Armenia and its sorrows

So
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ARMENIA AND ITS SORROWS
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tradictoiy evidence was accepted on the Turkish side,
while evidence on the other side was promptly discredited.
As a specimen of the methods by which
witnesses were prepared for the Commission, the
following quotation from a letter from the Vice-
Consul at Van is significant :
" A Sassoun prisoner was so beaten on his way here
that he died soon after. Two others have since died.
They had been repeatedly beaten, half starved, and,
in this cold weather and in these damp dungeons, had
on only a coarse, ragged cotton shirt and drawers.
Inquisitional methods are being used to get these
prisoners to testify that the leading Armenians here
now in prison have been in league with them. Now
that the Commission is afoot, they want them to
testify that the Government had nothing to do with
destroying villages, but merely stepped in to restore
order between them and the Kurds."
On 29th April the three Consular Delegates
telegraphed to their Ambassadors as follows :
" Hebo, of Shenik, was summoned by us to-day,
and deposed that the Chief of Gendarmerie yesterday
threatened him with death if he accused the soldiers
instead of the Kurds of killing the Armenians ; that
by means of Nadir Agha and the Mufti acting as
interpreters, he received a similar recommendation
from the Mutessarif in the presence of a Pasha, and
of tlie Secretary of the Commission.
" Further promises were made by the Mutessarif
that he would give him 1000 piastres, 10 oxen, and
500 sheep, reconstruct his house and his village,
making him Headman of the latter, and restore the
£T. 360 taken from his brother, on condition tliat he
would acknowledge that he had seen Mourad, whose
revolutionary counsels had been followed by the
Armenians ; that he would attribute the burning of
the villages to the Kurds, declare that Mourad and