BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
PROCLAMATION. November 29, 1918

Relief in the Near East.

THE WHITE HOUSE, November 29, 1918.

For more than three years American philanthropy has been a large factor in keeping alive Armenian, Syrian, Greek and other exiles and refugees of Western Asia.

On two former occasions I have appealed to the American people in behalf of these homeless sufferers, whom the vicissitudes of war and massacre had brought to the extremest need.

The response has been most generous, but now the period of rehabilitation is at hand. Vastly larger sums will be required to restore these once prosperous, but now impoverished, refugees to their former homes than were required merely to sustain life in their desert exile.

It is estimated that about 4,000,000 Armenian, Syrian, Greek and other war sufferers in the Near East will require outside help to sustain them . through .the minter. Many of them are now hundreds of miles from their home land. The vast majority of them are helpless .women and children, including 400,000 orphans.

The American Committee for Relief in the Near East is appealing for a minimum of $30,000,000 to be subscribed January 12, 1919, with which to meet the most urgent needs of these people.

I, therefore, again call upon the people of the United States to make even more generous contributions than they have made heretofore to sustain through the winter months those, who, through no fault of their own, have been left in a starving, shelterless condition, and to help re-establish these ancient and sorely oppressed people in their former homes on a self-supporting basis.