Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part I

No. 195.
Mr. Francis to Mr. Fish

Legation of the United States,
Athens, May 11, 1872. (Received June 4.)

No. 52.]

Sir: Referring to my dispatch numbered 51, of the date of May 4, on the subject of brigandage in Greece, I have the honor to transmit herewith translations of extracts taken from recent issues of Athens newspapers. The intelligence therein set forth, as I am informed from other sources, Is substantially correct.

It will be observed that Takos, chief of the brigands who captured the English party two years ago on the Marathon road, some fifteen miles north of Athens, and subsequently murdered them, is now actively engaged in the work of brigandage and murder in Thessaly, Turkey, near the border. No earnest effort seems to have been made by the Turkish authorities to capture this desperado and murderer, and the result is that he resumes his vocation on Turkish soil.

The intelligence now communicated tends to confirm the assertion made by Greek officials and others here that brigandage In Greece comes from Turkey.

Soon after the murder of the English party by brigands in 1870, the British government requested Turkey to put forth efficient efforts for the extirpation of these criminals on her borders, and especially for the arrest of Takos, who had escaped into her territory after perpetrating the butcheries in Greece. But little or nothing was done more than idle promise to effect the object desired.

So long as Turkey neglects or declines to co-operate with Greece in the prosecution of proper measures for the suppression of brigandage, the northern department of this kingdom, including Bœotia and Attica, will be menaced by the evil, which is a great misfortune for the country. But I repeat that, with a proper escort always furnished by the government without charge, travel is probably as safe, even in the sections where brigands sometimes appear, as in any other sparsely settled country.

I am, &c., &c.,

JOHN M. FRANCIS.

[Inclosure No 1.—Translation.]

Extract from the Athens Morning Herald, May 4.

In the neighborhood of Tsepekles, of the district of Phersala, in Thessaly, (Turkey,) a band of brigands has killed three Turks. Another band of fifteen men, (probably that of Takos,) at Seskoio, in the neighborhood of Volo, seized the wealthy shepherds, Zogos and Theodore Dogias, and killed the former, but released the latter for a ransom of three hundred and fifty Turkish pounds. Another band, that of Takos and Velutas, has killed the Wallach shepherd Bikares, of the village of Aguia, in Thessaly.

Extract from the Athens Future, May 6.

Later advices add that there has been a very bold display of brigandage in Epirus, in the two villages, scarcely five hours distant from Joannina.

Will not these doings rouse the Turkish authorities to unite with our own in sincerely and effectually hunting down this common scourge?

Extract from the Athens Regenerator, May 6.

As it is known that Takos Arbanitake is actually in the neighborhood of Larissa, (Thessaly,) with a band of 60—that is, in the very neighborhood of the boundaries—our government ought (and we trust it has already done so) to take timely measures and issue proper orders to those charged with the protection of our frontiers, in order to guard against a possible inroad of this band.