Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 305
KAREN JEPPE
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referred to the “Reclamation” of deported women and children,
and the Commission was given power not only to find such per-
sons, but also to liberate them.
Further, the governments in the districts in question were
asked to give all possible assistance to the Commission.
In March 1922 Miss Jeppe was able to open a League of
Nations “Receiving Home” at Aleppo. During the British occu-
pation of Syria a good many had been liberated, but Miss Jeppe
reckoned that there were still about 30000 Armenian women and
children in Moslem houses or tents. Many had, however, sub-
mitted to their fate. Of the women many were too weak physi-
cally or otherwise to contemplate a change, others had children
by their Moslem masters whom they would not leave. Some had
tried to get away but found the outer world too hard for them.
They returned to their old masters, were as a rule worse treated
than before, and this discouraged others from making the same at-
tempt. Now, however, there was a place to receive them and
somebody to take care of them.
In a report to the League Miss Jeppe writes: “When we be-
gan our work in the spring of 1922, seven years had already
elapsed since the deportations took place.
¥e fully realised that a great number of these people had
for various reasons finally settled down; but we also knew that
many of them remained either because they were detained by
force or because they believed that their people were all dead,
and that they had no place to go.
Our aim was to rescue as many of these sufferers as we pos-
sibly could. In order to do this we created:
1) The Rescue Home, destined to become for these people a
haven of security and a home, where they could be cared for
until they could either get into touch with their own relatives or
take care of themselves.
2) A network of stations, whose chief task it was to spread
among those living in remote villages or among the Bedouin tribes,
the news of the existence of this home and, in case of need, to
help those who desired to do so to escape.
The stations were always placed close to the French military
centres, and as soon as the people reached them, they were under
the protection of the French military authorities.”
In another report we read: “As was to be expected, the older