Collections
Clinton W. Crow reports the evacuation of 3,156 refugees from Mersine. 1923.
Location
Mersina (Mersin), Turkey
Year
1923
Item Detail
The S.S. Propontis loaded at Mersine through the daylight hours of 22 July 1923 and sailed for Cyprus at half past eleven that night under orders from the Ministry of Marine at Athens. Crow had estimated four thousand and embarked 3,156, about five hundred of them Armenians, the difference made up of duplicate registrations, people who chose to stay, and villagers who reached the pier the following morning. Twenty-six who were too ill to travel stayed behind at the hospital at the Factory. Crow credited the Turkish officials, who moved the columns and rushed baggage through customs at no cost to NER.
Context
Nellie Marie Miller Mann (1897–1997) was a member of Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana, and a graduate of Goshen College. The Mennonite Relief Commission placed her with Near East Relief in 1921, one of two Mennonite women it sent to the Near East in these years. She was appointed on 20 August 1921, sailed the same day aboard the S.S. Patria, and reached Beirut on 20 September. At the Syria-Palestine headquarters she was secretary to the treasurer and, by April 1923, in charge of the individual remittance department. She left Beirut at the end of August 1923.
The collection holds her letters to her family and to her fiancé Cleo Mann, her appointment papers and contract, and the Near East Relief reports, rosters and field accounts she kept. Together they document the Beirut office through the movement of orphans out of Anatolia and Cilicia into Syria and Lebanon in 1922, the Greek deportations of the following winter, and the deaths of two NER workers, Menno Shellenberger at Diarbekir and Lester James Wright on the Aleppo road. David W. Mann published his mother's writings as Letters from Syria, 1921–1923 (2013) and gave the originals to the Near East Foundation.
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Holding Institution
Rockefeller Archive Center
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External Link
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Attribution
Rockefeller Archive Center. Near East Foundation records, FA406. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14.
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Rights
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Notes
Typed in the report: "this movement continued steadily, without interruption, confusion, or delay, until 8 P.M., at which time 3156 refugees had been placed on the steamer." / "Government officials exceeded their duty in facilitating the movements of columns from the three concentration points to the pier, in preventing disorder, in assisting the physically weak, in rushing baggage through the customs, in uniting separated families ... all this at no cost to the N.E.R." / "Twentysix helplessly sick remained at our Hospital at the Factory. Some of these will mercifully die."
Signed: "Clinton W. Crow, Director, N.E.R. Mersine."
The report dates the embarkation "Saturday, July 22nd." 22 July 1923 was a Sunday.
Sources for the Item Detail:
• Clinton W. Crow to the Treasurer, N.E.R. Beirut, 7 June 1923, on the suspension of services at Mersine six weeks earlier. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Hovhannes Kouyoumdjian, "The History of 79 N.E.R. Orphans," 7 March 1922, on the December 1921 sailing from the same port. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
About this group
• Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Near East Foundation records (FA406), Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Near East Relief appointment certificate, 20 August 1921, signed C. V. Vickrey and C. M. Fowle ("Miss Nellie M. Miller has been duly appointed a member of the relief expedition"). Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Near East Relief, Syria-Palestine Area, Organization and Personnel, 28 April 1923, sheet I ("Secretary to Treasurer & in charge of Individual Remittance Dept. — Miss Nellie M. Miller"). Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Nellie Miller Mann, Letters from Syria, 1921–1923, transcribed and edited by David W. Mann (Morgantown, Pa.: Masthof Press, 2013).
• Rockefeller Archive Center finding aid, Near East Foundation records: https://dimes.rockarch.org/collections/Ahi2i3M7wcFTbQuXZgxDib
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Document Contents
Two-page typed report from the Director, N.E.R. Mersine, to the Managing Director, N.E.R. Constantinople, dated Mersine, Turkey, 24 July 1923, signed Clinton W. Crow, subject "Evacuation of Refugees from Mersine." Crow reports that the S.S. Propontis, due on 19 July, arrived on the evening of 21 July and came inshore the next morning. Embarkation by row boats ran from nine in the morning until eight at night, when 3,156 refugees including about five hundred Armenians had been placed aboard. He accounts for the shortfall against his estimate of four thousand, describes the ship as too jammed to raise its anchor for three hours, and records its sailing for Cyprus at half past eleven. He reports no robbery of emigrants, praises the Mutasareef and the port, police, customs and health services, and describes the six-day ration bag of bread, olives, tomatoes and condensed milk issued to each refugee. Twenty-six who were helplessly sick remained at the hospital at the Factory. On 23 July he executed a paper at the Mersine branch of the Banque Imperiale Ottomane returning a credit of Ltq. 2000.00 to N.E.R. Beirut without commission.