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Sixty workers meet at Robert College. Acorne, 4 Sep 1920.
Location
Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey
Year
1920
Item Detail
About sixty Near East Relief workers met at Robert College from 28 to 30 August for three days of conference. Charles Vickrey explained how money is raised and personnel secured in New York, Rear Admiral Mark L. Bristol traced the operation from the commission he met in Paris through the securing of Derindje as a supply base, and eight committees were appointed and reported on the Monday. Ninety-five women were then in the rescue homes, and Blanche Norton urged that the hospitals pass to local management. The Findings Committee recommended ending direct relief for adults everywhere but the Caucasus.
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.
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Holding Institution
Burke Library (Union Theological Seminary)
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Attribution
Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University Libraries; photographs contributed by Shant Mardirossian
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Rights
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Document Contents
'Near East Conference' — about sixty members of the Near East Relief met at Robert College on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, 28, 29, and 30 August, under Charles Vickrey, General Secretary, newly returned from the Caucasus without Mr. Yarrow, Managing Director of the Caucasus Area. The Beirut Area was represented by Major J. H. Nicol and Professor A. A. Bacon, the Anatolia Area by Colonel Coombs, with the Constantinople workers and representatives from Samsoun, Trebizond, Marsovan, Brousa and Ismidt. Delegates were housed in Anderson Hall, the catering in the charge of Tokatlian. Colonel Coombs called the roll on Saturday morning, and Mr. Vickrey described how funds are raised, publicity is conducted, finances are managed, and personnel are secured in New York. Eight committees were appointed — Orphanage, Industrial Work and General Relief, Medical, Rescue Homes, Laws, Personnel, Recreation, and Findings. On Saturday evening Rear Admiral Mark L. Bristol traced relief operations from his meeting in Paris with the Commission of Barton, Washburn, Peet, Hatch, Moore, Main and James, through the Constantinople committee of January 1919 under Dr. Gates, Mr. Heck and Mr. Fowle, the arrival of a large group of workers and material, and the securing of Derenje as a base of supplies through the American Navy. Puzant Geuzubuyukian expressed the gratitude of the Armenians, and Mr. Fresco of the Jewish Commission for Orphans spoke in French. On Sunday Major Nicol preached on 'A man has only what he uses, and what he does not use, he loses’ and described the Syria District from Jerusalem to Marash and Alexandretta to Mardin, noting that no general relief work had been carried on since 1 April and that all medical work would pass to other agencies by 1 September. The American Mission, Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. were represented by Mr. C. T. Riggs, Mr. F. D Steger and Miss Margaret B. White. Professor E. B. Watson spoke for Robert College, recalling his task of accommodating the 250 Leviathan workers. On Monday the committees reported: Dr. McNaughton on Laws and the provisions of the Treaty of Peace with Turkey; Dr. White on Rescue Homes, with 95 women then in them; Dr. Blanche Norton on Medical, urging that N.E.R. hospitals pass to local management; Miss Esther Greene on industrial and general relief; and Mrs. Heizer on orphanages, favoring larger institutions and the reuniting of families. The Findings Committee reported on Monday evening, outlining the five main activities over the past five years and recommending that direct relief for adults be discontinued, except in the Caucasus.