Mr. Olney to Mr. Terrell.
Washington, January 16, 1896.
Sir: I have received your No. 742, of the 29th of December last, communicating copy of correspondence between Rev. Dr. H. O. Dwight and yourself, in regard to the protection of American missionaries and their [Page 1462] families at their places of residence in Turkey in times of crucial peril like the present.
The Department’s instructions have lately communicated to you copies of correspondence with Bev. Judson Smith, of Boston, in correction of a supposition on his part that it was the policy of this Government to make the protection of American missionaries in Turkey dependent upon their withdrawal from their posts of duty. It has been made clear to Dr. Smith that there has been no change of policy whatever in this regard. As in China during the recent war with Japan, when mob violence and anti-Christian spirit ran high in the remote interior provinces, this Government stands ready to use its influence and its agencies to assert its rights by every permissible means to insure the safety of resident American citizens in Turkey, aiding them to reach places of safety should they voluntarily desire to do so, and exerting diplomatic pressure for their protection should they remain at their posts. If it aids those devoted men or their families to reach a place of temporary shelter, that in no way implies a condition of abandonment of their employment. Like yourself, this Department sympathizes very keenly with the perilous situation of the nonworkers, the helpless women and children, who are not reasonably to be regarded as tied to their posts by obligations of duty, and would be glad to see them shielded from harm which may possibly befall them. It understands that your advice as regards removal has been confined to those nonworkers, and that you have been unremitting in your efforts to protect the effective personnel of the missions at their posts under any and all circumstances. The Department would be glad to learn that you have made this clear to Mr. Dwight also.
The communication of Mr. Dwight is interesting in that it brings prominently forward the commercial aspects of the American missionary enterprises in Turkey, a point of view of much importance in dealing with the problems presented; but not, according to his exposition of the matter, dissociated from the obligations of duty which in his view constrain his agents to personally remain among the communities where those interests of trade have been built up in order to afford moral protection to the native classes with whom they have been associated in their enterprises. The latter consideration is a matter of conscience as to which the representatives of American enterprises must follow their own judgment or the judgments of the boards which employ them. This Government can not and should not assume to influence them in this regard. Whether as traders in vendible merchandise, according to Mr. Dwight, or as teachers in legitimate fields of instruction, they are entitled to the same protection as other American merchants or professional men, pursuingtheir trades or avocations peaceably under the guaranty of law, of existing capitulations, and of that usage which in Turkey has grown to have the force of conventional law.
No problem of modern intercourse has more forcibly presented itself to this Government or more earnestly engaged its attention than that of the situation of our citizens in Turkey at the present time, and its determination to act without hesitancy and effectively as occasion may demand is as fixed as your own endeavor to aid the Government in the accomplishment of its purposes has been zealous and unflagging.
Copy of this instruction to you will be sent to Rev. Judson Smith for his information. Copy of your dispatch with inclosures is not sent, as the Department is in receipt of a communication from Mr. Smith inclosing the document signed by Mr. Dwight entitled “American missions in Turkey and their protection.”
I am, etc.,