The government has now given the order to clear not only the coastal areas of the Vilayet Aleppo of Armenians, but also Aintab and Killis and probably Marash which lie neither in the war area nor along the military road. Aintab has 32,000 and Killis 6,000 Armenian inhabitants. I dutifully leave it to your discretion to recommend the government to revoke the order, or at least to postpone its execution. Its organisation is by no means sufficient to cope with these sudden mass deportations. Already there are ten thousand Armenians here. In Der-el-Zor there are 15,000 whose feeding by the government is completely inadequate. They have sold more than 30 children in order to avoid having to starve to death.
The numerous educated townspeople were less in a position to face the hardships of the journey than the people from villages. Strictly confidentially, I have been asked by the Armenian side whether the towns of Aintab, Marash, Adana and [indecipherable] can be spared for a contribution of 10,000 Turkish pounds each. They have also requested that, if measures to be taken against them are unavoidable, they be allowed to emigrate instead of being deported.