entertain the proposition and terminated in Sultan's request for me to wait his conference with council of ministers, and promised an early answer. Grand vizier and minister of foreign affairs to-day requested a joint interview at Sublime Porte. It closed with the earnest request of the Turkish Government that the United States will appreciate the present great embarrassment of the Turkish Government and that the President will withdraw his demand for Jewett's appointment. Turkish minister at Washington, D. C., telegraphed that the United States would regard refusal as an insult. They urge that if Jewett goes, Italy will then be demanding independent commissioner, and then Germany; that full investigation will be made by English, Russian, and French commissioners already appointed, acquiesced in by other powers, and the appointment of another commissioner will complicate relations of the Turkish Government with European powers. The request is respectful but earnest, based on cordial relations which Turkish Government desires to continue. The embarrassment is real and not simulated. I know Russian ambassador objects to an American, and Jewett's appointment would, I believe, provoke similar demands from parties to the triple alliance. Report in English press that suggested American commissioner to Sultan is false. TERRELL. Mr. Gresham to Mr. Terrell. [Telegram.] WASHINGTON, December 24, 1894. Sultan having refused permission Jewett to go you will not press further. GRESHAM. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, Washington, December 25, 1894. (Received December 26.) Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: I have the honor to confirm my note of the 22d instant, and to transmit to your excellency the following copy of a telegram which I have received from his excellency Said Pasha: Immediately after the declination of the United States Government to appoint an American officer as a member of the commission of investigation, we officially proposed to the British, French, and Russian Governments, which have consuls at Erzeroum, that each of them should send a delegate to accompany the commission of investigation. These three cabinets have already acceded to our proposition, and their delegates are now on their way to join the commission. If, therefore, in presence of the new phase which the case has assumed we should consent to the addition of an American officer to this commission, the other powers would not fail to avail themselves of such consent to formulate the same demand, and the result would be a situation fraught with peril to the country. We feel convinced that the United States Government, which has repeatedly given us unmistakable evidences of its highly valued friendship, will not desire to be the cause of so dangerous a situation, and we confidently hope that it will consent to renounce its project. I think that it is proper for me to remark, moreover, in this connection, that we have never asked for the appointment of a foreign commission to investigate the internal affairs of the Empire. Mr. Terrell has promised to telegraph the sense of all the foregoing to Washington. Be pleased to accept, etc., MAVROYENI. Mr. Gresham to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 25th instant, communicating to me copy of a telegram you have received from his excellency Said Pasha, conveying the reasons which lead His Majesty the Sultan to decline to permit an American representative to accompany the investigating commission appointed to examine into recent events in Kurdistan, for the purpose of making an independent report under the direction of the President. On the 30th ultimo the United States minister at Constantinople telegraphed me that His Majesty the Sultan had, on that day, made known his desire that a consul of the United States be sent to Sassoun with the Turkish commission to investigate the alleged atrocities on Armenians in that quarter. The President did not feel at liberty to designate a citizen of the United States to serve as a member of a Turkish commission to investigate the affair in question and join in a report. The United States minister at Constantinople was accordingly directed, on the 2d instant, to inform His Imperial Majesty that, while appreciating his confidence, the President was unwilling to send an American delegate as a member of the Turkish commission of investigation. In a subsequent conference with me, you repeated His Majesty's urgent personal desire that an American representative be joined to the commission, and about the same time the British Government (one of the signers of the Berlin treaty) preferred a like request. These considerations led the President to reconsider the matter, and on the 5th instant, by his direction, I instructed Minister Terrell that Mr. Jewett, the United States consul at Sivas, should accompany the Turkish commission-not, however, as a member of it-to the district in which the alleged atrocities were committed, and, after full and impartial investigation, report the facts for the information of this Government; adding that Mr. Jewett was not to join the Turkish or other commissioners in any report. I informed you, in personal conference, of what had been done. Your present note confirms your oral statements to me touching the later change in the situation which has led His Majesty to withhold his consent to Mr. Jewett's performance of the duty with which he had been charged. It is but frank to disclaim any belief on the President's part that His Majesty the Sultan intended to invite the precise form which the President felt constrained to give to his acquiescence in His Majesty's reiterated request, and 1 cheerfully confirm, so far as we are concerned, Said Pasha's statements that Turkey has "never asked for the appoint ment of a foreign commission to investigate the internal affairs of the Empire." His Majesty having refused consent to Mr. Jewett's visit to Sassoun under the President's instructions, the incident is terminated. Accept, etc., W. Q. GRESHAM. ALLEGED REQUEST OF ARMENIANS FOR ARMS FROM THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. Mr. Gresham to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 30, 1895. SIR: I have the honor to state that I learn by a recent dispatch from the minister of the United States at Constantinople you are said to have advised your Government that the Armenians in this country have requested the Government of the United States to furnish them arins, with permission for military drill, in order that they may prepare themselves for a contest with Turkey. Your long residence in the United States, and your opportunity to know the true relation of this Government toward its citizens in such matters, incline me to withhold credence from this absurd and impossible statement. Before, however, replying to Mr. Terrell's dispatch in this regard, it seems proper to afford you an opportunity to make such statement in the case as you may see fit. Accept, etc., W. Q. GRESHAM. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, Washington, January 31, 1895. (Received January 31.) MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: In response to your excellency's note of yesterday I have the honor to inform you that I have never written to the Sublime Porte that the Armenians of the United States had solicited from the Federal Government any arms whatsoever. Moreover, had so foolish an application been made, the Federal Government would have known what answer to make to requests as absurd as impossible. Without doubt the inaccuracy of the information transmitted by Mr. Terrell seems to me to have originated in the fact that our vice-consul at New York, Assim Bey, had sent, a short time before, through me to the Sublime Porte, a report in which among other things he said that the Armenians of New York, in agreement with what was besides published in the Armenian newspaper of New York, the Haik, had formed the intention to engage in military drill at New York, and even had hopes of procuring arms for that purpose. From this local news, which did not concern the Federal Government but the authorities of the State of New York, our vice-consul at New York prepared a letter to the authorities in question. I do not truly comprehend how, from such a communication, transmitted besides by our vice-consul at New York, Mr. Terrell could have concluded that the imperial legation could for an instant have associated the Federal Government in a rumor which, in the very nature of things, could have had nothing to do with this same Federal Government. And the proof that this is so is that I have never spoken to your excellency of a matter which, I repeat, has never existed. Mr. Terrell, therefore, finds himself in the most absolute error. I desire that he may be made aware of my response, and that he may know that I never con found the intrigues and threats of the Armenians in question with the constantly frank and honorable conduct of the American Federal Government. Your excellency has, consequently, good reason to write in your aforesaid note that "your long residence in the United States and your opportunity to know the true relation of this Government toward its own citizens in such matters, incline me to withhold credence from this absurd and impossible statement." Be pleased, etc., MAVROYENI. NEUTRALITY-REPORTED ORGANIZATION IN NEW YORK OF ARME NIANS FOR MILITARY DRILL. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, Washington, January 16, 1894. MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: The Ottoman consul-general at New York informs me that 30 Armenians, residing in New York, propose to engage in military drill in order that, upon occasion, they may be prepared, as they openly declare through their journals, to disturb order and tranquillity in Turkey. Whatever may be the provisions of law in force in the United States, it is evident that, in the case of a government, as in this instance, the competent authorities of the State of New York are in a position to prevent these drills whenever they take place. Therefore I pray your excellency to be pleased to send a copy of my present note to them, in order that they may forthwith be advised of the matter. Be pleased, etc., MAVROYENI. Mr. Uhl to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 16th ultimo, wherein you mention the report which has reached you that 30 Armenians, residing in New York, propose to engage in military drill, with a view to the disturbance of order and tranquillity in Turkey, and ask that the authorities of New York be communicated with on the subject. I shall be happy to communicate, as you desire, a translation of your note to the governor of New York, so that the State authorities may be in a position to act should the municipal law or police regulations be violated. It is, as you are doubtless aware, the province of the courts of the United States to take cognizance of complaints duly made that acts violative of the neutrality statute are being committed within the jurisdiction of this country. Should the Turkish consul-general at New York be informed of the organization of any expedition there against the peace of Turkey, it may be advisable for him to consult with the United States attorney for the district with regard to the proper method of procedure. Accept, etc., EDWIN F. UHL, Acting Secretary. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: Your excellency has had the kindness to write me, in your note of the 19th of February, 1894, respecting the manner of preventing the prospective military drills which certain Armenians propose to make, with an object openly hostile toward the Imperial Government, and "that should the consul-general at New York be informed of the organization of any expedition against the peace of Turkey, it may be well for him to consult with the United States attorney for the district with regard to the proper method of procedure." Inclosed herewith your excellency will please find a copy of a letter which has been written to me on this subject by the attorney-general [attorney-general of the State of New York], and I beg of you to be pleased to inform me whether you are in accord with the contents of that letter. A legal question of serious importance is here raised, regarding which it is no doubt necessary that the Government of the United States should make its position known. For my part, I consider the opinion of the attorney-general as being correct. Accept, etc., MAVROYENI. [Inclosure.] Attorney-General of New York to Mavroyeni Bey. ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, DEAR SIR: In response to your letter of the 9th instant, would say that the State controls and punishes its citizens by legislative enactment. The United States, as a nation, would probably have the power to prevent preparations having in view acts of hostility toward a friendly power. Very respectfully, etc., J. C. HANCOCK, Mr. Uhl to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have had the honor to receive your note of the 16th instant, in further relation to the reported organizations of Armenians in New York City for military drill, which formed the subject of your previous note of January 16 last. |