A year's work totted up in figures. Acorne, 24 Jan 1920.

Burke Library (Union Theological Seminary)

Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University Libraries; photographs contributed by Shant Mardirossian

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].

Masthead: 'The Acorne. Vol. II–N° 4. Edited by Near East Relief. 13, rue des Petits-Champs. Constantinople, 24 January 1920.'

'A Few Facts' reduces the first full year to a column of figures: 22,000 orphans in Caucasus orphanages and 27,000 across Turkey and Syria, 10,000 refugees in the Aleppo camp, 6,000,000 kilos of grain given by the Turkish Government, 15,000 loaves of bread a day in Constantinople, 7,153 yards of cloth woven at Sivas in a month, 4,812 people aided at Cesarea, 2,717 fed daily at the Trebizond soup kitchen, 620 cases treated at the Konia clinic, 1,191 employed in industries at Kharput, ten orphanages opened in the Beirut district, nine girls given scholarships at Brusa, forty native committees rehabilitating 2,200 destitute families, forty centers started on industrial work, 300 girls rescued from Moslem homes in the Urfa district and 15,224 garments made in the Aleppo district. 'What Is a “Case”?', signed Maybelle C. Phillips, describes the Constantinople Case Committee's roughly 150 volunteers organized into forty neighborhood committees working in Armenian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish and Russian, without whom American relief could not be disbursed, spending 2,675 Turkish pounds in December and distributing 7,000 loaves a week in over 2,000 homes, and answers its own question with one mother bathing her baby in an attic and two fatherless children. 'Remerciment' is a French prose-poem written by the sisters of St. George's Hospital and dedicated to the American Relief Committee for the orphans' Armenian New Year party. 'Trebizond Report for December' surveys a city of about 30,000, its filbert and tobacco trade, the destruction of its filbert-oil, silk and cotton plants, and the shortage of draught animals after the retreating Russians stripped the district, with the Bishop of Djevislik appealing for 10,000 cows; seed was given to 250 villages in the spring of 1919 against return at harvest, but the crop failed and 1,000 tons of grain will be needed again; relief is carried on at Trebizond, Kerrasund and Ordou with native committees at Rizeh, Beibort, Gumushhane and Djevislik, four Armenian orphanages maintained and four more aided; the Red Crescent Hospital is confined to out-patient work. Its tables record 1,589 children in Greek, Armenian and Turkish orphanages, 1,619 clinic cases, 5,161 garments given away and 404 people in industrial work, for the vilayets of Trebizond, Ezerum and Sivas. 'December Work at Marsovan', signed George E. White, Director of the Marsovan Unit, records 2,279 clinic cases, 54 operations, 21 X-ray examinations and 476 operations since the hospital opened, 58 orphans placed in homes and the orphanage kitchen feeding 314 people, favus improving under X-ray and scabies almost stamped out, and Christmas gifts made in secret by children's committees — sixty sewing outfits, fifty rag dolls, two hundred checkers and a doll house. 'Sad Case at Cesarea' describes a destitute girl of twelve, a refugee from Everek whose father was killed, who has no arms and with her feet can eat, thread a needle, sew, cut, write and knit, and closes with a worker's plea for bright colors in children's clothing. 'Girl Shoemaker Kept Busy' records 302 pairs of shoes repaired at Brusa in December. 'Notice' asks personnel to wire forty-eight hours before coming to Constantinople. 'News Notes' records some twenty transfers, departures and arrivals, the marriage of Margaret E. Dixon and Wendell W. Brown of the Sivas Unit on 15 January, the appointment of Dr. W. S. Dodd as director of the work in the Adana district with Dr. W. N. Chambers still in charge of the Adana Unit, and Derindje's claim to the only bowling alley in Asia Minor. 'From the Caucasus' reprints press and Near East News items: workshops opening in the orphanages at Kars, Karakliss, Djelal-ogli and Abaram, the Etchmiadzin orphanages handed to the American Committee, and figures from the Minister of Refugees in Armenia — 324,247 refugees in all Armenia, of whom 284,947 are Turkish Armenian and 39,300 Oriental Armenian, 365,655 of the native poor receiving relief, 30,000 orphans in Armenia and approximately 22,000 in Near East Relief's Caucasus orphanages.