Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/238

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ARMIN, F. S. V.—ARMOURED CARS

compelled a Turkish retreat, but it was only a temporary set- back; Kars fell, and the advancing Nationalists captured Alexandropol in November. Bolshevik risings broke out in the capital and other towns; the resistance of the republic collapsed, and the city of Erivan was speedily occupied by Turkish troops. At this stage a Soviet Government was set up, and the republic of Erivan became, in name, a Soviet Republic in alliance with Moscow. But even so it was a republic much reduced in area. In agreement with Moscow Turkey took possession once again of the districts of- Kars and Ardahan, from which the Allied Powers had ejected her in Nov. 1918; and to this territory was added enough to bring the railway from Azerbaijan to Erzerum within Turkish possession. Only in the region of Karabagh was any vestige of Armenian independence preserved; there, indeed, the Armenian mountaineers repudiated Soviet Government and, so far, seem to have retained a precarious but independent existence.

With Turkish forces in occupation of Erivan, a state which had striven to form a Great Armenia by the acquisition of Turkish territory, massacre might have been foretold. It was hoped, however, that Soviet influence would prevent great bloodshed, but the hope had no real ground for existence. At Olti, Kars, Alexandropol, and then in the city of Erivan, mas- sacres on a scale comparable only with those of 1915-6 took place; and if this policy was followed in the towns it was followed in the villages as well. The total loss of life cannot be estimated, but was certainly great. When the snow melted in the spring of 1921 thousands of Armenian corpses were revealed, heaped together, just as they had fallen in the closing months of 1920.

Cilicia and S.E. Asia Minor. In Feb. 19 20 Turkish National- ist forces began serious operations against Cilicia, then in occupation by French troops as part of the French sphere of influence. They defeated various French detachments, captured the large town of Mar'ash, and there, and elsewhere in Cilicia as opportunity offered, resumed a systematic massacre of the Armenian population. The position was the more disastrous because, relying upon French protection for the future, a great immigration of Armenians into Cilicia had taken place; it was credibly reported, indeed, that some 20,000 of the race perished in south-eastern Asia Minor during the spring of 1920. At this stage the Allied Powers, who had recently decided that Constantinople should remain in Turkish hands, threatened to reconsider their decision unless effective Turkish protection were given to non-Moslem elements of the population in Asia Minor. The warning seemed to have some effect at the time, though later developments diminished its influence.

A definite Nationalist policy lay in the Cilician operations, however haphazard and casual they may appear. The idea had been broached, chiefly among Armenians, of creating a Franco- Armenian State in south-eastern Asia Minor of, in fact, reviv- ing the Lesser Armenia of history, and placing it under French protection. The hope that this scheme would mature was one of the influences which brought a large Armenian population into Cilicia in 1919. Nationalist operations in this region were designed to thwart the project by exterminating the Armenians, and involving the French in irritating and costly hostilities in defence of the territory. Warfare on a small scale continued during the greater part of 1920; for not only had the French their hands full in Syria, but they were anxious to avoid pushing matters to extremes with the Nationalists. They hoped, in fact, for an arrangement.

Siege of Hajin. One of the most unhappy affairs of the Cilician War was the siege and capture of Hajin by the Nationalists. The town, a remote Armenian stronghold among the Anti-Taurus mountains, was held by its inhabitants against all Turkish attacks until Oct. 1920. Ammunition, however, ran out; expected relief never came; and in the end the town was stormed, and the greater portion of the population, numbering several thousands, perished in the usual massacre.

French Negotiations with Nationalists. At the beginning of 1921 the French and the Nationalists came to an agreement by which, in return for important economic concessions in

wide areas of Asia Minor, France was to vacate Cilicia. The National Assembly at Angora refused to ratify the agreement, on the grounds that it surrendered too much and obtained too little. They desired, in fact, possession of the port of Alexandretta which the French had retained. Negotiations, however, were continued. The hope that a Franco-Armenian State might be established in Cilicia had small prospect of realization unless a change should take place in French policy in these regions. (W. J. C.*)


ARMIN, FRIEDRICH SIXT VON (1851- ), German general, was born at Wetzlar Nov. 27 1851. He took part in the war of 1870-1 and was severely wounded at St. Privat. After having oc- cupied different positions on the General Staff, he was appointed in 1903 Director of the General Department of War in the Prussian War Ministry, and in 1911 General-in-Command of the IV. Army Corps at Magdeburg. During the World War he led his corps as a part of the First and of the Sixth Army; he was appointed in 1917 Chief -in-Command of the Fourth Army in Flanders, where he succeeded, in the spring offensive in 1918, in taking Armentieres and the Kemmel Hill. At the close of the war he retired from the army.


ARMOUR [JONATHAN], OGDEN (1863- ), American merchant and capitalist, was born in Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. n 1863. Preparing for college in Chicago, where his father, Philip D. Armour (see 2. 578), was a pioneer in the meat-packing industry, he entered Yale in 1881 but did not finish his course. In 1883 he entered the business of Armour & Co., and was made a partner the following year. After the death of his father in 1901 he became president and general manager of Armour & Co., which had been incorporated in Illinois in 1900. Under his guidance the business widely expanded. In 1918 in the United States alone it owned 14 slaughtering plants and 392 branch houses, with refrigeration capacity of 15,170 tons per day; the sum paid for live stock in one year was $517,951,026. The company was also engaged in the preparation of by-products, such as fertilizer, glue, soap and hair. Total sales grew from about $250,000,000 in 1910 to about $1,038,000,000 in 1919; total net income from $9,808,303 to $27,186,124. On Feb. 27 1920 an agreement with the Govern- ment, resulting from a threatened suit, was filed in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia requiring Armour & Co. (as well as Swift & Co., Morris & Co., Wilson & Co. and the Cudahy Packing Company, all together popularly called the " Big Five " packers) to begin immediately and within two years finish the sale of " all their holdings in public stock-yards, stock- yard railroads and terminals, and their interests in market news- papers and public cold-storage warehouses, and forever to dis- sociate themselves from the retail meat business and food lines unrelated to meat packing." This would restrict them to wholesale business in meat, poultry, eggs, butter and cheese.


ARMOURED CARS. The armoured car is a mechanically propelled vehicle equipped with protective armour and adapted as a fighting machine. Its first form consisted of a motor chassis with iron-plated sides fitted with loopholes for the crew to fire from. It rapidly developed into a miniature armoured fort on wheels with machine-guns and searchlights mounted in the most effective manner. This first type was liable to be put out of action by bombs thrown over the iron plating or from the windows of houses, and the iron plating was not proof against modern high-velocity rifle fire. The next improvement, therefore, was to place armour over the top. It was soon found that the requirements in the armament and arrangement of armoured cars were similar to the practice in the navy, and that, provided a car could be kept mobile, the next main essentials were a good range of observation and an all-round field of fire. This soon produced the turreted cars, with a single revolving turret and one Vickers machine-gun; and subsequently a type of car with two turrets abreast of each other, and containing each a Hotchkiss gun, was evolved. The advantage of a second gun in action was evident when it was found that bullets hitting the single gun penetrated the water jacket and thus rendered the gun useless. On the other hand the extra weight of the double turret placed a load on the chassis, which was already loaded