"Their sufferings at present proceed from three distinct causes—
"1. The insecurity of their lives and properties, owing to the habitual ravages of the Kurds.
"2. The insecurity of their persons and the absence of all liberty of thought and action (except the exercise of public worship).
"3. The unequal status held by the Christian as compared with the Mussulman in the eyes of the Government."
[60] The reader will recollect that the "Erzerum troubles" so frequently referred to consisted of riot and bloodshed following upon a search for arms which was made under the floors of the Armenian Cathedral and the Sanassarian College, on the strength (it is said) of an anonymous telegram in June 1890. The lucid account given of this deplorable affair and of the subsequent inaction of the local Government by Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General for Kurdistan, in the "White Book," to which allusion has been made, should be studied by all who are interested in the so-called "Armenian Question."
[61] In a despatch in the "White Book" (Turkey, No. 1, 1890-91) Mr. Clifford Lloyd sums up the condition of things in Kurdistan thus: "In a country such as this is, lawlessness is to be expected; but unfortunately in nearly every instance armed and ungoverned Kurds are the aggressors, and unarmed and unprotected Armenian Christians the victims."
[62] The itineraries will be found in [Appendix B].
[63] Probably the distance by this route is over-estimated, as it is the computation of the charvadars.