officer called Bekir
Sami guarded 50,000 Armenians whom he had collected from neighbouring
districts, who were threatened with massacre, and I find that a German
missionary states that there were 45,000 Armenians alive in Aleppo. This
forms confirmatory evidence, but at the same time there is nothing to
show that they were not subsequently deported to Deir-el-Zor. In this
case it is highly improbable that any survive.]

In Dr. Niepage's view, as I have stated elsewhere, the Germans are
directly responsible for the continuance of the massacres. Such, too, is
the opinion, he tells us, of the educated Moslems, and his courage in
stating this has lost him his post at Aleppo. It is to be sincerely
hoped that he has escaped the fate of a certain Dr. Lepsius, who, for
drawing attention to the fact that Germany allowed the Armenian
massacres, has been arrested for high treason.

Before the end of 1915 the German authorities, who had refused to
interfere in the massacres, and both in the official press and through
official utterances had expressed their support of this Ottomanisation
of the Empire, began to think that you might have too much of a good
thing, and that the massacres had really gone far enough. Their reason
was clear and explicit: there would be a very serious shortage of labour
in the beet-growing industry and in the harvest-fields, for which they
had sent grain and artificial manures from Germany. There had been some
talk, they said, of saving 500,000 Armenians out of the race, but, in
the way things were going on, it seemed that the remnant would not
nearly approach that figure. Would not the great Ottomanisers temper
their patriotism with a little clemency? Talaat Bey disagreed: he wanted
to make a complete job of it, but Jemal the Great, fresh from his visit
to Germany, supported the idea, and, in spite of Talaat's opposition,
made a spectacular exhibition of clemency, in which, beyond doubt, we
can trace an 'Imitatio Imperatoris,' in the following manner.

There was at the time a large convoy of men and women in Constantinople
which was to be led out for murder and deportation, and Jemal gave
orders that it should be spared and sent back to its highland home. He
gave orders also that the entire convoy should be informed who was their
saviour, and should be led in procession past his house and show their
gratitude. All day the sorry pageant lasted, the ragged, half-starved
crowd streamed by the house of Jem