ome fifteen hours' march
away, caused the execution of it to be put off for a while, and up till
July a few folk only had been shot, and a few beaten to death, as a
warning to those treacherously inclined. Then the Russians, in the face
of superior forces, had to retire again, and the massacres were put on a
systematic footing. The account which follows is based on four
independent authorities: (1) The statement of a German eye-witness in
Mush in charge of an Armenian orphanage; (2) the statement of a woman
deported from a village near, and subsequently killed by Kurds; (3)
information from refugees escaped to Trans-Caucasia; (4) the journal
_Horizon_ of Tiflis. These supplement each other, often verify each
other, and in no instance are contradictory.

Rumours of an impending massacre reached Mush before the end of 1914, at
a time when the massacres across the frontier had begun. The Mutessarif
of Mush, an intimate friend of Enver Pasha, had openly declared that 'at
an opportune moment' the slaughter of the whole Armenian race was
contemplated, and later Ekran Bey corroborated this in the presence of
the American and German Consuls. Enver indeed seems to have been the
chief organiser with regard to the massacres in Armenia itself, while
Talaat Bey saw to the fate of those dispersed in towns throughout the
rest of Turkey. During the whole of that winter, a very severe one,
signs of the approaching extermination multiplied. In the villages round
fresh taxes were introduced, and when Armenians were unable to pay they
were beaten to death, while, if they resisted, the village in question
was burned. But by July 1915 (after the unavoidable delay caused by the
proximity of Russian troops) all was ready, and the massacre began in
earnest.

Four battalions of Turkish troops arrived from Constantinople, and an
order was given that all Armenians must leave the town within three
days, after 'registering themselves' at the Government office. The women
and children were to remain, but their money and their property would be
confiscated. Within two hours after that, owing, I suppose, to fresh
orders from Constantinople, the guns opened fire on the crowds in the
streets flocking to the registry offices, and after that systematic
house-to-house murder began. Prominent Armenians were tortured to
death, houses containing women and children were set on fire, a body of
men collected together was thrown into the river, girls were outraged