“There was a Catholic priest, Yahmaruvi, who had endeared himself to the people of the village. He acted as peacemaker in the quarrels between the Armenians and the Mohammedans. All Christians in the village were slaughtered but this priest. The soldiers came and told him if he became a priest of Islam they would let him live, because even the Mohammedans in the village loved him. They tried to get the old priest to repeat their creed. He started with them: ‘There is only one God--and Jesus Christ, His son, is my Saviour,’ the priest uttered at the end. They cut off his head....” A doctor by name Shimmon was educated in this country and naturally became a citizen. Of him Dr. Sargis said: “They tried to get him to renounce Christianity. When he refused, they poured oil on his body and set fire to him.” Dr. W. S. Vanneman, the head of the mission hospital at Tabris, Persia, wrote to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, N. Y. City, under date of March 14, 1915: “About ten days ago the Kurds in Salmas, with the permission of the Turkish troops, gathered all the Nestorian and Armenian men remaining there, it is reported, about eight hundred. Four hundred were sent to Khosrova and four hundred to Haft Dewan under the pretense of giving them bread. They were held a few days and then tortured and massacred. Many women and children were taken away and ill-treated. This happened a day or two before the advancing Russian army took Salmas. “We are very anxious about Urumia. A letter dated March 1st from Dr. Shedd came through two days ago. He said things were getting worse. Gulpashan, which hitherto had not been disturbed, had been plundered and ruined. I think this was the only village which remained. Fifty-one of the most prominent men of this village were taken out and shot. The women and girls were violated. This was done by the Turkish soldiers. “Forty men had been taken from the Roman Catholic mission in Urumia city, kept prisoners a few days, then shot.” Under date of March 21, Doctor Vanneman wrote: “We are more anxious than ever about Urumia. On March 17th, Turkish troops attacked our mission and the Roman Catholic mission and took five native Russian priests from our compound and treated them badly. We do not know yet if they were killed. Mr. Allen was also treated badly because he had sent out three messengers away from Urumia. “Some native Christian preachers have been crucified and some burned....”