Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress, December 4, 1893

Mr. Thompson to Mr. Gresham.

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, March 7, 1893. (Received March 27.)

No. 47.]

Sir: I have the honor to inclose to you the report of Consul Jewett, who had been instructed by me to make a thorough investigation of the troubles at Marsovan in Asia Minor, to investigate the causes of the burning of the new school building and the general attitude of the authorities of the Ottoman Government at that place towards the school and teachers, to ascertain everything practicable that would make his report thorough and conclusive.

I have acquainted the British and German ambassadors with the result of the examinations and investigations of Consul Jewett, so they may be informed of the character of the Ottoman officials at that place, their attitude towards the school established there and towards Christians generally. I have had an interview with his excellency the minister of foreign affairs here, and made known to him the substance of the report made by Consul Jewett. He intimated to me he would like to be satisfied that the incendiary placards which were posted throughout a great portion of Asia Minor on the night of January 5 were not printed at the Anatolian College at Marsovan, and that an examination of the premises would allay the suspicion in that locality.

He also sent his chief clerk, Noury Bey, to me with a request that I authorize a search to be made of the college to ascertain if arms were not stored there as well as ammunition. This I refused to allow, but proposed to authorize Consul Jewett to act with the public prosecutor who had been appointed by his excellency to investigate the causes which had led to the burning of the college building, the threats made by Hosref Pasha, who is the chief the police force, and the whole subject, with permission to be present to examine witnesses and to cross-examine them; also that witnesses should not be imprisoned for giving testimony, and when this was completed the college buildings and buildings on the ground might be examined to ascertain whether there was evidence to show that the placards were printed at the college; also to ascertain whether an amount of arms sufficient to be a menace to the peace of the town was stored in the college buildings; but under no consideration should Hosref Pasha or any of his gendarmes be present, and that not more than five or six persons should be allowed to accompany Consul Jewett and the public prosecutor or such official as might be selected to make the examination.

I informed his excellency that I had such information as showed to me that Hosref Pasha was a bad man; that he had been convicted of brigandage; that he had been guilty of the crime of murder, and that he was a most unfit man to be trusted in any capacity, and I earnestly protested against his having anything to do with the investigation, to which his excellency finally agreed, and promised to have a telegram drawn up for my examination to be sent by us to the public prosecutor and Consul Jewett, authorizing them to act together in making this investigation.

I also stated to his excellency the examination should proceed without delay, and that the ownership of the building destroyed was covered by the second paragraph of section 3 of the proclamation of the President of the United States of the protocol of June 10, 1869.

I beg to state that I find great difficulty in keeping up proper communications with Consul Jewett, and that by post and telegraph many of our letters to each other fail to reach their destination.

I submit Consul Jewett’s report with the request that I be informed by telegraph of the decision of the Department as regards my instructions in this matter.

I have, etc.,

David P. Thompson.

[Inclosure 1 in No. 47.]

Mr. Jewett to Mr. Thompson.

Consulate of the United States at Sivas,
Written at Marsovan, February 21, 1893.

Sir: Your letter of the 12th instant to Dr. Merrick, in which you say I have been instructed to send you a full report of affairs here, was received yesterday afternoon. That was the first real intimation of your wishes that I have received.

Your telegram of the 7th I could not fully understand, and your letter of the 7th has not reached me yet. The insecurity of letters is indicative of our own insecurity.

I have hastened to prepare a report of the state of affairs here and of the events which have taken place. The difficulty of getting direct evidence is very great while the present state of affairs continues. Practically, no men dare to openly testify, for they know that a word is sufficient to send them to prison. When the present high-handed injustice is stopped I think testimony in abundance will be obtainable to prove all the claims made in the letter of the 4th instant and subsequent letters.

The facts which I present to you in this letter it seems to me form a sufficient basis for strong and immediate diplomatic action.

My letters Nos. 16 and 17 to the consul-general, and my letter to you of the 17th instant, giving a copy of my letter to the Vali, are hereby confirmed.

I incorporate the statements made by the missionaries and signed by them, as a part of this dispatch and a part of my report, and I believe the statements made by them are true and reliable.

The case is presented in a somewhat disconnected manner, partly from the haste with which it is prepared, but I think you will be able to see the logical unity of the statements made.

The theory as to the origin of the movement expressed by me some weeks ago in a letter to the consul-general still seems quite reasonable to me. That the former Vali is in some way connected with it seems to me probable. The present Vali said that placards were posted in Circassian villages where no one but the Hakim or Kaimakam could read them; Mendoneh Bey stopped several days near Marsovan alter his dismissal and while on his way to Constantinople. Those who are most bitter against the college are his creatures. The wideness and simultaneous distribution of placards indicate management and organization.

Hosref’s wife stated on or about February 4 that eight letters from Mendoneh. Bey had just arrived for Hosref Pasha. The Kaimakam of Marsovan said to Mr. N. that he received a telegram on February 3 saying placards will be posted and to be careful.

When the placards were handed to the Kaimakam he immediately said they originated at the college. It was common report, amounting to certainty, that Hosref Pasha used violent and threatening language against the college and said he would destroy it.

Mr. N. testifies that he heard Turks say that Hosref Pasha said that he would destroy the college.

Another man told Mr. N. that Hosref Pasha said all the trouble came from the college.

P. says, Hosref Pasha said to him, “I know all these things came from the college; if it is not destroyed there will be no end to this trouble.”

Mr. N. further testifies that it was common talk in the market previous to the fire, that Hosref Pasha was going to destroy the college. His brother in Amassia asked his servant the day before the fire if the college had been burned? He says that during the fire he heard people say, “We must no go there, Hosref Pasha is burning the building.”

A reliable man told Mr. N. that the Greek family living on the property adjoining the college property, saw about 50 Georgian Monhagias, dressed and armed like Zapties, near the college wall during the fire.

Alb. testifies that the Kaimakam asked him to take a telegram to Hosref Pasha. When he came to the door he heard loud talking within, and he heard Hosref Pasha say: “There is no other way, we must set fire; we must destroy that place.” He says the fact was well known that Hosief Pasha distributed Government rifles to the Monhagias about the time of the fire. He saw soldiers going away from the fire after it was nearly or quite over; he says it is reported that the Monhagias talk of the fact that they were armed by Hosref Pasha, and were present at the fire, and that they say they were there with instructions to fire if there was any rising of the students or any insult to the Pasha.

F. testifies that he got up when he heard the noise of the fire, went out on the street, and heard people say, “Hosref Pasha set this fire and we had better keep away.” Later he heard a Turk say, “Hosref Pasha burned this building, when he burns the rest perhaps his heart will be satisfied.”

He further declares that now Turks and Armenians universally believe Hosref Pasha was the author or instigator of the fire.

A watchman tells him that on the night of the fire, Hosref Pasha, the Malmudiri, and others, took dinner at Kaleb Effendi’s house. At about 5 o’clock at night (Tk) (about 11.30 p.m., European) a dozen armed men with their faces covered with dark cloth were at the house of Kaleb Effendi. After that he heard noise inside as of men doing something with guns. People of the neighborhood were frightened at the noise and went elsewhere to sleep. Later (time uncertain) he saw five armed men and three unarmed men leave the house and go up the street and turn a corner away from the Government building and in the direction of the college. They carried no light.

Testimony of college watchman to me.

Three days before the fire, while standing at the outer gate about 3 p.m. (Tk), he saw about a dozen armed men pass by talking among themselves; he heard one of them say with oaths, “These buildings do not get burned.” Next day he talked with the cook about it and said there should be more watchmen. He discovered the fire when he was near the upper gate and ran down to the burning building; says fire burst out very rapidly. Hosref Pasha sent for him; he went out of the gate with him and the chief of police, Gukmen. Hosref Pasha left while fire was at its height; Gukmen took him and went along outside of the wall, ostensibly looking for foot-tracks, but the snow was all trodden down in the places where they went. While going along the wall he saw quite a company of armed men, perhaps 50, drawn up near a low place in the wall. He saw them march along towards the upper gate. He was taken to the Government house and examined by Hosref Pasha. Among other things the pasha said to him, “The missionaries had ammunition and powder stored in that building, and some students went there to smoke; they set fire to some powder, caused an explosion, and thus fired the building.”

After the examination he heard the pasha say through a half open door, “Pity all the buildings had not burned.” Says the pasha had a club brought in and tried by threatening, to make him make false statements.

Mrs. Riggs was awakened by the light of the fire; dressed hurriedly, and as soon as she was dressed, or perhaps before being fully dressed, she saw Hosref Pasha enter the grounds.

There is abundant and overwhelming indirect testimony that most corrupt methods are employed to manufacture false evidence. Four men have promised to-day to testify that they know three men who, instigated by Hosref Pasha, are tryiug to get signatures to a paper stating that the college is against the Government and should be destroyed. It is also said that a paper is being circulated among the Armenians (and they feel they must sign it or be imprisoned) stating that they are pleased with the conduct of Hosref Pacha. I have good evidence that a man has been sent in among the prisoners to try to induce them to testify against the college teachers; offers of liberty and of money have been made. Four” men were told they would be released if they would testify that a letter shown to them came fromToumyian and Kyrian.

A letter from Mrs. Toumyian to her husband in which it was said, “I have collected so much money for the hospital,” was reported to the Vali as saying “for the purpose.” A man called to translate private papers of the teachers is held in prison.

A man who reported efforts at bribery was sent off under escort to Tokat.

I have heard a great many reports of this sort hut will not stop to relate them.

If our theory is correct the point is important that the investigation is in the hands of men who are interested in covering up the truth and manufacturing false testimony. False reports were sent from here to the Vali and I have no doubt such reports were sent to Constantinople. I have it on good authority that yesterday the pasha telegraphed to the Vali for an order to arrest another of the college teachers.

Your telegram of the 7th speaks of my making propositions. Of course you will make such demands as you think proper. It seems to me that no amount of money indemnity will be a suitable compensation for the weeks of anxiety experienced by our citizens, or adequate recompense for the insults and outrages against them. Hosref Pasha must be removed before any improvement in our condition can be expected. There can be no security for anyone so long as beholds his present office. We charge him with one of the greatest of crimes, and his trial should follow as a matter of course. It seems to me that the entire vindication of the college should be demanded, and its establishment on a secure foundation insisted upon, but first we require the removal of this obnoxious man. All departments are now under the control of this ex-brigand, once sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and robbery, and who obtained his pardon by killing one of his robber companions. There can be no security under such circumstances.

The gravity of the situation I do not think is magnified.

I understand from Mr. Dwight’s letter that you have asked for suitable protection of Christians. What protection was given? The whole police force from Marsovan nearly to Cesaria is in the control of this man so noted for his corruption and unscrupulous wickedness; who has arrested hundreds of Armenians on false charges and has resorted to most corrupt methods to incriminate them; who has openly declared his determination to destroy American property, and has accomplished a part of his threat. The native Christians are becoming more and more alarmed; their petitions and complaints come to my ears until my heart becomes sick with the stories of their wrongs. They see no apparent improvement in the condition of affairs and they feel that if the American Government is impotent to stop slander and threatenings against its citizens, what hope of protection can they have? They see this man who, common report amounting to certainty declares has threatened and accomplished destruction of American property, still flourishing and carrying out his high-handed outrages.

Our Government has been outraged and continues to be outraged so long as this man is allowed to go unchecked and unpunished.

Please acknowledge receipt of this dispatch by telegraph. Having heard so very little from you, nothing sent during the last nine days, our people here feel decidedly uneasy.

I am etc.,

Milo A. Jewett,
U. S. Consul.

The accompanying memoranda marked A, B, C, D, E, are herewith respectfully presented to Consul Jewett, as embodying what we regard as the most important facts, not already communicated, relative to our position at Marsovan since the opening of the most unexpected events of the last nearly fifty days.

We ask Dr. Jewett to use these papers at his discretion, adding what his own observations during the past ten days may in his judgment require.

• T. F. Smith.
• George F. Herrick.
• Edward Riggs.
• George E. White.

Marsovan, February 22, 1893.

memorandum a.

The past relations of the Americans resident in Marsovan to the local government and people, both Turks and Armenians.

The residence in Marsovan of two of our number, viz: Rev. T. F. Smith, dean of the Theological Training School out of which the college developed, and Miss E. A. Fritcher, principal, from the first, of the girls boarding school, extends over just thirty years, they having reached Marsovan in 1863.

The two schools, then the high schools of the Western Turkey mission, were transferred from Constantinople to Marsovan that year, but were not formally opened here till nearly two years later, i. e. twenty-eight years ago.

For the first six years these schools, then small in number, were accommodated, after a fashion, in separate rented houses in another part of the city from that where they and ourselves are now located. Twenty-two years ago the largest of our present college buildings was erected, the ground having been purchased the preceding year.

The girls’ school found a temporary home the same year in a house at a little distance from this which we had hired and fitted up for the purpose.

The present quarters occupied by the girls’ school were bought piece by piece, and the buildings built piece by piece till now the quarters have become altogether too narrow. Additions to our premises on the side opposite those of the girls’ school have from time to time been made.

Of our seven or eight buildings three are college buildings, not reckoning the porter’s lodge, bath, shops, etc., three are dwelling houses, and the other, built at two different times, is the girls’ school.

These repeated enlargements of our possessions and of our work have furnished an excellent test of the disposition of the people, Turks and Armenians, and of the local government towards us. On two occasions, both in the earlier years, jealousy was manifested, and in one of these instances Government opposition was made against the erection of a house.

On ail other occasions either positive friendliness was shown or the fact that we are undeniably innocent people and our work eleemosynary and friendly, together with the fact that the Government receives increasing revenue from our taxes, has silenced all objections.

The erection of the new building last summer seems to have stirred up new jealousy. Our personal relations to people of all classes has always been friendly, and scores of pupils have been sent to the college from Gregorian-Armenian families of the city.

Calls, formal and informal, have constantly been exchanged between ourselves and leading Turks, as well as Armenians. That some of both races have always regarded us with jealousy is certain, and was to be expected.

Our exceeding slowness to believe in hostile intention against us in recent events finds its ready explanation in our own friendliness manifested during thirty years towards the Government, towards people of all classes and races in this little city.

memorandum b.

The purchase and ownership of buildings.

The property of the Americans in Marsovan has been purchased, piece by piece, during a period of twenty-three years.

At first the only possible manner of purchase was in the name of a subject of the Turkish Government, and after it was possible for foreigners to hold property directly, the plan of purchase through native hands was necessitated, because exorbitant prices were always demanded whenever we appeared as the party desirous of purchasing. In this way a plot of ground close by us, and which is now part and parcel of the new ground on which the new building stood, was purchased and is still held in the name of our college steward. The subsequent and larger purchase was bought by and in the name of Dr. Melcon Altoonian.

This gentleman is our own and the college physician, also a member of the college faculty and a member of the local board of managers; he is also the official Government physician.

After the purchase a plan of the building was made in detail and shown to the Government. The Government architect was sent upon the ground, Mr. Smith and Dr. Altoonian accompanied him, and Mr. Smith himself showed him where the building was to be and explained the details; the new premises were walled in by us last summer. All the material for the building passed through our grounds and was paid for by the college purchasing agent, the new grounds being opened on our side as they were closed on other sides.

This was eight months before the fire. A Turk, who is a scribe in the Government house, whose premises adjoin our new lot on the side opposite our houses, came to Mr. Smith and asked that he might be permitted to connect his sewer with the new one we were building; he also proposed to sell us water from his water supply.

On January 16 the malmudiri in company with certain Turkish gentlemen, came to the college and remained on the premises for two hours or more. There, in the presence of Mr. Smith, Kayayan Effendi, and Xenides Effendi, the malmudiri said: “This new building is held in the name of Dr. Altoonian, but it belongs to the Americans and is part of their schools and other buildings.”

A small gate which connected this new ground with the city on the south was always kept locked by us. This is the gate Hosref Pasha with Ibrahim Gukmen forced on the night of the fire.

The permit for the new building was a permit for a “house” of so and so many rooms and of such and such dimensions. This is no subterfuge; it was to be a house inhabited by a family together with 50 boarding school girls—50 more or less. It was nothing new proposed, and no deceit whatever practiced. The girls of our school are now in too narrow quarters, and it was proposed to transfer them. It was as much not to embarrass Government officers as to save ourselves from embarrassment that we did not use the word “school,” No new school was contemplated-no new work of any kind was proposed.

memorandum c.

The turning of the new building.

In preparing this memorandum, after receiving the letter of his excellency Mr. Minister Thompson of the 12th instant, in which we are cautioned against sending too much hearsay evidence which the Porte will term “bosh,” we beg to be allowed very respectfully to make two preliminary remarks.

(1) Our letter of the 4th instant was prepared and dispatched under the gravest sense of responsibility. We knew very well what our charge meant; we had been assured over and over again, with great urgency, that our lives and our property were in imminent danger; by that day we were forced to believe this. We insisted on sending no sensational news, no alarmist telegrams. We were sure and we have been more sure every day since, that the presence here of Hosref Pasha was a dangerous menace to ourselves. We had and we have overwhelming evidence that his grip upon the city is seriously traversing the course of justice, and that right-minded Turks have every whit as much reason as we have to desire his instant removal. We confidently expected his removal before this time, but the strain is still on us and is growing more tense day by day.

(2) Men engaged in nefarious practices do not deliberately give themselves away, therefore very little of direct legal evidence of the charge we make can be obtained while Hosref is here in power, for reasons obvious to all persons familiar with judicial(?) investigations in this country under a reign of terror. No one here dreams of regarding this last expression as other than the simple statement of a known fact although it is evident that not even our own colleague, Mr. Dwight, of Constantinople, when he wrote on the 7th instant, fully realized our danger. Our evidence is circumstantial to a large degree, but supported as it is, by ample direct evidence not now producible, and contradicted by absolutely nothing, it seems to us at least, to be conclusive. We will try to give it connectedly and in detail, begging leave to refer again to our letter of the 4th instant. We should perhaps be the less surprised that no one at Constantinople has been able to think it possible that officers of the Government have been guilty of so base a crime as that of arson, together with the crime of a violent, persistent, libelous attack upon this American college, when we remember how slow we ourselves were to believe such things could be even with the evidence staring us in the face. On his way here Hosref Pasha, while at Amassia, came in conflict with a colonel there, who sent a telegram to the seras keriat (war office), this at least six weeks ago, making serious charges against Hosref, calling him among other things, a “building burner” (yaugan ediji) and saying that he was coming on here with three or four experienced incendiaries in his train. This has been told us by men of position in Amassia and reiterated by different persons and we are assured we may rely on its substantial truth. This gives a significance to an incident of the fire not mentioned before, because the above was not then known; and it was not till lately supposed by us that persons of an official character directly connected with Hosref Pasha actually did the incendiary work. On going upon the ground of the fire, as soon as he could get there after the alarm was given, a few minutes after the first blaze, Mr. Herrick met two men in zapties’ (gendarmes) overcoats and carrying rifles, just at the gate of the gate of the nearest corner of the new grounds, a gate always open since summer. These men were going from the building quickly, not running, and very quietly as though anxious to get away unobserved, towards our street gate. This was before the little gate had been forced and Hosref Pasha had entered, and explains why two sets of tracks in the snow, traced from the top of our south wall to the building had no corresponding tracks from the building to the wail. Dr. Herrick instantly remarked to colleagues whom he met, as they now recall, “there are armed men on our premises;” and he himself looked right and left to see if there were more such men.

A few minutes later, probably ten minutes, it was announced “Hosref Pasha is on the ground, by the burning building.”

We know now that Ibrahim Gukmen, chief of police, then entered our premises by an adjoining house, and forced the little outer gate on that side, and let Hosref in. Ibrahim himself said to Dr. Herrick and Mr. Riggs on Sunday, 5th instant, that he forced that gate and let the pasha in by it. Hosref and Ibrahim remained but a few minutes on the premises; left while the danger of the fire’s communicating to the adjoining dwellings was at its height, taking with him, without our leave, from under our right of domicile, our night watchman and holding him in prison till near evening.

The following day when we sent word to the kaimakam that our watchman was necessary to us, he was released. Meantime he had been called seven several times and questioned concerning the building and the fire. His statements to us concerning these examinations and what he saw and heard that night are as follows, so far as what is material is concerned:

Q. Was there any watchman in the building?—A. No.

Q. Why not?—A. There was no place for a man to stay—no floors or ceilings, no doors or windows.

Q. Was there a magazine to the building?—A. No.

Q. Anything stored in the building?—A. No.

Q. Any shavings, etc., in it?—A. No.

Q. Any work being done on it now?—A. No.

Q. The fire started from within, didn’t it?—A. No; that is impossible.

Q. Why didn’t you give the alarm sooner and have the fire pat out?—A. I did give the alarm at once, but the flames spread instantly all over the building.

Q. How many pupils are there in the school? Are there 200?—A. I don’t know how many.

Q. Are there 100?—A. I don’t know how many there are.

The watchman was threatened with beating, and a cudgel brought in, but he held firmly to his statements. His further testimony before us, given as soon as he was released on the 2d instant, is important. He heard Hosref say as he (the watchman) was waiting outside a door ajar, “This building was burned because it had no permit; the other buildings have no permits and must be burned too.”

When taken from the grounds the night of the fire, he was brought round on the outside of our outer wall and there saw soldiers, or men armed like soldiers, with Government rifles, as many as thirty, waiting by the wall, and he himself had no doubt that they were brought there before the fire. A person who was situated in precisely the way to know, but whose statements are under the seal of absolute confidence, testifies, not in our presence, that an hour or more before the fire he saw five armed men with three unarmed men coming in our direction. Another person, in our presence, and that of the consul’s dragoman, also under pledge of secrecy, testified that he knew, and he was so situated as to have the fullest means of knowing, that the plan of burning the college buildings was discussed in a knot of men, consisting of Hosref Pasha and city officers whom he named, and he specifically states that on one occasion, and but one, he heard these plans discussed by those men with his own ears while waiting to deliver a message. The rest of his knowledge was based on the common talk among those connected with official circles, but not themselves officers.

It was the town talk before the fire that Hosref would destroy the college, and we were specially warned of danger to this building by our most judicious friends. After the fire it was said everywhere, in market and on the street, “Hosref burned this and is going to burn the others.” On the night of the fire Turks were heard saying this to one another.

The day following the fire, e. g., a friend of ours tells us he was walking in the street behind two Turks, his neighbors, and one said to the other, “the bey has made a pretty big fire, but the air is not yet warmed.”

Specific testimonies were mentioned in our letter of the 4th instant.

When the consul came, now ten days ago, we proposed to call those men who promised to testify before him, though they said they would not do so in a native court. The consul wished Hosref removed from here before he called witnesses. Now, as far as appears to the people, nothing is yet done and spies are said to be placed to see who comes to the consul, and no one of these men dares appear.

One man came to us yesterday, a member of the Evangelical Church, and told us in the consul’s presence, under solemn promise of secrecy, what does not seem as important to us as it does to him, but which reveals the tenor of talk in official circles and the consequent terror in the town. Though the exact circumstances of the hearing of the remark made have been given to us, we do not write them here.

We recur to the burning of the building in order to add some specific statements relative thereto. The evidence that the building was, and was known to be ours, is given in Memorandum B.

There had been expended upon the building 500 liras ($2,240) or more. It was walled and roofed in, much lathing done, cornice finished, and several hundred boards ready for floor laying, were in it. The building was of three stories, 100 feet long by 55 and 45, including verandah, wide. It is 110 feet from the nearest dwelling. The night of the fire the thermometer was at zero. One hundred and fifty persons, men, women, and children, pupils of all our schools, boys and girls, were sleeping in lea of the burning building. The senior teacher of the girls’ school is in very feeble health. The flame flared full into her room. She received a shock from which she has not recovered.

Had there been wind, or had wind risen during the fire, the catastrophe which would have befallen us still makes us both shudder, and thank God. The moral evidence of deliberate arson committed by Government officers is not only overwhelmingly strong; it is absolutely self-consistent and unrebutted, except by the denials of the perpetrators.

memorandum d.

Theory concerning the origin and method of the recent attach upon the college as tested by the events of January 5 to February 20, 1893.

Somewhat more than five years ago we received official notice from the local government that we must, within six months, obtain imperial permit for our schools, on pain of suppression. We referred the matter to our legation with the statement that our schools had been repeatedly recognized by the Government for a period of more than twenty years, through custom-house, Department of Education, and local permits for erection of buildings, and that it seemed doubtful to us whether asking for a new permit would not vitiate a claim which we already believed valid. This was the ground taken by our legation, and the action taken and proclaimed by the Government, at the instance of our legation, is the warrant under which we exist.

About three years ago, when Menduh Bey came as vali to Sivas, on a visit here, Hosref Bey, or Pasha, in his train, he was reported to us to have declared “I’ll get 500 liras from those Americans at Marsovan or I’ll close the college.” He was shown the official paper of agreement between our own and the Turkish Government, and said publicly, “This is a strong paper and is all you require”. From that time on he appeared friendly, attended our commencement exercises in 1891, gave the graduates their diplomas with his own hands, and in a speech on that occasion, in reply to a suitable address we presented him said: “I am glad to indorse for myself, and especially in the name of my imperial master, your work of education in this school.” With the girls school he seemed still more pleased, and in a personal interview the following day, expressed himself to Dr. Herrick in the most cordial manner, and made request for a girl from our girls’ school as governess for his own children. This request, it was to our regret, found impossible to comply with, as no parent would consent to his daughter’s accepting.

On his visit here last summer before commencement, the vali, though polite, seemed less cordial, and made no allusion to the matter of the governess. When, on the evening of the 5th ultimo, two papers of an inflammatory character, in Osmanli, and addressed to Osmanlis, which had been pulled off our gate and brought to the director of the college by persons from the college coming in from a prayer meeting in the church, our opinion was and continued for many days to be, that these papers most likely issued from a seditious society of young exiled Turks, who are found, we have been told, somewhere in Europe. We were astonished the following day to learn that the Kaimakan charged the issuing of the papers upon the college, and we regarded it as the passionate and unreasoning outburst of a man driven to his wits end to ferret out a matter which would work to his discredit. When we learned that hundreds of Armenians, and no others, had been arrested in this and adjoining towns and charged with complicity in this business, we thought this a blind to cover an apparently insurrectionary movement among Turks themselves. It was actually weeks before we could believe the Government officers serious in charging such a thing upon the college.

On the 16th ultimo we learned that Hosref Pasha, the chief of the gendarmes of this province, a man of most evil record in the past in this immediate vicinity (referred to before in this memorandum), had been sent here to investigate the matter of the placards, under very sharp orders, it was reported, from the Sultan himself.

This man’s coming was the occasion of great distress in the city. It soon became the common talk that Hosref violently threatened the college and its teachers. He was going to come and search our premises; he would destroy the college; Mr. Riggs’ cyclostyle printed the placards, etc.

On the evening of the 28th the senior professor of the college, Mr. Thoumaian, and on the 30th the teacher of Armenian in the college, Mr. Kayayan, were arrested, and our request to see them and also to have them let off on bail was refused. Meantime we were credibly informed that in two cases, one in Hadji-Keny and one in Amasia, where an Armenian testified to seeing a Mullah putting up the placards, it was instantly hushed up; the man in Amasia being thrown into prison for his pains. This, together with the persistent attacks on Armenians and the charge against the college, seemed to make it pretty certain that the placard business was a feint used by, if not originating with, the Government to furnish a basis for an attack on the college more directly in the person of its two teachers resident in town. This belief finds support from several facts, as follows:

Menduh Bey is known to have spent some ten days at Carza, nearby, after his dismissal as vali last autumn. The malmudiri of Marsovan, who has for years been free to intimacy on college grounds, went to Constantinople in autumn, and since Hosref Pasha came here has been in constant communication with him, both being friends of the deposed vali. Menduh Bey is known to have claimed that he alone could bring this Armenian question to settlement. And, finally, the violence and persistence of the attack upon the college, the threats, the calumny, the incendiarism, the imprisonments of teachers, and the means used against them are best explained in a hitter grudge cherished by a deposed and angry man. The whole course of the attack since Januarys has been avowedly “against the college” with intent to destroy it, and as the days have passed it has taken on the character of an unscrupulous attempt to fasten on the college the calumnious charge of complicity with sedition. When Consul Jewett declined to have our carpenter taken to the Government house, the moukhtar of the Protestants was forced to set his seal to a paper saying that the man refused to come. Also this past week, i. e., February 16 or 17, leading Armenians were called and bidden to prepare and sign a paper declaring the college injurious to them. That the main object of the fire was to develop sedition, force our pupils to arm, and so take possession of our premises, seems to be manifest from the special armed force massed outside our walls before the fire broke out; from the charge made the next day that we burned the building so as to destroy arms and ammunition and seditious books and papers; and that it was our sharpness of wit that we did not attack Hosref and his men.

memorandum e.

The case of the teachers.

It is of course manifest that educated Armenians, Gregorian or Protestant, love their people and seek their progress and prosperity; moreover, that they sympathize with all right and suitable efforts to secure such progress and prosperity. Can any man anywhere object to that? Should we desire as teachers in our college men who were indifferent, not to say opposed, to right and worthy national aspirations? Now note, that if, as alleged, there exists a body of men among the Armenians who wish to secure the good of their people, by unlawful means if they cannot otherwise—and we avow it our belief that the importance of this movement, at least among Armenians in Turkey, has been immensely exaggerated and that confidence in the actual loyalty of the overwhelming majority of Armenians would be far better policy than that now pursued—it would be the most natural thing in the world for these insignificant men to try very hard to get into their number such men as Mr. Thoumaian and Mr. Kayayan. Then, when this scheme failed and the men in the society are hard pressed, they take their revenge on the men they could not entrap and trump up some plausible lie on the strength of which they hope to clear themselves, at the expense of better men. Who are in this society? I do not know, of course. I doubt if Mr. K. or Mr. T. know. If they do know and are unwilling to shield themselves by giving up their deluded and foolish countrymen, when everybody knows that they themselves have ever been loyal and counseled loyalty on all occasions, we might, I think, find reason to applaud, certainly not to condemn, their self sacrifice, these men are innocent of the charge made against them; so far as we can learn no scrap of evidence has been found against them. False witnesses and forged documents are not evidence. It is most significant in their favor that, as far as we can learn, the Malmudiri, who, if anybody knows aught against them, certainly ought to know, has brought no evidence against them. We heard it to-day, February 20, from a reliable source, that the leading men of the Armenian community have been this day in consultation over a demand made of them by Government, that they sign a paper declaring that a letter from Caesarea, purporting to be from Mr. Thoumaian and Mr. Kayayan, and which these gentlemen declare a forgery, is really from the said Thoumaian and Kayayan. Under evident danger of imprisonment and worse these men have, we are glad to say, declined to set their seals to what they know to be false.

Now the gravamen of the case of the teachers, as it appeals to us, is that they belong to the personnel of the college. They are part and parcel of the college. The attack on them is distinctly coupled with the assertion, repeated in Government circles, “The college is a center of sedition. It must be destroyed; from it on Mr. Riggs’cyclostyle the placards were prepared and issued.” Their case is therefore our case, and no pause can be allowed until the college, with all its teachers, pupils, and belongings, is fully, amply, publicly exonerated and vindicated, and its permanent safety amply secured. That Hosref has been foiled hitherto in his attempts to stir up and then scatter the pupils is a cause of profound gratitude. We live in the heart of Asia Minor, among ignorant and fanatic Moslems. Deliberate effort by officers of the Government to blackball us, continued for weeks, is calculated to stir up even those who were friendly but who have no particular interest to side with us in a bitter and prolonged strife. As things now are matters can not he decided by any possible investigations here unless Hosref be taken away from the vicinity. Witnesses will not appear in his presence or while his grip is upon the town. The teachers have no shadow of hope of justice except under the very aegis of the power under whose protection the college exists—our own United States of America.