ld mean the end of Armenia's dream of
independence, for, though she might be given a certain measure of
autonomy, and though she would, of course, no longer be exposed to
Turkish massacres, she would enjoy about as much real independence under
such an arrangement as the native states of India enjoy under the
British Raj. Lastly, nothing is further from our intention, if I know
the temper of my countrymen, than to assume any responsibility in order
to resurrect the Turk, nor are we interested in preserving the integrity
of Turkey in any guise, shape or form. Instead of perpetuating the
unspeakable rule of the Osmanli, we should assist in ending it forever.

And now we come to the question of accepting a mandate for Armenia. In
order to get a mental picture of this foundling which we are asked to
rear you must imagine a country about the size of North Dakota, with
Dakota's cold winters and scorching summers, consisting of a dreary,
monotonous, mile-high plateau with grass-covered, treeless mountains
and watered by many rivers, whose valleys form wide strips of arable
land. Rising above the general level of this Armenian tableland are
barren and forbidding ranges, broken by many gloomy gorges, which
culminate, on the extreme northeast, in the mighty peak of Ararat, the
traditional resting-place of the Ark. Armenia is completely hemmed in by
alien and potentially hostile races. On the northeast are the wild
tribes of the Caucasus; on the east are the Persians, who, though not
hostile to Armenian aspirations, are of the faith of Islam; along
Armenia's southern border are the Kurds, a race as savage, as cruel and
as relentless as were the Apaches of our own West; on the east is
Anatolia, with its overwhelmingly Ottoman population. Before the war the
Armenians in the six Turkish vilayets--Trebizond, Erzeroum, Van, Bitlis,
Mamuret-el-Aziz and Diarbekir--numbered perhaps 2,000,000, as compared
with about 700,000 Turks. But there is no saying how many Armenians
remain, for during the past five years the Turks have perpetrated a
series of wholesale massacres in order to be able to tell the Christian
Powers, as a Turkish official cynically remarked, that "one cannot make
a state without inhabitants."

As just and accurate an estimate of the Armenian character as any I have
read is that written by Sir Charles William Wilson, perhaps the foremost
authority on the subject, for the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "The
Armenians are essentia