I have about exhausted my resources in forwarding the prosecution of Miss
Melton’s assailants. Much telegraphing was necessary to let the Porte
know that our Government expected the criminals to be punished. I send
on the overleaf a copy of one just sent.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
182.]
Mr. McDowell to
Mr. Terrell.
Dear Sir: On the 13th instant (Saturday
evening) I received your telegram: “Has any one been punished for
beating Miss Melton? Answer immediately.”
On Monday morning I sent the telegram to the vali, asking him what
answer I should send you. He called the prosecuting attorney and
asked him what was being done. His answer was, the two men,
Abdulaziz Agha and Mnstafa Effendi, were in prison, their guilt
having been established; two others, Mustafa Etfendi and Sadullah,
were still under bail for further investigation; four others, three
Kurds and a Syrian, had just been brought from Amadia and were being
examined, but as these last were incriminating others (the two under
bail and others in Amadia), they were waiting to secure these
parties, also the two Havinka men, who had fled. The vali censured
the prosecuting attorney for delaying the matter, and sent the above
to me as his answer.
As no one had yet been sentenced, I sent you a telegram Monday, the
15th: “No one has been punished yet.”
Abdullah Pasha, with other strong men, were sent to Amadia to sift
the matter to the bottom and (by the vali’s word to me) to bring all
found guilty. He spent considerable time there, and brought back a
[Page 692] report which both he
and the vali said disclosed the whole matter. The names of the
parties who went to the tent and those who planned the affair were
given, most of whom were in prison. The only two at large were the
men of Havinka, who were in Abdullah Pasha’s hands while he was in
Amadia. He was under orders to bring all parties implicated (so the
vali told me), but these two men were left, who improved the
opportunity and fled out of reach. As I wrote you, only two of the
men reported by Abdullah Pasha were retained in prison; the others
were released. Judgment on these two, whom the Government
acknowledge are guilty, was stayed “until the two Havinka should be
arrested.”
After several weeks’ further delay three Kurds and a Syrian were
brought in, but not the Havinka men. These last four may be guilty
and may not be; I do not know. One of them is a servant of
Abdulaziz, and was the one who seized the gate of the city after the
arrest of the Amadians, with the purpose of securing their release.
He has also been under arrest twice in Amadia on this business
before the arrest of the chief men, and both times was released by
the Government arbitrarily. You can judge for yourself what the
Government intends to do.
There is this encouragement—that those in prison are now beginning to
implicate each other. Possibly positive testimony may thus be
secured against the chief men in the affair.
I am hoping daily now to hear that peremptory orders have come for
the immediate punishment of the two whose guilt the vizier accepts
and a limit set for the punishment of the others reported by
Abdullah Pasha as guilty.
Very respectfully, yours,
