Dear Dr. Mordtmann,
I do not know if you have seen the enclosed report from Sister Rohner, dated Aleppo, 17 January. We are sending now L.T. 500 per month to Sister Rohner and Schaeffer.
Yours faithfully,
Enclosure
We received your answer to our telegram through the German Embassy, that you will place 1,000 pounds at our disposal by the end of February. The money will already be on its way when you receive this letter. A thousand pounds is a great deal of money, but in relation to the current needs it is, as we say in German, a drop in the ocean. The preacher of the local Protestant parish, Pastor Hovhannes Eskidjan, was here today and asked me to present the entire situation to you once more. We have managed to make contact with the deportees in most of the towns in the south and south-east of Aleppo. There are trustworthy men everywhere who will distribute the money and can organise emergency work. The most important work is with those left behind, the orphans scattered along all the roads. Such children have been gathered together in Killis, Ras-ul-Ain, Lebka, Hanea, Homs, Muara, Selinije, Aleppo; naturally, these houses rely completely on foreign aid; if you cannot send anything more they will die of hunger. A short while ago, a man brought thirty children from the road to Killis; they were refused entrance there by the government on the grounds that there was no money to care for them. The next day these thirty children were found frozen to death on the road. Now a small home has been opened in Killis. But you must fill the many hundreds of children's hands every day; there is no one else who could do it. And hundreds wander homeless along the streets; a huge number of them could still be saved if the financial means were available. But to do so a large sum is required every week and you are expected to supply it. Ring all the bells at your disposal. Couldn't a further petition be made to send these children to America? This way, several thousand children could be saved. About 750 children have been gathered just in Aleppo; the Turkish government gives bread and other food every day for most of them, but other means must be found to supply clothes, beds, etc. It is said that the government plans to bring the local orphans to Constantinople.
You have heard how things are in Aintab; everything looks as dark and hopeless as possible. But when the night seems to be at its darkest, dawn is not far away. The crowd of 350 children given to us by Djemal Pasha was in an extremely neglected state and every day some of them die of their illnesses.
I wonder how things are with you? I expect that everything is quiet in the capital.
Yours sincerely,