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Barton and Vickrey return from the Near East. News Bulletin, Oct 1919.
Location
New York
Year
1919
Item Detail
Barton, Vickrey, Beury and Champ reached New York on 8 October, Barton after five thousand miles through Asia Minor, Armenia, Mesopotamia and the Russian Caucasus. What they brought back fills the issue. Colonel Haskell put the number of destitute Armenians at 800,000 and asked for 7,000 tons of flour a month from 1 December until the 1920 harvest, plus $500,000 a month. A. J. Culler described a Marash of 60,000 before the war now running five orphanages with a capacity of a little over a thousand, an eighty-bed hospital, a clinic seeing about three hundred a day, ninety looms and industrial work for some three thousand people.
Context
The News Bulletin was the monthly publication of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (ACASR; renamed American Committee for Relief in the Near East in 1918), published at One Madison Avenue, New York, to keep contributors and campaign workers informed of conditions in the field and the progress of fundraising at home. Issues combine cablegrams, field reports, campaign news, donor rolls, and photographs. The title immediately preceded The New Near East magazine.
The Bulletin kept contributors and campaign workers informed. Issues carry cablegrams relayed through the Department of State from relief stations across the Ottoman Empire, Syria, Palestine, the Caucasus and Persia, with campaign news, donor rolls, field photographs and accounts by survivors of the Armenian and Greek genocides.
The October 1919 issue is transitional in form and branding. It runs sixteen pages and carries a green-tinted pictorial cover labeled Near East Relief, while the interior legal masthead retains American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. Both identify the serial as News Bulletin. The issue reports the return of relief leaders, a nineteen-member relief contingent, Near East Relief's federal incorporation, emergency requirements in Armenia, and station work at Igdir, Marash, and Harpoot.
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Holding Institution
Rockefeller Archive Center
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Attribution
Near East Foundation Collection, Rockefeller Archive Center
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Rights
No known copyright restrictions. Based on available information, NERHS is not aware of copyright restrictions on this material. Items are presented for non-commercial research and educational use. Users are responsible for determining rights status and compliance with applicable law. If you believe you hold rights in this material or have information about rights holders not currently reflected, please contact [email protected].
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Notes
Masthead: 'News Bulletin. Published by American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. Vol. IV. October, 1919. No. 4, total No. 28. 1 Madison Avenue, New York.' The cover reads 'Published by the Near East Relief' and 'No. 4—Total Number 28', but the cover's volume designation is obscured. The interior masthead confirms Vol. IV. Transitional format and branding: the issue runs sixteen pages, uses a green-tinted pictorial cover and names Near East Relief on the cover, while the interior legal masthead retains American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief.
This issue came from the Laurence and Frances MacDaniels materials donated by Janet Miller.
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Document Contents
James L. Barton, Charles V. Vickrey, Charles E. Beury and Frederick B. Champ return to New York on 8 October after inspections and campaign planning. Vickrey had accompanied Major General J. G. Harbord's commission to the Caucasus, while Barton had traveled 5,000 miles through Asia Minor, Armenia, Mesopotamia and the Russian Caucasus. The Canada is scheduled to leave on 18 October with nineteen Near East Relief workers for Piraeus and Constantinople. At Igdir, E. T. Perry rotates two crews of 100 men through street cleaning, hires a bakery that produces 800 to 1,000 pounds of bread daily, and plans a weaving factory for about 600 women. He also reports that mounted Turks or Kurds killed one of four orphan children. William N. Haskell estimates that 800,000 destitute Armenians exist, calls for 7,000 tons of flour each month from 1 December until the 1920 harvest, and asks for one full cargo for 150,000 children, plus $500,000 a month. The issue prints the 6 August federal incorporation act. A. J. Culler describes Marash after the Armenian Genocide: five orphanages for more than 1,000 children, an eighty-bed hospital, a clinic with about three hundred daily cases, a twenty-five-bed children's hospital, a Rescue Home, loans of $20 to $60, ninety looms and industrial work for about three thousand people. M. E. C. reports that trains carried 1,050 people from Baku to Alexandropol and requested 150 poods of bread. Ruth A. Parmelee reports about three thousand orphans at Harpoot. Clarence D. Ussher records massacres at Nakhitchevan, about three hundred Armenian casualties, 6,000 destitute refugees held there and six hundred children in an unsanitary building.