Collections
Harbord and Vickrey argue over conscientious objectors in NER service. 1922.
Location
New York, United States
Year
1922
Item Detail
The complaint reached New York from a retired Inspector General traveling in Syria, and Harbord passed it on with a warning that the American Legion could make it a fundraising problem. Vickrey answered with figures and with the Mennonites at Beirut, who in his account employed themselves under NER commission because they turned more money into the treasury, proportionately, than any other body. The office secretary he names among them was Nellie Miller. He cited the recent death of one of them, Menno Shellenberger, who had volunteered for Diarbekir.
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 Harbord’s letter: "Several echoes have reached me of dissatisfaction in the Near East Relief work out in the actual Near East because of your employment of conscientious objectors, some of whom actually evaded service in the United States Army during the war."
Typed in Vickrey’s reply: "in Syria, where General Chamberlain may have made his observations, we have employed and do employ in subordinate positions a number of Mennonites, or rather, in a very real sense, they employ themselves, though under our commission, for they turn large sums of money into our treasury, more proportionately than any other body." / "These Mennonites may be somewhat conspicuous around Beirut, where they serve as chauffeurs, warehousemen and one of them as an office secretary, though not managing director."
Signed: "(signed) J. G. Harbord." and "C. V. Vickrey, General Secretary."
Sources for the Item Detail:
• 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.
• George C. Doolittle, "Death of Mr. Menno Shellenberger," Aleppo, 3/1/22. 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
Four pages carrying two typed letters. The first, dated 27 February 1922, is from Major General J. G. Harbord to Charles V. Vickrey, General Secretary of Near East Relief at 151 Fifth Avenue, New York. Harbord reports dissatisfaction over NER's employment of conscientious objectors and over the employment of missionaries of denominations already established in the region, cites Major General John L. Chamberlain, late Inspector General of the Army, as favoring an investigation by an independent trained investigator, and warns of embarrassment should the American Legion learn of it. The second, dated 4 March 1922 and running to three pages, is Vickrey's reply. He welcomes the criticism, encloses a letter for Chamberlain, and answers the two points. On conscientious objectors he describes the Mennonites employed in subordinate positions around Beirut as chauffeurs, warehousemen and an office secretary, notes that they turn large sums into the NER treasury, cites the enclosed clipping on one who died at Diarbekir, and tabulates 335 men in service with 79.1 per cent from the Army or Navy and 300 women with 49 per cent from war service. On missions he explains that American missionaries were the only Americans able to administer relief in wartime Turkey and that NER had been moving away from those associations since the armistice.