860j.48/8
The Executive Committee of Near East Relief to the Secretary of State
Dear Sir: The Executive Committee of Near East Relief beg to submit to the Department the following memoranda and requests:
I Memoranda
1. Our Committee, having recently received full detailed reports from our relief commissioners, who have personally visited and investigated conditions in practically every important center in the Near East, are deeply impressed with the continued destitution among the subject races of the Near East, due in large measure to the delay in concluding the Treaty of Peace and consequent lack of stable government under which these people, after four years of exile, can return to their homes and resume self-support.
2. Colonel William N. Haskell, U.S.A., as High Commissioner for Armenia, appointed by the President, reports in a recent cable:
“Estimate 800,000 Armenians destitute, most of whom will require assistance until the fall harvest next year. Estimate will need 7,000 tons wheat flour or equivalent monthly, beginning December 1st. In addition one cargo child-feeding supplies to arrive December 1st to supplement diet for 150,000 children for succeeding three months”
In a cable received November 10th from Colonel Haskell, he says in part:
“700,000 destitute kept alive by Hoover program; will perish from starvation unless program is continued with direct cargo each month at value of million and a quarter dollars each. No foodstuffs available in Caucasus to replace this flour. Eleven million dollars flour, etc. furnished by Hoover since last April will have been furnished in vain unless program is immediately forthcoming—most vital requirement is continuation of Hoover’s program from some source. Only dependable source at present is United States”
3. It is a matter of well-authenticated record that tens of thousands of these people died last spring of sheer starvation due to the failure of ourselves and other allies to get sufficient food into the country. The article in the November number of the National Geographic Magazine entitled “The Land of Stalking Death” is but one of the many gruesome accounts of the ravages of famine last spring. One of our own commissioners, Dr. John H. T. Main, President of Grinnell College, reported from personal observation 192 bodies, victims of starvation, taken from the streets of one town [Page 822] in one day, which he had reason to believe was below the daily average of that town, and there were other towns where the famine was reported as even more severe.
4. With the resources of the people further depleted by the lapse of a year since the armistice, without established government and with the food supply known to be practically exhausted, there is every reason to fear and expect that during the winter months immediately ahead there will be an even more tragic and serious famine than the one of last year.
Colonel Haskell, as well as officers of the American Relief Administration, report that the present food supply cannot last much, if any, beyond December 1st. Captain Chadwick of the American Relief Administration, who has just returned from six months’ service with the American Relief Administration in Armenia says he does not see how twenty-five per cent, of the people can survive through the coming winter if help is not given from outside.
5. Near East Relief, now incorporated by special act of Congress (formerly known as “The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief” and “The American Committee for Relief in the Near East”) has administered for relief in this general area more than $30,000,000. of volunteer contributions from the American public. The Committee has made a recent appropriation of $1,500,000. to aid Colonel Haskell in the Caucasus, and other large disbursements that completely exhaust, in fact, temporarily overdraw the Committee’s treasury.
7. It is evident that the task of saving these people and sustaining them until their status can be determined by the Peace Conference, or until the harvest of 1920, when they can be restored to self-support, is too great for private philanthropy alone, although private philanthropy may help both to secure funds and maintain public interest. Moreover, there are now other than purely financial problems involved, such as additional rolling stock and the insuring to Colonel Haskell as Commissioner of the Allied Powers, a sufficient measure of control over the railroad from Batum to Erivan, through Tiflis to make relief work effective.
II Requests
We, therefore, venture on purely humanitarian grounds, without any reference or commitment to any future political or international program, to suggest and request:
- 1.
- That the Department recommend to the President that he authorize the United States Grain Corporation to sell to the Armenian Republic, to the Armenian National Delegation, to Near East Relief, or to whatever other agency can most economically and [Page 823] effectively administer relief to the starving and meet the legal requirements, such grain or other foodstuffs as may be needed to prevent further famine, and that the Grain Corporation be authorized to accept in payment for such grain or foodstuffs the bonds or other obligation of the Armenian Republic and the Armenian National Delegation in the same manner as similar obligations were accepted prior to June 30th by the United States Treasury for grain and flour delivered through the American Belief Administration.
- 2.
- That the Department recommend to the United States Congress the immediate passage, on humanitarian grounds, without commitment to any political or international program, such bill or resolution as will most effectively protect the Armenians from further unnecessary suffering or decimation, and that Congress by such bill or resolution make available sufficient funds to buy food, foodstuffs, clothing and other provisions, which, under the administration of Colonel Haskell, may help to keep these people alive until their political status is determined by the Peace Conference.
Near East Relief, incorporated by special act of Congress, August 1919, “To provide relief to the dependent people of the Near East” and under its charter accountable to Congress for “A full and itemized accounting of all receipts and expenditures” has no interest in this matter other than a purely humanitarian desire to relieve suffering and prevent famine. The Board’s one dominant desire is to save the people by whatever agency can do it most effectively.
The Board does, however, have at the present time over 500 American citizens, aside from organized native helpers, administering relief in the Near East, and the Board will continue to send to this relief work such funds as it may be able to secure from its regular contributors and friends throughout the United States and to a limited extent from other countries.
If Near East Relief can be of any assistance to the Department or Government in this distinctively humanitarian service to our less fortunate allies, the personnel and machinery of the organization will be at the service of the Government.
Respectfully yours,
- A. J. Hemphill
- Henry Morgenthau
- J. R. Mott
- Charles E. Beury
- Stanley White
- Abram I. Elkus
- C. V. Vickrey