File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎51v] (100/450)

Armenians in Constantinople,
Orders were issued that only Armenians who haa been born in Constantinople
should be allowed to remain there. This was a signal for a house-to-house search by the
police as well as arrests in the open streets, ine witness has seen batches or
Armenians being led through the streets, the victims of the zeal of the police m
fulfilling this order. The raids are usually carried out at night, but he saw a wealthy
and influential Armenian arrested in brpad daylight and hurried away. Nothing more
is seen or heard of those whom the police take. Unfortunately there aie some
Armenians who act as police spies, and sell their countrymen^
The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. can give details of hundreds of young Armenian girls who have become
prostitutes in Constantinople, the only means left to them by which they can support
their parents. One he quotes in particular, a well-bred girl recently married, whose
husband was killed before her eyes, and who w T as driven to her present position only
after months of struggling to live decently.
The Massacres continue
Lately there has not been so much heard of Armenian massacres, but they continue
nevertheless; it is only that there are fewer means by which the outside world can hear
of them.
The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. considers that the reason for this treatment of the Armenians is that
they are an easy prey, and that Mahommedans, rich or poor, high or low, are by nature
wedded to murder and robbery. The Turk, in addition, is still an invader, who treats
others under his power as subject races.
The Armenians, morally and economically, are utterly ruined ; probably the most
industrious and thrifty race (and it is a Jew who described them as such) in the Turkish
Empire has ceased to exist.
APPENDIX (B).
Miscellaneoes Cuttings feom the Press.
Russia's Intention regarding the Dardanelles.
Paris, Tuesday.
M. Milioukov, the eminent Bussian statesman, leader of the Cadets, and principal
author of the fall of Sturmer, writes in the “ Journal ” :—
The question of the Straits is for Bussia a powerful and vital question, and
dominates at the present hour all others, as does that of hlsace and Lorraine for
France. We do not consider the possession of the Straits as an annexation. Bussia
with her immense territories has no need of new conquests, except as the logical and
inevitable ending of her social and economic development. As a national and territorial
organism Bussia is not complete, and can only be so the day the Dardanelles becomes
an integral part of her Empire. T he infirmity from which our country has so much
suffered, above all since the Berlin Congress, and which has cost us and our Allies
painful deceptions and reverses in the course of this world war, must definitely
disappear.
Bussia’s sovereignty over the Straits does not mean that the Straits are going to
be closed to free commerce. The regime of the Straits under Bussian domination should
approximate sensibly to that now exercised over the Panama Canal, with, of course,
this one difference, that its passage will be rigorously forbidden to the warships of other
countries.— Exchange.
The Bagdad Railway.
T rom the “ Verarlberger Voiksblatt ” of the 26th November :—
On the 21 st November the last tunnel through the Taurus (3,795 metres in length)
was opened. Thus the connection of the already completed sections of the Baghdad
Bail way is an accomplished fact. The boring operations lasted a year and a half.
The transport ot troops, which had hitherto been effected by motor-cars over the
mountain roads, is now far easier and more rapid.