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USS Chester Transports Eyewitness of Armenian Genocide

INTERVIEW WITH MRS. J. VANCE YOUNG, AN EYEWITNESS OF THE EVENTS AT OURFA; PUBLISHED IN THE "EGYPTIAN GAZETTE," 28th SEPTEMBER/11th OCTOBER, AND REPRODUCED IN THE ARMENIAN JOURNAL "HOUSSAPER" OF CAIRO, 30th SEPTEMBER /13th OCTOBER, 1915.

Mrs. J. Vance Young is the wife of an English doctor at Beirout*, and arrived in Egypt on board the American cruiser "Chester." She was among the last arrivals in this country from Alexandretta, and brought with her terrible details regarding the martyrdom of the Armenians at Ourfa. She was an eye-witness of the occurrences in this ill-famed town, which has been drenched so many times in Armenian blood.
An interview with Mrs. Young was published in the " Egyptian Gazette " of the 28th September, and we reproduce the following lines, which present the ghastly picture of the massacre :—

"On the 19th August the fusillade began, about five o'clock in the evening. We heard it during supper-time, and it lasted far into the night.
"Next morning Dr. J. Vance Young ventured to make his way into the town to see if he could be of any service. He saw all the streets littered with corpses. He got the impression that there was not a single Armenian left in Ourfa. 

"It appeared that the massacres had been organised in advance, for a systematic domiciliary visit was made to every Armenian house; the men were shot or otherwise assassinated, while the women were driven from their houses with their children, to be marched away to the desert and perish there of hunger.
"All along the road from Ourfa to the coast Mrs. Young saw hundreds of putrified corpses, and also a few miserable survivors. The latter looked more like wild beasts than human creatures. She described this spectacle as being literally sufficient to unhinge one's reason.

"Almost all the business men at Ourfa were Armenians. Now they have all been massacred, including the sole chemist capable of mixing drugs."
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