Mr. Uhl to Mavroyeni Bey.

No. 43.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 14th instant in further reference to the matter of the attack on St. Paul’s Institute at Tarsus, in which you inclose copy of a letter of the United States acting consular agent at Mersine tendering Mr. and Mrs. Christie’s thanks to the moutessarif of Mersine for his action in endeavoring to search out and punish the lawless assailants of the students and servants of the institute, and a report by the vali of Adana.

The letter of the provisional consular agent above referred to conveying Mr. and Mrs. Christie’s thanks to the moutessarif of Mersine is dated August 13, very soon after the attack. As intimated in Mr. Olney’s note of the 21st ultimo, subsequent reports from the United States legation at Constantinople and the consul at Beirut, who had been sent to Mersine to investigate the matter, show that the proceedings of the authorities of Adana were not equally laudable, and their indifference, with their evident partiality toward the assailants, has led the Secretary of State to send stringent instructions to the minister to the end that due justice be done. In the face of a threatened miscarriage or perversion of justice, such as now appears possible, if not probable, it does not, I submit, materially affect the real issues to show, as your note agreeably does for the second time, that Mr. Christie and the consul appreciated the protestations of zeal and justice made at the outset by the moutessarif of Mersine. Had the higher provincial officials shown a like disposition and acted up to their professions, I doubt not they would have equally earned the gratitude of the aggrieved American citizens.

Only by prompt punishment of lawless aggressors upon the property and persons of peaceable American citizens lawfully sojourning in Turkey can the protection of these citizens be assured and the international duties of your Government in the premises be fulfilled.

Accept, etc.,

Edwin F. Uhl,
Acting Secretary.