Mr. Olney to Mr. Terrell.
Washington, October 28, 1896.
Sir: I have received your No. 1019, of the 12th instant, with which you transmit copy of a dispatch from the British vice-consul at Harpoot, inclosing formal affidavits which establish the complicity of the Turkish soldiers in the burning and plundering of the American college in that city. The courtesy of the British chargé d’affaires in obtaining this information through the official channels available to him and the obliging action of Mr. Fontana in procuring the desired affidavits and in adding his own valuable testimony to that of the sufferers and eyewitnesses are highly appreciated, and you are instructed to return appropriate thanks therefor.
The testimony thus furnished abundantly fortifies the position here taken in regard to Mavroyeni Bey’s note of October 8, of which you were advised by my instruction No. 1153, of the 17th instant. That the premises of American citizens were inadequately guarded, fired upon by Turkish shot and shell, pillaged by Turkish soldiery, and left for hours to the unchecked ravages of fire, seems to be fully established, and in the face of such evidence the plea advanced in Mavroyeni Bey’s note on behalf of the Ottoman Porte is utterly untenable, to say nothing of the almost conclusive proof of collusion between the garrison and the attacking Kurds. No room is discernible for the application of the limited and jealously qualified rule of international law relative to the irresponsibility of a government for the acts of uncontrollable insurgents. The negligence of the authorities and the acts of their own agents are here in question, not the deeds of the Kurds, nor still less of the supposed Armenian rebels on whom the Porte seems to seek to throw the responsibility of these burnings and pillagings.
The testimony now supplied should be used, with that already in your possession, in urgently pressing the claim for indemnity, in conformity with the instructions heretofore given you.
I am, etc.,