I have now the honor to inclose to you the original of this letter in the Turkish language. Your excellency will know the sad condition in which these unfortunates now find themselves. Having sold suc cessively the least objects which they possessed to defray their expenses for food alone, they are reduced to-day to the last extremity, and demand pecuniary aid for clothes and bedding in view of the approaching cold season, if, indeed, their sojourn in prison is to be yet further prolonged. I take this occasion to report also to your excellency that on the 28th and 29th ultimo there was a great panic at Aintab. For a time one feared new massacres, but happily upon the severe orders of the vali of Aleppo the authorities there repressed the hostile movement and confidence has returned among the citizens of that city. One writes also from Diarbekir that the same fears have been expe rienced in that city, all of this following upon the news which had been received of the events which had taken place at the capital. Accept, Mr. Minister, etc., At my demand Diradourian, convicted at Trebizond of sedition, has been surrendered to me under orders of expulsion. The release and expulsion of the nine revolutionists in prison at Aleppo promised me by the Grand Vizier. Such people, unless helped to reach Christian ports, must return to prison. Bible House people refuse to advance relief funds from America to such people in distress who have become American citizens. I will, as heretofore, pay their ship passage, but I hope in future the Government will aid me. TERRELL. EMIGRATION OF FAMILIES OF NATURALIZED AMERICANS. Mr. Terrell to Mr. Olney. [Telegram.] PERA, October 16, 1896. I have finally obtained telegraphic orders from Turkish Government to permit departure for the United States, with safe conduct to the seaport, of all the native Armenian women and children I have applied for, whose husbands and fathers are in the United States of America. Mr. Olney to Mr. Terrell. [Telegram.] TERRELL. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, The humane and considerate action of the Sultan's Government in effecting the departure of wives and children of Armenians in the United States is most cordially appreciated. OLNEY. Mr. Terrell to Mr. Olney. [Telegram.] CONSTANTINOPLE, November 25, 1896. Telegram from Harpoot that twenty-six wives with children of naturalized Americans, for whom I applied to the Sultan, will leave there at once for America under escort of my cavas to the seashore, and that twenty-three more such women and naturalized Americans not yet ready will leave in a few days. Also a telegram from Marash that the governor there facilitates departure of all persons applied for by me. Until now the governor of Harpoot has obstructed the orders of the Porte. TERRELL. Mr. Terrell to Mr. Olney. PERA, December 29, 1896. Thirty-five naturalized Americans or the wives and children of such are on ship from Harpoot to America. Nine revolutionists released from Aleppo left Alexandretta last night on ship for Marseilles. Diradourian leaves for America to-day on assurances from palace of security. Have requested withdrawal of guard from Robert College. TERRELL. INSPECTION OF FOREIGN VESSELS IN TURKISH PORTS AND PREVENTION OF REVOLUTIONARY ARMENIAN PUBLICATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. Tevfik Pasha to Moustapha Bey. [Telegram.--Handed in French original and translation to the Secretary of State by the Turkish minister, Saturday, November 7, 1896.] CONSTANTINOPLE, November 5, 1896. As you know, it is a proved fact that foreign steamers land at Constantinople Armenian anarchists, as well as dynamite, infernal machines, and explosives. Those anarchists who hide themselves on board of the steamers do not land after their arrival, but disguise as seamen or otherwise in order to avoid the police. On the other hand, the Armenian anarchists abroad misuse the hospitality they are granted in certain countries, and propagate the most subversive rumors and publish articles in the newspapers calculated to keep up revolutionary ideas in the minds of their coreligionists in Turkey. This state of things paralyzes the effort made by the Imperial authorities to prevent new troubles in that country. We cherish the hope that the Government near which you are accredited, and which has never ceased from giving evidence of its solicitude for the maintenance of the good order in the Empire, would not in all cases refuse to us the support we need for the realization of this aim and to transmit to its representative at Constantinople formal instructions directing him to invite the authorities established under his jurisdiction to lend us their aid and necessary facilities to exercise a watch on the steamers coming from abroad. We ask this inspection in order only to prevent the landing of Armenian agitators, of engines, arms, etc. As to the publications made by Armenian revolutionists in foreign newspapers and to their plots, we rely on the feelings of friendship and sense of justice of the Cabinet for the adoption of such measures as they may deem proper to stop them. We should be particularly grateful if they would proceed to the expulsion of those agitators, and this measure seems the most efficient to neutralize their deeds. No. 2.] Mr. Olney to Moustapha Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 11, 1896. SIR: On Saturday last, the 7th instant, you were pleased to hand me copy and English translation of a telegraphed memorandum sent to you by the Ottoman foreign office in regard, first, to the inspection of foreign vessels in Turkish ports and the prevention of the landing of persons alleged to be disaffected toward the Ottoman Government, to which end the cooperation of the United States representatives is suggested; and, secondly, the prevention of revolutionary Armenian publications in the United States, and the expulsion of Armenian agitators. You invited expression of my views on both these points, and I conversed with you at some length on the subject. In view, however, of the comparatively formal character of your written inquiry, and in order to avoid any possible misunderstanding of my remarks, it seems to me desirable to briefly put the views I intended in writing also. Under the first head the Ottoman suggestion reads thus, following the French text: We cherish the hope that the Government near which you are accredited and which has never ceased from giving evidence of its solicitude for the maintenance of good order throughout the Empire, would not under all the circumstances refuse to us the support we need for the realization of this aim and will transmit, accordingly, to its representative at Constantinople, formal instructions directing him to invite his appointed agents to lend us their aid and the necessary facilities will exercise surveillance over the vessels coming from abroad. We ask this surveillance for the sole purpose of preventing the landing of Armenian agitators and of engines, arms, etc. No steamers or other commercial vessels under the flag of the United States are known to ply between foreign ports and those of Turkey, carrying passengers or arriving under circumstances likely to give rise to the abuses of which His Excellency Tevfik Pasha's telegram complains. Were there any such vessels concerned the duties and fune tions of the United States consuls, which are defined by law and regulation, would not extend to the detection of the persons described as "anarchists, concealed on board, who only make their appearance after their arrival, disguised as seamen or otherwise, in order to evade the vigilance of the police." Our consular officers are charged only, as regards the vessel's company, with the shipping and discharge of members of the crew, and with the regulation of disputes concerning dis cipline on board and the like. As respects passengers, or stowaways, they are without authority to exercise police surveillance on behalf or in substitution of the Turkish authority. It is understood, however, that the Ottoman Government elaborately regulates the entry of persons and merchandise into the territory of the Empire, and if any attempt were made to clandestinely land men or munitions from a vessel under our flag the officers of the United States would certainly interpose no obstacle to the due execution of the laws of Turkey by Turkish agents, or intervene further than to secure for any implicated citizen of the United States all rights and privileges to which he may be entitled in virtue of such citizenship, precisely the same as they would intervene to safeguard the interests of any American citizen found on board a vessel of another flag than ours and accused under like circumstances. Your memorandum does not suggest that the coming of armed revolutionary expeditions to Constantinople is apprehended; but even in the extreme supposition that citizens of the United States might attempt to enlist abroad for the purpose of making war upon any foreign power with which the United States are at peace, the United States minister is authorized in countries where the United States possess extraterritorial jurisdiction to issue writs and otherwise to prevent such enlistments, carrying out this power by resort to such force belonging to the United States as may at the time be within his reach (Rev. Stat., sec. 4090). Under this provision, the admiral commanding the United States fleet on the European station was instructed nearly a year ago to cooperate heartily with our minister in Turkey in enforcing all writs issued by the latter to prevent the entry into Turkey of any American citizens as armed revolutionists. As your communication has particular reference to the situation at Constantinople, it is proper to remark that the admiral's instructions can only hold good in fact at ports or places visited by the vessels under his orders, so that in the absence of a dispatch boat at Constantinople subject to his directions the hands of the United States minister are tied. The second aspect of his excellency's inquiry, touching the treatment of persons who in the United States may publish their sympathy with those who oppose the rule of Turkey in Asia Minor, has been on several occasions discussed with your esteemed predecessor. Mavroyeni Bey has been repeatedly informed that while the laws of this country provide a judicial remedy for any act of armed hostility against a power with which the United States are at peace by organizing expeditions or fitting out vessels to make war against the same, the expression of opinion by speech, writing, or otherwise is free under our Constitution and laws, so that neither the act nor the actor can be held accountable .by any exercise of administrative power, nor can they come within the cognizance of the courts save in case of libel or defamation, upon suit brought by the party alleging to have suffered injury. In a number of his later notes Mavroyeni Bey has expressly referred to and recognized this position, so that I may assume that it is well known to your Government, and that the inclusion of this suggestion in his excellency's telegram may have been due to his employment of a circular formula intended to be addressed principally to the Governments of countries whose laws provide for administrative treatment of press offenses and where, contrary to the constitutional rule which here obtains, the discretionary power of expulsion may be used by the executive branch. There is no existing statute nor has any ever been enacted here which forbids the entrance into the United States of persons belonging to the category described in the telegram you communicated to me, nor any provision for the expulsion of aliens deemed abnoxious to their own Governments from American territory. The only law restrictive of alien residence ever enacted by Congress is the alien act of June 25, 1798, which was passed very soon after the adoption of our present Constitution, and which, however, merely authorized the deportation of such aliens as should be deemed "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States." That act continued in force for two years only from the passing thereof, and consequently expired by its own limitation June 25, 1800. It has never been reenacted. The present immigra tion laws of the United States, while forbidding the landing of certain obnoxious classes of alien convicts and authorizing the deportation within a limited time of such as should effect unlawful entrance into our territory, expressly exempts from its operation persons "convicted of a political offense." I have thus fully referred to our legislation concerning alien immi gration, in pursuance of my promise to answer more explicitly your oral inquiry on the subject. Accept, etc., No. 1187.] Mr. Olney to Mr. Terrell. RICHARD OLNEY. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: On the 7th instant Moustapha Bey handed to me a translation of a telegraphed memorandum which he had received from the Ottoman foreign office in regard to, first, the inspection of foreign vessels in Turkish ports and the prevention of the landing of persons alleged to be disaffected toward the Ottoman Government, to which end the cooperation of the United States representatives is suggested; and secondly, the prevention of revolutionary publications in the United States and the expulsion of Armenian agitators. For your information I inclose a copy both of the memorandum as translated and my reply. I am, etc., No. 1084.] Mr. Terrell to Mr. Olney. [Extract.] RICHARD OLNEY. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Constantinople, November 28, 1896. (Received Dec. 14.) SIR: Referring to your No. 1187 of November 13, touching inspection of foreign vessels in Turkish ports and the prevention of revolutionary publications in the United States, in which was in losed the note of Moustapha Bey and your answer thereto, I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of my note to the minister of foreign affairs of this date on the same subject. I have, etc., A. W. TERRELL. [Inclosure 1 in No. 1084.] Mr. Terrell to Terfik Pasha. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Constantinople, November 28, 1896. SIR: I have received from the Hon. Richard Olney, Secretary of State, a copy of your excellency's note to His Excellency Moustapha Bey, inclosed by Moustapha Bey, under date of November 5, and of Mr. Olney's answer thereto in his note No. 2 of November 11. |