Mr. Olney to Mr. Terrell.

No. 646.]

Sir: I have received your No. 641,1 of the 9th instant, in further relation to the Tarsus affair.

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Steering a just, middle course between the perhaps excited remonstrance of the injured party and the obvious efforts of the Turkish Government to belittle the incident and decry the appeal of this Government for redress, the facts so far as they appear seem to establish a wrong against an American interest of a grave character. Taking into account the hour when the attack was made, the sudden appearance of a body of similarly armed Mussulmans, the savage treatment, not only of the menial whose alleged misconduct was supposed to have originated the fray, but of the other students and dependents of the institute who came within reach of the mob, the affair necessarily assumes graver proportions than those of a casual broil, and shows premeditation and prearrangement to a degree calculated to excite apprehension and demanding prompt and effective measures of chastisement. There should have been, and yet should be, no difficulty in seeing justice done against the aggressors. They are known, and their attack is amply proved. The Turkish Government professes a desire to make a rigid investigation and administer unsparing punishment. It has not done so. Delay and apathy characterize the proceedings at every stage, if indeed there be not a graver indication of a disposition to shield the perpetrators of the outrage. The professed endeavors of the moutessarif of Mersine to bring all the identified actors to justice have been neutralized by the higher provincial authorities, and your last telegrams report the release of four and indicate the probable enlargement of the others.

While the incident directly affected only Turkish subjects, and did not involve attack upon the actual building of the college or demonstrations against its teachings, it is difficult in view of all the reported facts to attribute the origin of the trouble to a mere broil between a menial and an unduly incensed Turk, who fancied himself aggrieved by the supposed act of Mr. Christie’s servant. Had he not been a servant of a Christian, closely identified with a Christian enterprise in a Mussulman community, it is wholly improbable that the affair would have passed beyond the bounds of a personal rencounter, and the indications of an antiforeign and an ti-Christian spirit are sufficiently obvious to portend danger and beget apprehension so far as our peaceable citizens in Turkey are concerned. The hostile disposition of the Turkish populations and the apprehensions of American residents will certainly not be curbed or allayed by the partial treatment of the offenders disclosed in your and Mr. Gibson’s reports.

The recent correspondence of this Department with Mavroyeni Bey, copies of which have been sent you, show the Department’s expectation that nothing will be left undone to promote the administration of simple justice in this matter, and to insure the safety of American citizens from the hostile antipathies of the natives. Your efforts will continue to be directed to the same end.

I am, etc.,

Richard Olney.
  1. Not printed.