In 1915, at the request of Henry Morgenthau Sr., U.S. Ambassador in Turkey, a number of prominent Americans formed a committee to raise funds and undertake the aid and rescue of Armenian survivors of the genocide. That committee, which was incorporated in 1918 as Near East Relief (NER) by an act of Congress (now renamed Near East Foundation), spearheaded a nationwide campaign, which raised 91 million dollars by 1930.
James L. Barton (1855-1936), foreign secretary of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missioners (ABCFM) and one of the architects of Near East Relief, presented in this book a complete overview of the activities of the NER, which helped the lives of many Armenians and also non-Armenians in Armenia and the Near East.
