justice and humanity. 
 
 V. It is to be deplored that whereas the nature of our aims was to 
 be gathered from our explanations as well as from our acts, a number 
 of evil-minded and malevolent individuals, starting a campaign of 
 misrepresentation and false rumors, sought to attribute to our 
 intentions forms which never crossed our minds and had no con- 
 nection whatever with truth. In this respect, those who went furthest 
 are the English and the Ferid Pasha cabinet which, as already stated, 
 is but a tool in their hands. 
 
 Ferid Pasha and his colleagues are convinced that they could 
 not enjoy any authority whatsoever if the administration was run 
 on constitutional and liberal lines" and rested on the national 
 forces. That is why, the nation, having given proof of its ma- 
 turity and shown its general capabilit}^ as well as its consciousness 
 of its civil and natural rights, the only concern of this cabinet is to 
 crush the national organization and its action. In this campaign 
 one of its weapons is the fear of the unionists, those unionists who 
 gained such unenviable notoriety the world over by their misrule 
 Tasting several years to the great detriment of the nation and by 
 their last crime which was to plunge the country into an abyss from 
 which it is experiencing such difficulty in extricating itself. Specu- 
 lating on this fear the present cabmet is fatuously seeking to dis- 
 credit our action which is free from every kind of self-seeking ambi- 
 tion and is pursuing thoroughly national aims by representing these 
 as being connected with unionism. Another weapon to which the 
 cabinet clings is the fear of bolshevism. In the official communica- 
 tions they are striving to get through to the provincial governors, 
 they are not ashamed to assert that the Bolshevists have entered 
 Anatolia and that all our activities are inspired by them. 
 
CONDITIOI^S IN THE NEAR EAST. 33 
 
 As a matter of fact we realize and estimate the painful conse- 
 quences to which unionism has led the nation much better than 
 Ferid Pasha and his likes. Our object, so far from being to deal the 
 last blow to the existence of our fatherland and nation by launching 
 upon adventures, is to proceed with the greatest discrimination and 
 forethought and to find the means for insuring their survival and 
 welfare. Consequently there can be no relationship between us and 
 the unionists. 
 
 As to the Bolshevists, there is no room whatever in our country 
 for this doctrine, our religion and customs as well as our social organ- 
 ization being entirely unfavorable to its implantation. In Turkey 
 there are neither great capitalists nor millions of artisans and work- 
 ingmen. On the other hand, we are not saddled mth an agrarian 
 question. Finally, from the social point of view, our religious prin- 
 (iples are such as to dispense us with the adoption of bolshevism. 
 The best proof that the Turkish nation has no leanings in favor of 
 this doctrine and that, if necessary, it is ready to combat it, is to be 
 found in the attempt of Ferid Pasha to deceive the nation by way of 
 alarming it into the belief that bolshevism has invaded the land or is 
 on the point of doing so. The Ferid Pasha cabinet is truly a coat 
 cut to measure of the expansionist ambitions of the English. The 
 latter, founding their plans on their experiences in India, Egypt, and 
 the other countries they have succeeded in bringing under their 
 arbitrary rule, realize full well that after reducing the Turkish 
 nation to the condition of a flock deprived of all sense of human 
 dignity and all national and patriotic virtues, as well as of the right 
 of liberty and education, they will be able to degrade it into a troop 
 of slaves bowing to their will. This is the end toward which they 
 are working, having recourse to numberless intrigues in our midst 
 in view of its attainment. To quote a few instance of their tactics: 
 
 (a) Falsely accusing quite a number of Ottoman citizens of union- 
 ism, opposition to England, and what not, they proceeded to arrest 
 and exile them, thus tampering with the country's judicial rights. 
 Besides this, they are busy discovering or creating reasons for the 
 arrest of the Nationalists and patriots remaining in the country and 
 employ the Government as an instrument for persecuting them. 
 
 (6) With the idea of bringing about the partition of the Empire 
 and creating a fratricidal struggle between Turks and Kurds, they 
 incited the latter to join in a plan for the establishment of an inde- 
 pendent Kurdistan under English protection, the argument put for- 
 ward by them being that the Empire was, in any case, condemned 
 to dissolution. For the carrjnng out of this enterprise they spent 
 large sums of money, had recourse to every form of espionage, and 
 even sent emissaries on the spot. Thus an English officer of the 
 name of Naivill exerted himself in tliis sense for a long time at 
 Diarbekir, having recourse to every kind of fraud and deception in 
 his operations. But our Kurd compatriots, guessing what was on 
 foot, drove him out of the place as well as a handful of traitors who 
 had sold their consciences for money. Disappointed in his action 
 at Kiarbeldr, Mr. Naivill betook himself to Malatia with several 
 adventurers belonging to the Bedrihan clan and whom he had won 
 over with money but who enjoy no credit with their kinsmen such 
 as Kiamouran, Djaladoh, and Diarbekirh, Djemil Pasha Lade 
 
 S. Doc. 266, 66-2 3 
 
34 CONDITIONS IN" THE NEAE EAST. 
 
 Ekrem. There he renewed his attempt in view of the estabhshment 
 of an independent Kurdistan in collaboiation with the mutesarif 
 (subgovernor), Khasil Bev, also a member of the Bedrihan clan. 
 
 On the other hana, combining with the Vali of Kharput, Ghalil 
 Bey — an instrument of the self-seeking Minister of the Interior Abil 
 Bey and the likewise self-seeking Minister of War Suleyman Chefik 
 Pasha — ^who was committed to take measures against the national 
 movement and more especially against the Sivas Congress, he and the 
 crowd of his associates started the cry, ''The Armenian soldiers are 
 going to occupy the country — to arms," intending in this manner to 
 provoke a rising of our simple-minded Kurdish compatriots. The 
 object of this wicked plan was threefold: To resuscitate Kurdish 
 particularism, to destroy the national forces, and to create a conflict 
 and the shedding of blood between children of the same country. 
 The conspirators did not even shrink from trying to implicate in the 
 projected tragedy a detachment of troops Ghalil Bey had asked for 
 under pretense of pursuing personally a band of brigands which was 
 said to have ransacked the mail. (Several documents concerning 
 this affair are annexed to the present memorandum.) 
 
 These individuals met with the confusion which was to be expected 
 of their underestimation of the national forces. The local population 
 which remained innocent of all participation in these intrigues very 
 soon understood their criminal meaning and was proceeding to take 
 the culprits into custody when they fled. 
 
 (c) While perfect tranquillity was reigning in Eski Shehir, English 
 troofs entered the house of the local commandant, Col. Atif Bey, 
 and putting forward the most unlikely calumnies against him, carried 
 him off under the eyes of his soldiers and sent him under escort to 
 Constantinople. In explanation of the emotion and effervescence 
 very naturally caused among the local population by the outrage the 
 English spread reports to the effect that the Bolshevists and unionists 
 were invading the district and on this pretense adopted special 
 military measures in the locality. 
 
 (d) Ferid Pasha publishes, by means of the telegraphic agencies, 
 the report that disturbances are taking place in Anatolia and his 
 accomplices, the English, making out that the Armenians are being 
 made the victims of outrages in Sivas, addresses a minatory note to 
 the Sublime Porte. At the same time an outcry is raised on the 
 invaded ground that a massacre of the Christians is being planned 
 at Marzivan. As a matter of fact, not only has it been ascertained 
 materially that no such things have happened, but that there is 
 absolutely no likelihood of their occurring. On the contrary, the 
 encounters which were taking place in the region of Samsoun before 
 the organization of the national movement between the Greek 
 bands formed with a political object and the Mussulmen population 
 against which the former were practicing their ferocity and who, in 
 the absence of all protection on the part of the army and gendarmerie, 
 was forced to act in self-defense, have stopped as a result of the 
 advice given to both sides by the national organization and without 
 recourse having been had to measures of force. To-day perfect 
 tranquillity reigns in this region as in the other parts of the country. 
 
 VI. We entertain no unfriendly dispositions toward the Armenian 
 Republic of which Erivan is the center. For the present the league 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 35 
 
 has no relations with this State and is not interested in it. Our 
 knowledge concerning it is derived from rumors and indirect informa- 
 tion. We know, however, so much to be a fact that the Armenians 
 in the new State are carrying on operations in view of exterminating 
 the Musstilmen element in obedience to orders from the Armenian 
 corps commander. We have had copies of their orders under our 
 eyes. That the Armenians of Erivan are following a policy of 
 extermination against the Mussulmen and this wave of sanguinary 
 savagery has spread right up to our frontier is also established by the 
 fact of the presence within our borders of numerous Mussulmen fleeing 
 from death on the other side. The government of Erivan has, on 
 the other hand, resorted to direct acts of provocation such as the 
 practice of gunfire this side of the border. 
 
 Although the course of these events the English encouraged on the 
 one hand the Armenians in the attitude adopted by them against the 
 Mussulmen or even stirred them up to it and, on the other hand, 
 enumerating to us the outrages of the former and describing them as 
 unbearable, they urged us to retaliate by attacking the neighboring 
 State. But we, putting up with the Armenian provocations, turned 
 a deaf ear to the indignations of the English, feeling sure that the 
 truth would make itself known soon enough. As a matter of fact we 
 thought we could detect in the attitude of the English trying to 
 launch us upon an attack against Armenia, the plan of creating a 
 situation of which they would avail themselves to dispatch their own 
 troops into that country. All these maneuvers of the English were 
 started by their officers and representatives after they saw them- 
 selves obliged to evacuate Caucasia. 
 
 We hear that conflicts are taking place between the Azarbaijanese 
 and the Erivan Armenians. We presume that the reason for this is 
 the refusal of the Armenians to join the alliance concluded between 
 the Azarbaijanese and the Georgians against England's protege, 
 Denikin, who is trying to push southward. 
 
 It is quite natiu-al that the Mussulmen of Erzeroum and Van, and 
 jnore particularly those among them living in the border regions 
 should have reached a high state of excitement as a result of the news 
 reaching them daily of the massacres in Armenia and the sight of the 
 unfortunate refugees having escaped death and whose condition is 
 lamentable. What adds to their effervescence is the gunfire practice 
 of the Armenians without oiu- border. But our organization has 
 succeeded in appeasing them and all likelihood of violent reaction on 
 their part has been exerted. 
 
 VII. Kef raining from going to the assistance of the unfortunate 
 Mussulmen population in Armenia and from collaborating with the 
 Mussulmen of Azarbaijan, we consider it indispensable to confine our 
 action and aims to the task of insuring the future existence and 
 welfare of the Fatherland and Nation, within the borders already 
 defined. We are, in effect, convinced that Fouranism is a mischievous 
 conception. We consider that, by dispersing our material and moral 
 forces in the pursuit of chimeras a long distance from our frontiers, 
 we will only weaken the strength we require for defending the seat of 
 the throne and caliphate which is the heart of our Fatherland and 
 the knot of our existence. 
 
36 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 Quite recent events, unfolding themselves under our very eyes, have 
 taught us to remain faithful to moderate conceptions. For instance, 
 during the general war which has not yet ended in peace, the man at 
 the head of our Government employed the Ottoman forces to attain 
 such ends as the conquest of Caucasia, the strengthening of the 
 Azarbaijan Government and the recovery of Egypt. As a result of 
 this policy the very source of life in our real Fatherland, the popula- 
 tion has diminished considerably. Many fertile and otherwise 
 valuable lands have been wrested from us and even within the fron- 
 tiers we have assigned to ourselves as our last future, our capital, as 
 well as such peerless sections of our country as Smyrna, Adalia, and 
 Adana are under foreign military occupation. Whereas, if we had 
 not entered the war, or at least, if having entered it, we had wisely 
 employed our forces with a view to defending our territory within its 
 existing borders, instead of wasting them in ambitious enterprises, our 
 situation, though perhaps still that of a vanquished people, would be 
 different from what it is. 
 
 In any case the spreading of the preposterous report that Fouran- 
 ism forms part of our aims and action is but another instance of the 
 calumnies in which the English indulge at oiu- expense. 
 
 VIII. With a view to distorting the truth, that is the purely 
 national character of our movement, the English have also thrown 
 into circulation reports to the effect that we have obtained money 
 now from the Germans or Bolshevists, now from the foreign Mussul- 
 men or unionists, now again from Enver Pasha, and we do not know 
 who else. These reports suiting the Ferid Pasha cabinet, it is giving 
 them prominence after sorting and strengthening them. In reality 
 our league has no connection whatsoever with the sources just 
 mentioned, and can not have, since, as explained from the very 
 beginning, our object is purely national and patriotic and follows an 
 open course. To accept money from any source whatsoever, it is 
 necessary for us who pursue a conservative and legitimate object, to 
 sacrifice the money thus received to the intentions and wishes of the 
 donors. 
 
 Generally speaking, our league does not require as large sums of 
 money as is imagined. Ours is not an illegitimate object, acceptance 
 of which by a foreign power we are trying to obtain by means of 
 money. Nor are we in a position obliging us to buy the conscience 
 of some other nation. Nor, again, are we in the necessity of suggest- 
 ing an unknown object to our nation, spending money for the pur- 
 pose. Our league is the result of a pure and patriotic movement 
 born of the national consciousness and consists in the adoption by 
 this movement of a national form and organization. Our treasury 
 is the conscience of the nation which has learnt to appreciate the 
 value of independence and patriotism. The sources of our revenues 
 are the spontaneous donations of the nation. 
 
 IX. After the armistice the European powers fell into the mistake 
 of imagining that in Turkey there was not a nation conscious of its 
 rights and ready to defend them. Whatever a lifeless country and a 
 bloodless nation is worthy of that is what it wns sought to apply to us. 
 The idea was entertained at the Versailles conference of partitioning 
 our fatherland and distributing its fragments as presents right and 
 left. It is a subject for thankfulness that these preposterous de- 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAR EAST. 37 
 
 cisions, which were calculated to plunge humanity in new tragedies, 
 have been deferred. It is also a subject for thankfulness that the 
 decisive resolutions concerning our fate have been made dependent 
 on the deliberations and decisions of the American Congress. It was 
 the faith placed in the nationalistic and natural principles put for- 
 ward by the American Nation that brought about the end of the 
 general war which has soaked the soil of the globe with human blood 
 and strewn it with human corpses, thus causing the shedding of 
 endless tears. 
 
 We entertain an unshaken confidence that thanks to the humane 
 decisions of the Americans the ground will be found for the estab- 
 lishment of an enduring and perfect peace. We have no doubt that 
 the American Nation and the American Congress, representing the 
 cause of civilization, right, and justice in its midst, have been suffi- 
 ciently enlightened in regard to our pure-hearted Turkish people and 
 its degree of attachment to and connection with civilization and will 
 adopt the most efficient, equitable, and practical resolutions concern- 
 ing its fate, leaving us thus overflowing with gratitude. 
 
 X. The Turkish people possess a more than 10-century-old right of 
 existence in these lands. This is established by the survival of nu- 
 merous relics of the past. As for the Ottoman State, it dates from 
 seven centuries and can boast a glorious past and history. We are a 
 people whose power and majesty were recognized by the world in 
 three such continents as Asia, Europe, and Africa. Our men of war 
 and merchantmen sailed the oceans and carried our flag as far as 
 India. Our capabilities are proven by the power we once wielded 
 and which had become world-wide. But during the last century the 
 intrigues of the European powers in our capital and as a result of 
 these intrigues their interference with our independence, the re- 
 strictions with which they trammeled our economic life, the seeds of 
 discord they sowed between us and the non-Moslem elements with 
 which we had been living on fraternal terms for centuries, and added 
 to these circumstances the weakness and resulting misrule of our 
 Governments have acted as obstacles to our advance in the paths of 
 modern progress and prosperity. The painful condition which is ours 
 to-day does not in the least imply any radical incapacity on our part 
 or incompatibility with modern civilization. It is solely due to the 
 persistence of the adverse causes enumerated above. 
 
 We can give the most positive assurances that our country, if freed 
 from the incubus of foreign intrigue and intervention and if its affairs 
 are managed by a capable government respectful of the national will 
 and wishes, it will presently assume a condition which will be a 
 source of satisfaction to the whole world. 
 
 We make a special point of adding that the assistance of a powerful 
 and impartial foreign nation will be of great value to us in saving us 
 from the iniquitous oppression of which we are the victims and in 
 hastening our development. 
 
 We derive great hope from the Wilsonian doctrine embodying the 
 nationalistic principle and from the spirit of justice and humani- 
 tarianism displayed by the American Nation in its action to insure its 
 triumph. 
 
 MOUSTAPHA KeMAL PaSHA. 
 
38 CONDITIONS IN THE NEAB EAST. 
 
 Exhibit D. 
 
 American Military Mission, 
 
 On Board U. S. S. "Martha WasUngton," October 9, 1919. 
 My Dear General: I acknowledged receipt at Samsoun of your 
 letter setting forth the aims of the party of which you are the chief. 
 I thank you for it. In our journey after leaving Sivas we were 
 recipients of many courtesies from your people. 
 
 I have been informed by members of my mission who have traveled 
 through Malatia, Kaiseriya, and Marsovan that the Armenian people 
 in those regions are still very apprehensive of danger from the 
 Nationalist movement, and that some are leaving their homes again 
 in consequence of threats from their Turkish neighbors. I found 
 similar uneasiness in other places. I again invite your attention to 
 the keen interest America has in the safety and welfare of these peo- 
 ple, as shown by President Wilson's cable to the Turkish Govern- 
 ment, and suggest a wider circulation of the information that your 
 organization is in no way inimical to the Christian population oi the 
 Ottoman Empire, as I understood from you is the case. 
 
 Please accept my thanks for your courtesy to my party, and believe 
 me, 
 
 Very truly, yours, 
 
 Jas. G. Harbord, 
 Major General, United States Army. 
 Gen. MusTAPHA Kemal, 
 
 Representative of the Committee for the Defense 
 
 of Turlcey, Sivas, TurTcey. 
 
 Exhibit E. 
 
 declaration of the congress of sivas. 
 
 In view of the exterior and interior perils which threaten our 
 country, the national conscience has become awakened and gave 
 birth to our congress, which has reached the following decision: 
 
 I. All of the Turkish territory within the frontier outlined 30 Oc- 
 tober, 1334 (1918), between the Ottoman Government and the Allies, 
 and inhabited by a preponderate majority of Turk population, will 
 form an undivided and inseparable whole. All the Mussulman ele- 
 ments living in said territories are filled with mutual sentiments of 
 respect and devotion for the social conditions of the country and form 
 a veritable fraternity. 
 
 II. In order to assure the integrity of our country and our national 
 independence, as well as to assure the conservation of the Sultanat 
 and supreme Califat, it is indispensable to place m action the national 
 forces and the absolute will of the people. 
 
 III. Against all intermeddling or occupation of no matter what part 
 of the Ottoman territory, and in particular against every movement 
 tending toward the formation, at the expense of the mother country, 
 of an independent Armenia and of an independent Greece on the 
 Aidin, Magnesie, and Balikessir fronts, we are absolutely resolved to 
 resist and to defend our rights. 
 
CONDITIONS IN THE NEAK EAST. 39 
 
 IV. It is inadmissible that privileges be accorded all non-Mussul- 
 man elements who, for ages, have lived from the breast of the same 
 country and who enjoy of the same rights of equality; such privileges 
 would tend to trouble our political government and break the social 
 equilibrium. 
 
 V. All methods and all means are taken with a view to safeguard 
 the Sultanat, the supreme Califat, and the integrity of the country in 
 the case where the Turkish Government, under foreign pressure, 
 should be called upon to abandon no matter what part of our territory. 
 
 VI. We await a decision which will conform with right and with 
 such justice as will annul the initiatives that are contrary to our 
 historic, ethnic, and religious rights ; a decision relative to the annulling 
 of the project of the separation of our territory situated within the 
 line of demarcation traced by the armistice treaty, 30 October, 1334, 
 and inhabited by a preponderate majority of Mussulman j)opulation 
 having an intellectual preponderance and economic superiority and 
 forming an absolutely indivisible brotherhood which is inseparable 
 of race and religion. 
 
 VII. Our people honor and respect humanitarian and contemporary 
 purposes and take in consideration our scientific, industrial, and 
 economic needs; in consequence whereof, on condition that the 
 interior and exterior independence of our people and of our State, and 
 on condition that the territorial integrity of our country shall be 
 conserved intact, we will accept with pleasure the scientific, industrial, 
 and economic assistance of every State which will not set forth im- 
 perialistic tendencies with respect to our country and which will 
 respect the principles of nationality within the limits indicated under 
 Article VI. We await in the name of the preservation of humanity 
 and universal peace the urgent signature of a peace based on the 
 aforenamed equitable and humanitarian conditions which we consider 
 to be our great national objective. 
 
 VIII. In the course of historic events which fix the destinies of 
 nations, it is indispensible that our central Government shall submit 
 itself to the national will, for the arbitrary decision, emanating from 
 a government which treats lightly of the supreme will of the people 
 not only causes that government not to be respected but, again, it 
 could not be taken into consideration; the history of our past is proof. 
 In consequence, it is absolutely urgent that before taking the means 
 to remedy the anguish which exists within the very breast of the 
 nation, our central Government shall proceed without delaying 
 further to convoke the Nationalist Assembly and submit all the 
 decisions to take with a view to safeguarding the interests of the nation. 
 
 IX. The sufferings and the calamities of the nations have given 
 birth to a federal assembly called ' ' the assembly to defend the rights 
 and the interests of the Provinces of Anatolia and of Roumelia." 
 That assembly abstracts all the tendencies of the political parties so 
 that all our Mussulman compatriots as such can be considered as 
 legitimate members of that assembly. 
 
 X. The congress of that assembly, named "the assembly to defend 
 the rights and the interests of the Provinces of Anatolia and of Rou- 
 melia,'' which met at Sivas 4 September, 1335 (1919), has chosen a 
 representative corps charged to push on the proposed sacred cause 
 and to direct such similar organizations as well in the smaller commu- 
 nities as in the larger centers of the vilayets. 
 
 The Congress. 
 
40 COITDITIONS Ilsr THE NEAR EAST. 
 
 Exhibit F. 
 
 To the President of the Senate op the United States op 
 
 America : 
 
 The National Congress of Sivas, representing the entire Moham- 
 medan population of European Turkey and Asia Minor, and com- 
 posed of delegates representing every Province and State in said 
 portions of the Ottoman Empire, assembled on September 4, 1919, 
 for the purpose of securing the fulfillment of the wishes of the ma- 
 jority of the population of the Empire with the protection of all 
 minorities and with life, liberty, justice, and inviolability of property 
 rights guaranteed for all. 
 
 The National Congress of Sivas, by unanimous vote on September 
 9, 1919, passed a resolution outlining the desires of the majority of 
 the population of the Ottoman Empire and embodying the principles 
 which will guide the future action of the congress at Sivas, the central 
 committee, which it will elect from among its members before dis- 
 persal, and all of the subsidiary organizations within the frontiers of 
 the Empire. ^ 
 
 In accordance with the said resolution of poHcy, the National 
 Congress of Sivas this day, by unanimous vote, requests the Senate 
 of the United States of America to send a committee of its Members 
 to visit all confines of the Ottoman Empire for the purpose of in- 
 vestigating, with the clear vision of a disinterested nation, conditions 
 as they actually are in the Ottoman Empire, before permitting the 
 arbitrary disposal of the peoples and territories of the Ottoman 
 Empire by a treaty of peace. 
 
 In the name of the National Congress of Sivas: 
 
 President Moustapha Kemal Pasha. 
 
 Vice President Hussien Raoup. 
 
 Second Vice President Tamailpazil Pasha. 
 
 General en Retraite. 
 Secretary Emir Xamail Hamey 
 Secretary M. Chukri. 
 
 Sivas, Turkey, September 9, 1919. 
 
CONDITIONS IN" THE NEAE EAST. 
 
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