Turkish Woman, Emergency Surgical Case. American Christian Hospital.
(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)
Armenian Children in American School at Adabazar.
(By Courtesy of the National Geographic Society.)
Thanks to the efforts of our Consul General, Mr. Ravndal, at Beirut, assisted by the French Cruiser “Jules Ferry,” Latakia in Syria was relieved. Thousands of women and children, most of the men having been killed, were being besieged there. Appeals to the Vali of Adana continued useless. Conflagrations were continually breaking out and often the entire city was threatened. Thousands of the refugees were homeless and without any means of earning their livelihood. Bodies of the dead were scattered through the streets and the pedestrian who ventured forth had to pick his way so as not to step upon them. One writer says in half an hour he counted twelve wagon loads of Armenian dead being carried to the river and in the Turkish Cemetery graves were being dug by the wholesale.
At Adana four hospitals were established; doctors and nurses were sent from Beirut and Tarsus. Women, children and even babies suffered from severe wounds. Among the hundreds in one hospital the average of wounds to each person was four. Thousands of refugees were without food, clothing and bedding. Those sheltered at the American Missions were completely disarmed before being received so that, to obtain as far as possible immunity from attack for the missions. There was not enough water to drink nor to dress the wounds. Garbage and filth collected in the streets and diseases of all kinds began to reap their harvest.
On April 28th, in response to an inquiry if financial assistance was advisable addressed to the American Ambassador at Constantinople by the State Department, at the suggestion of the Red Cross, the following dispatch was received: