The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4, October 1909)

by American National Red Cross

AMERICAN RED CROSS BEIRUT RELIEF COMMITTEE.

By G. Bie Ravndal,
American Consul-General, Chairman.

Beirut, Syria, June 5, 1909.

Your Committee desires to express its profound appreciation of its recognition by the American National Red Cross as the latter’s authorized agents in the matter of extending relief to the sick and destitute of Asia Minor and Syria in consequence of recent bloody disorders.

Such recognition strengthened our appeals for aid. It implied a thorough audit of accounts, and also that distribution to the needy would be made, irrespective of race or creed.

As Americans we have wished that credit for whatever we might be able to accomplish along the lines of alleviating suffering and destitution should be given to the American National Red Cross. For this reason, as well as for purposes of protection, we have displayed the Red Cross flag in the field as well as at our headquarters in Beirut, and we have also marked supplies as shipped by us to various local relief agents with the Red Cross insignia.

Commercially and otherwise, the stricken districts form part of Beirut’s tributary territory. This city, therefore, is especially suitable as a point of distribution of relief supplies in the present emergency. Your Committee, accordingly, was able to and did reach Adana and other afflicted points before any other relief agency. As soon as other instrumentalities had been provided for the Adana region, your Committee concentrated its efforts upon the less favored districts of Alexandretta, Latakia, Kessab, Antioch, and Marash.

We take pleasure in inclosing herewith a synopsis of the report of Prof. Harry Gaylord Dorman, M. D., of Beirut, who, while there, was called upon to superintend the entire medical relief work. Some of Dr. Dorman’s photographs show the Red Cross well to the front in Adana. We are grateful to the authorities of the Syrian Protestant College for granting Dr. Dorman the leave of absence required for the purpose indicated.

Inclosed financial statements, prepared by E. G. Freyer, Esq., our Secretary and Treasurer, who, as the executive member of your Committee, has displayed the most commendable zeal and tireless activity, explains the Committee’s operations up to the present time. Fuller accounts of the manner in which our cash remittances to Alexandretta, Marash, and Antioch were used will accompany our final and detailed settlement with the American National Red Cross. In every instance we have availed ourselves of the services of American, British, and German missionaries in the field, individually known to and fully trusted by your Committee, as distributing agents. Most of them “went through” the massacres of 1895, and thus acquired experience in relief work. Among such field agents we would especially mention Rev. Chambers, at Adana; Rev. Dodds, at Mersine; Rev. Kennedy, at Alexandretta; Dr. Balph, at Latakia; Rev. Maccallum, at Marash, and Rev. Trowbridge, at large, as having rendered valuable assistance.

While this is only the American Relief Committee at work, we are fully aware of the important services rendered by the International Committee at Adana, of which the British Vice-Consul, Major Doughty-Wylie, is chairman; Rev. W. N. Chambers (American), Secretary, and the Imperial Ottoman Bank (French), Treasurer. The latest letter received from Rev. Mr. Chambers, of Adana, shows that the relief work at that point still remains at its initial stage (feeding the hungry and nursing the wounded), and that fresh relief measures are imperatively required.

Rev. T. D. Christie, D. D., President of St. Paul’s College Institute (American), at Tarsus, under the date of May 29, 1909, indorses an “Appeal for Help to Cilicia,” issued by an Armenian Bishop, in the following language:

RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS, BEIRUT.

“The above is not mere rhetoric; it understates rather than overstates the case. The needy refugees in these two Provinces of Adana and Aleppo now number about seventy thousand; the value of the property looted or destroyed is fifty million dollars. I trust there will be a generous response to this cry for help. Something is already being done, for which the men and women on the ground are most grateful; but much more must be done if disaster is to be averted.”

Your Committee is not prepared to confirm any specific estimate of the number of destitute refugees. While in some places the devastation is complete, in other places the crops are left and may yet be saved. We do know, however, that the general situation in the stricken belt is extremely pitiable, and that we are perfectly justified in calling upon the American public for further help.

A SHIPMENT OF SUPPLIES LEAVING RED CROSS HEADQUARTERS AT BEIRUT FOR LATAKIA.

In the case of Kessab, we have supplied some mechanic’s tools and agricultural implements as the best means of obviating the necessity of issuing rations indefinitely. This policy will be pursued in other villages which were looted and destroyed, and where the inhabitants are utterly destitute. Photographs show the steamer which carried our fairly large shipment for Kessab, and boxes composing the shipment. The steamer (Italian) flew the Red Cross flag in honor of the occasion.

Your Committee is deeply grateful for the opportunity of doing this kind of work under the inspiring auspices of the American National Red Cross, and would assure you that we constantly have in mind performing our task in such a manner as not to lower the high standard of efficiency and fidelity to duty set by your noble organization.

Supplementary Report of July 15.

In continuation of my report of June 14, 1909, I have the honor to submit the following further observations:

To begin with, the most pressing need called for food and medical aid. We, therefore, sent doctors and nurses and medical supplies to Adana and provisions, or cash wherewith to buy food, to various stricken centers, such as Adana, Tarsus, Alexandretta, Kessab, Antioch, and Marash. Kessab we also supplied with implements and tools of various kinds, as the village was utterly looted before being destroyed, and practically nothing but ruins was left of it. At Aintab and Beirut we have provided clothing, shoes, and bedding for some destitute orphans.

RED CROSS SUPPLIES, INCLUDING PLOWS, PICKS AND OTHER TOOLS, BEING TAKEN TO THE STEAMER SAILING FOR KESSAB.

Fortunately, in many districts the crops were saved. The food problem, except at certain points, including Kessab, which is not an agricultural village, will therefore be deprived of its worst terrors until the winter sets in. There has been and still is a general demand for clothing, quilts, and blankets, especially from the mountainous regions between Latakia and Marash. We shall hear more about the need of clothing and bedding and shelter as the season advances and the cold November rains begin beating down upon the mountains. Kitchen utensils are urgently wanted in many districts in which the marauders carried off everything portable.

But while the initial and most palpable suffering and destitution may be said to have been provisionally checked, and while preliminary steps are being discussed with a view to establishing orphanages and asylums for the fatherless and factories in which to give the widows employment, we feel that the real pinch is yet to come. After careful investigation, we are satisfied that relief on an extensive scale will have to be furnished for months to come, and that the coming winter will to the utmost tax the capacity of all the relief agencies at work, even if the funds at their disposal are very materially increased beyond the present ratio of contribution.

ITALIAN S. S. “ORIONE” FLYING RED CROSS FLAG, LEAVING BEIRUT FOR LATAKIA.

Confronted with so many unsolved problems of relief and of rehabilitation and feeling that some 25,000 destitute fellow-beings in the district between Marash and Latakia are looking toward this Committee for help, both for the present and during the approaching season of inclement weather, we are in duty bound to persevere.

As late as July 8, Rev. Kennedy reported from Alexandretta:

“Nothing has been done in the district so far to reinstate the refugees in their homes. They have been ordered back to their villages repeatedly, and even threatened if they did not obey, but they say they can not go back as long as they have no houses to return to. What the outcome will be I can not predict. To rebuild 746 houses, even though many of them are little better than huts, is no small thing.”

TENTS FURNISHED THROUGH THE RED CROSS RELIEF COMMITTEE FOR ADANA.

THIRTY-FOUR ORPHAN GIRLS FROM ANTIOCH BROUGHT TO BEIRUT UNDER RED CROSS AUSPICES FOR THE GERMAN DEACONESSES OF KAISERSWERTH. BEDS, BLANKETS, SHOES AND CLOTHING WERE SUPPLIED.

On July 3 this Committee received an appeal from Miss E. Chambers at Kessab for $500 for shoes, $250 for cotton cloth, and $5,000 for wheat, while urgent requests were made for money with which to rebuild houses. More than 600 houses in Kessab had been ruined by fire and other means of destruction. We have supplied the money necessary to buy the shoes and the cloth, but we are unable as yet to provide winter stores or to assist in rehousing the people.

Regarding the matter of contributions, I would invite attention to the report of July 12 of the Secretary and Treasurer, Mr. E. G. Freyer, inclosed herewith. Your Committee’s first call for aid met with a surprisingly generous response from Syria, enabling us to be the first on the scene of devastation with help from the outside. The contributions were not large, but they came in promptly, and as shown by the financial statement of June 24, from numerous sources.

In the matter of distribution, this Committee has exercised very special care. We have dealt exclusively with American, British, and German missionaries in the field, men and women personally known to ourselves, and in whose trustworthiness and good judgment we had implicit confidence. We have full assurance that the supplies and the cash forwarded have been employed where they would accomplish the greatest amount of good. In that way the piasters or piasters’ worth furnished have been made to serve important ends. We, therefore, feel that we have not striven in vain, although the summary of receipts and expenditures does not run into very large figures.

The number of killed during the recent disturbances is variously estimated at 15,000 to 30,000, leaving thousands of widows and orphans. Business practically is at a standstill in the disturbed region. Hundreds of families wish to emigrate, and some have applied to American consuls for assistance to that end. It is a sad state of affairs. But emigration on a large scale at this time, when brighter days obviously are dawning upon this empire, unquestionably would be both a mistake and a misfortune.

Everywhere the Red Cross has been respected and honored, although the emblem of official relief work in Turkey is the red crescent.

Your Committee considers it a special and precious privilege to be permitted to help so many of these afflicted people under the inspiring auspices of the American National Red Cross. We once more appeal for further funds.