ARMENIA AND THE RED CROSS.

Last evening Rev. Edward G. Porter, the chairman of the Armenian Relief Committee, lectured in the Fogg Museum on "Armenia and the Red Cross." He was introduced by Professor Goodwin, who spoke briefly of the barbarism always attendant upon Turkish rule, and referred to the case in which the United States formerly interfered in the interests of Greece to prevent Turkish outrages. The lecture then took up his subect.

It was some sixteen months ago that the first stories were heard of Turkish atrocities committed in Armenia. Christendom was startled; but it was slow to awake to the terrible reality of the situation, to realize that Armenia is now and has long been the scene of horrible cruelty, savage ferocity, and brutal lust, such as is unsurpassed in the history of the relations of man to man. It is no exaggeration to say that in about a year and a half sixty thousand martyrs have suffered at the hands of the fierce Turks. No longer ago than Saturday there came news of further outrages by the Kurds in the valley of the Euphrates, the destruction of a whole town and the exile of its inhabitants, the slaughter of 1500 people, and the wounding of 3000 more.

And who are the Armenians who are thus blindly massacred? Are they parvenus, intruders upon the Turks? Quite the contrary. They are the original inhabitants of the soil, where they had dwelt for thousands of years before the Turk came with sword and fire to take possession. In character industrious and thrifty, and in moral development in no way inferior to that of more western nations, it is particularly interesting for us to notice that they were the very first nation to embrace Christianity; their king accepting the faith for himself and nobles even before the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.

The division so early caused between Christian Armenian and Tartar was the origin of a feud between the two which survives to the present day and is carried on with an intensity and ferocity impossible to any but a Moslem nature. The massacres have in all cases been the work of the Moslem, and have often been the outcome of official orders. The Turks won the country by arms and by arms they keep it with barbarous misrule and pillage. Nor, in spite of repeated treaties agreed to by the Sultan, has anything yet been done to alleviate the miseries to which the Christians are subjected.

Whatever the United States may attempt in the way of official remonstrance the pressing need now is to provide some relief for the half million whom the late ravages have left almost wholly destitute. This work of relief has been undertaken by the Red Cross in America and to make it effective it is necessary that at least $500.000 should be raised in a very brief time. To give Harvard students an opportunity to further such a noble cause, it was resolved last night that a committee of the Religious Unions should be appointed to receive subscriptions from the entire University and forward them to agents of the Red Cross.