sbandry of beet and cereals, fell on deaf ears, and I
cannot see any reason for supposing that Armenian men exist any more in
the Empire. It is more difficult to judge of the numbers of women who,
by accepting the Moslem creed and the harems, are still alive. Certainly
in some districts there were considerable 'conversions,' and Dr. Niepage
rates them as many thousands. But the willingness to accept those
conditions was not always a guarantee for their being granted, and I
have read reports where would-be converts were told that 'religion' was
a more serious matter than that, and, instead of being accepted, they
were massacred. But even if Dr. Niepage is right, we can scarcely
consider these women as constituting an Armenian element any more in the
country. The work of butchery, the torture, the long-drawn agonies of
those inhuman pilgrimages have come to an end because there are no more
Armenian victims available. Apart from those who escaped over the
Russian frontier, and the handful who sought refuge in Egypt, the race
exists no longer, and the seal has been set on the bloodiest deed that
ever stained the annals of the barbarous Osmanlis. It is not in revenge
on the murderers, but in order to rescue the other subject peoples,
Arabs, Greeks, Jews, who are still enclosed within the frontiers of the
Empire, that the Allied Governments, in their answer to President
Wilson, stated that among their aims as belligerents, was the
'liberation of the peoples who now lie beneath the murderous tyranny of
the Turks.' There is defined their irreducible demand: never again,
after peace returns, will the Turk be allowed to control the destinies
of races not his own. Too long already--and to their disgrace be it
spoken--have the civilised and Christian nations of Europe tolerated at
their very doors a tyranny that has steadily grown more murderous and
more monstrous, because they feared the upset of the Balance of Power.
Now at least such Powers as value national honour, and regard a national
promise as something more than a gabble of ink on a scrap of paper, have
resolved that they will suffer the tyranny of the Turk over his alien
subject peoples to continue no longer. It is the least they can do (and
unhappily the most) to redeem the century-long neglect of their duty.
Even now, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, the direst peril
threatens those other peoples who at present groan under Turkish rule,
and we can but pray that th