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
Meanwhile, all day Saturday the sacking and burning went on. The large
village of Kaladouran was devastated. The Moslems increased in numbers
as raiders from distant villages arrived. In the afternoon Selhan Agha,
captain of gendarmerie, arrived with forty cavalrymen. He joined in the
sack of the town, taking for himself and his company the most valuable
share of the booty, the raw silk found in the merchants’ shops. He and
the cavalrymen were afterward intercepted at Idlib, on their way to
Aleppo, and their saddlebags were found to be crammed full of plunder.
Selhan Agha, with the forty horsemen, had been dispatched from Jissr by
orders from Aleppo, Thursday afternoon, to go at once to protect Kessab
from any mob violence. He could have gone in eight hours, or even less,
from Jissr to Kessab. At that time the attack had not yet commenced.
Instead of going directly to Kessab he went to Sheikh Keoy and spent the
night there. The next day all the Moslems from that village were out
on the warpath, while Selhan Agha turned far out of his way and made a
sixty-mile detour to many other Mohammedan villages and to the city of
Antioch. Finally he reached Kessab, forty-eight hours after receiving his
orders, and when he arrived he did not stop the burning and looting, but
himself became a plunderer. This whole disgraceful affair has been probed
by the Aleppo Commission, and their findings substantiate all of the
above statements. I have most of the evidence, however, directly from one
of the gendarmes named Mehmet Ali.
[Illustration: BOYS’ GRAMMAR SCHOOL, KESSAB. BURNED APRIL 23-24.]
By Saturday night there was not much valuable plunder left. The iron bars
were wrenched out from the windows and the household pottery smashed to
pieces out of sheer vandalism. As the loot became exhausted the Moslems
commenced to range the mountainsides, exploring the caves, and firing
into the bushes in the effort to exterminate the Christians. One woman’s
husband was cut to pieces before her very eyes, and she herself was
severely wounded in the side. She escaped to the deep ravines near the
summit of Mount Cassius and lived on snow for twelve days. She is now in
the American hospital at Latakia.
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