No. 625.
Mr. Hunter to Mr. Heap.
Washington, September 15, 1880.
Sir: Your dispatch No. 10, of the 24th ultimo, has been received. It relates to the measures which, under the Department’s instructions, you have pursued with a view to having the authorities of the Ottoman Government inflict speedy and condign punishment upon the murderers of the late Dr. Parsons and servant, near Ismid, in Turkey, in July last.
Your efforts are appreciated, and your action, as reported in your above dispatch, is approved. It is the desire of the Department that you should continue your urgent pressure for the trial and punishment of the murderers, which should not be relaxed until every means promising possible hope of success shall have been exhausted. Every consideration of justice demands, as you seem to have appreciated and understood, that these criminals shall be made to suffer the severest punishment for the horrible crime which they have committed 5 and you will say to the minister for foreign affairs that the Government of the United States expects, while it is due to its citizens, the American missionaries who are zealously laboring in those regions for the good of mankind, and to travelers, no less than to the internal peace, order, and security of Turkey herself, that she will with all convenient dispatch inflict exemplary and condign punishment upon both those who have already confessed the crime and upon those who, after a fair and impartial trial, may be adjudged guilty and implicated therein.
I am, &c.,
Acting Secretary.