Collections
Aintab carries on through 101 days. Acorne, 9 Oct 1920.
Location
Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey
Year
1920
Item Detail
John H. Boyd's letter of 6 September reports that five Americans carried on relief at Aintab through a hundred and one days of fighting. The Armenians of the city maintained strict neutrality throughout, eight dead were found in the American orphanage on Mardin Hill, and Boyd records his relief that the orphans had been evacuated to Beirut before supplies ran short. A new industrial department there employed about 350 women. Peter Gernazian called at headquarters on 7 October to report the Marash workers well, 3,500 refugees and 1,200 orphans were in their care, and relief supplies had saved nine thousand lives.
Context
The Acorne was the weekly bulletin of the American Committee for Relief in the Near East, produced in Constantinople for private circulation among the Committee's own staff. By January 1920, it printed a thousand copies a week for station directors in the field and for supporters in America.
Issues ran to four pages of short field dispatches and unit reports: orphan care, medical work, refugee feeding, education and workshop programs, with operational notes on supplies, rations, transport and exchange. Personnel notices recorded arrivals, transfers and departures. The bulletin took the title Near East Relief with Vol. II, No. 42 on 23 October 1920.
No complete run is known to survive. NERHS holds seventeen issues of Volume II, drawn from the Harry Pratt Judson records at the University of Chicago, the Martin Weaver Documents at the Mennonite Historical Library, and the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary.
These ten issues open Volume II in January 1920 and resume in September and October with the Robert College conference, the Greek-Turkish fighting around Ismid, and the opening of the Kuleli orphanage.
-
Holding Institution
Burke Library (Union Theological Seminary)
-
Attribution
Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University Libraries; photographs contributed by Shant Mardirossian
-
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].
-
Document Contents
An opening poem, 'On the Golden Horn', signed Mabelle Phillips. 'Aintab Near East Workers Carry on Relief During 101 Days of Fighting' prints extracts from a letter by John H. Boyd, Director at Aintab, dated 6 September: the French column arrived on 10 August, buildings around the city were occupied including the American orphanage on Mardin Hill where eight dead were found, the Armenians maintained strict neutrality throughout, and Dr. and Mrs. Lorin A. Shepard, Miss Lucille Foreman, Miss Louise M. Clark and Boyd himself carried on relief under fire for one hundred and one days. Boyd reports a worsening food shortage, a new industrial department employing about 350 women, and his relief that the orphans had been evacuated to Beirut before supplies ran short. 'Massacre at Kerrasund on the Black Sea' reports the Secretary General of the Greek Refugees Committee for the Black Sea calling at headquarters to say that massacres had taken place in the vicinity and the remaining Greek people were dying of starvation; Dr. Newton of the Trebizond unit was asked to visit, and a special Greek fund raised in America was to be doubled by the Near East. 'Fund for Relief of Greek Refugees of Pergama' records seven thousand dollars forwarded to Smyrna for Pergama refugees now in Mitylene. 'Greeks in Need at Yozgat' prints extracts from a letter by Joseph Beach, Director of the Cesarea Unit, dated 25 August, on wealthy Greeks reduced to refugees by looting during the recent troubles. Extracts from the Armenian Central Committee acknowledge receipt of 14 boxes containing 3,090 boys' suits and 4 boxes containing 2,684 girls' dresses. 'Near East Work at Marash' records Peter Gernazian calling at headquarters on 7 October to report the Marash workers well and caring for 3,500 refugees and 1,200 orphans, the fighting at Aintab having cut communications with Aleppo; Gernazian was in Marash during the massacres and states that Near East supplies saved the lives of nine thousand Armenians, the city now being in the hands of the Nationalists. 'Industrial Orphanage for Boys, Constantinople', signed G. Hastings, records the move from Nishan Tash to Beylerbey and the start of a shoe-making industry funded by Canadian and Wellesley funds. 'Work in Sivas', signed Mary L. Graffam, Director of the Sivas Unit, reports relief cut to 414 persons aided at an average of 2.09 lira each, the boys' orphanage on vacation at the Fabrica Farm, the girls riding the flails at the monastery farm, a Ford car rescued from a valley and rebuilt by native industrial workers, and the hospital reaching a minimum in a month usually visited by cholera and dysentery. 'Talas Near East Hospital Destroyed by Fire' reports a telegram: workers and patients uninjured, Dr. and Mrs. Gannaway, Miss Blanch Easton and Miss Rachel King superintending the move so efficiently that hospital work did not stop, with a third of the provisions and instruments saved. 'Personnel Notes' records Dr. William S. Dodd leaving on an inspection tour of the interior hospitals accompanied by Melville Chater, who is photographing and writing for the National Geographic Magazine.