The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4, October 1909) — John Shaqi
The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4, October 1909)American National Red Cross
History
The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4, October 1909)
American National Red Cross
American National Red Cross -- Periodicals; Red Cross and Red Crescent -- Periodicals
A number of the native physicians likewise gave their services, though at
first it was hardly safe for the Armenian doctors to do so.
The German Emperor had sent his own ship, the _Hamburg_, post haste from
Corfu to Mersine soon after the first massacre, and the supplies needed
for the German Hospital were to a large extent furnished from the ship’s
stores.
[Illustration: DR. DORMAN MAKING HIS ROUNDS OF THE CAMP. ADANA.]
_Conditions of Refugees._
In the four days following the second massacre the condition of the
refugees in the factories was pitiable. A little raw flour was given
out, even on Monday evening, but for most of the people it was two and
a half days before bread was distributed to them. The suffering was
great. Conditions were not as bad in the German factory as in the Greek
factory, because the inclosure of the former was spacious, and the number
of refugees less. In the Greek factory the 13,000 filled all available
space. The buildings were packed, with people sitting everywhere on the
floor; many crawled under the machinery to find a place to lie. Out in
the yard of the factory the last comers were jammed together tightly,
so that for many there was actually “standing room only.” Among the
refugees here few were wounded, but many sick. There had been an epidemic
of measles in the town before the trouble began, and in the crowding
of refugees from the first massacre there had been a thorough spread of
infection. The two weeks that had elapsed since the beginning of the
first massacre gave time for the incubation period, and now many children
broke out with the rash of measles.
A smallpox scare was of benefit, in that it hastened the evacuation of
the factory. This early turning out of the crowd from the factory was one
of the best steps taken in all the relief work, for although it caused
some few deaths by pneumonia from exposure, it avoided the awful calamity
of an outbreak of typhus fever, such as occurred after the Armenian
massacres of 1895. The moving of refugees into camp from the Trepanni
factory was superintended by Commander Carver, of H. M. S. _Swiftsure_.
By Thursday noon the 13,000 had been divided up into about 30 sections to
facilitate the distribution of bread. On Friday, when it was desired to
empty the factory, it was announced that bread would no longer be given
out in the factory, and each section, according to directions, followed
its own particular bread cart out to the place of encampment, at the
Yenemahalle. Here, without sufficient covering, and for a time without
any tents, families were required to pass nights still cold and chilly,
and days rendered intolerable by exposure to the intense heat of the sun
at midday. Children in the acute stage of measles passed the night on the
bare ground without any covering, and exposure to the chill air resulted
in many cases of broncho-pneumonia, from which, for a time, they were
dying at the rate of ten a day.
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