TURKEY. ALLEGED REQUEST OF ARMENIANS FOR ARMS FROM THE UNITED Mr. Gresham to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 30, 1895. SIR: I have the honor to state that I learn by a recent dispatch from the minister of the United States at Constantinople you are said to have advised your Government that the Armenians in this country have requested the Government of the United States to furnish them arms, with permission for military drill, in order that they may prepare themselves for a contest with Turkey. Your long residence in the United States, and your opportunity to know the true relation of this Government toward its citizens in such matters, incline me to withhold credence from this absurd and impossible statement. Before, however, replying to Mr. Terrell's dispatch in this regard, it seems proper to afford you an opportunity to make such statement in the case as you may see fit. Accept, etc., W. Q. GRESHAM. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, Washington, January 31, 1895. (Received January 31.) MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: In response to your excellency's note of yesterday I have the honor to inform you that I have never written to the Sublime Porte that the Armenians of the United States had solicited from the Federal Government any arms whatsoever. Moreover, had so foolish an application been made, the Federal Government would have known what answer to make to requests as absurd as impossible. Without doubt the inaccuracy of the information transmitted by Mr. Terrell seems to me to have originated in the fact that our vice-consul at New York, Assim Bey, had sent, a short time before, through me to the Sublime Porte, a report in which among other things he said that the Armenians of New York, in agreement with what was besides published in the Armenian newspaper of New York, the Haik, had formed the intention to engage in military drill at New York, and even had hopes of procuring arms for that purpose. From this local news, which did not concern the Federal Government but the authorities of the State of New York, our vice-consul at New York prepared a letter to the authorities in question. I do not truly comprehend how, from such a communication, transmitted besides by our vice-consul at New York, Mr. Terrell could have concluded that the imperial legation could for an instant have associated the Federal Government in a rumor which, in the very nature of things, could have had nothing to do with this same Federal Government. And the proof that this is so is that I have never spoken to your excellency of a matter which, I repeat, has never existed. Mr. Terrell, thereI desire that he may be fore, finds himself in the most absolute error. made aware of my response, and that he may know that I never con found the intrigues and threats of the Armenians in question with the constantly frank and honorable conduct of the American Federal Government. Your excellency has, consequently, good reason to write in your aforesaid note that "your long residence in the United States and your opportunity to know the true relation of this Government toward its own citizens in such matters, incline me to withhold credence from this absurd and impossible statement." Be pleased, etc., MAVROYENI. NEUTRALITY-REPORTED ORGANIZATION IN NEW YORK OF ARME NIANS FOR MILITARY DRILL. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, Washington, January 16, 1894. MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: The Ottoman consul-general at New York informs me that 30 Armenians, residing in New York, propose to engage in military drill in order that, upon occasion, they may be prepared, as they openly declare through their journals, to disturb order and tranquillity in Turkey. Whatever may be the provisions of law in force in the United States, it is evident that, in the case of a government, as in this instance, the competent authorities of the State of New York are in a position to prevent these drills whenever they take place. Therefore I pray your excellency to be pleased to send a copy of my present note to them, in order that they may forthwith be advised of the matter. Be pleased, etc., MAVROYENI. Mr. Uhl to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 16th ultimo, wherein you mention the report which has reached you that 30 Armenians, residing in New York, propose to engage in military drill, with a view to the disturbance of order and tranquillity in Turkey, and ask that the authorities of New York be communicated with on the subject. I shall be happy to communicate, as you desire, a translation of your note to the governor of New York, so that the State authorities may be in a position to act should the municipal law or police regulations be violated. It is, as you are doubtless aware, the province of the courts of the United States to take cognizance of complaints duly made that acts violative of the neutrality statute are being committed within the jurisdiction of this country. Should the Turkish consul-general at New York be informed of the organization of any expedition there against the peace of Turkey, it may be advisable for him to consult with the United States attorney for the district with regard to the proper method of procedure. Accept, etc., EDWIN F. UHL, Acting Secretary. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: Your excellency has had the kindness to write me, in your note of the 19th of February, 1894, respecting the manner of preventing the prospective. military drills which certain Armenians propose to make, with an object openly hostile toward the Imperial Government, and "that should the consul-general at New York be informed of the organization of any expedition against the peace of Turkey, it may be well for him to consult with the United States attorney for the district with regard to the proper method of procedure." Inclosed herewith your excellency will please find a copy of a letter which has been written to me on this subject by the attorney-general [attorney-general of the State of New York], and I beg of you to be pleased to inform me whether you are in accord with the contents of that letter. A legal question of serious importance is here raised, regarding which it is no doubt necessary that the Government of the United States should make its position known. For my part, I consider the opinion of the attorney-general as being correct. Accept, etc., MAVROYENI. [Inclosure.] Attorney-General of New York to Mavroyeni Bey. ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, DEAR SIR: In response to your letter of the 9th instant, would say that the State controls and punishes its citizens by legislative enactment. The United States, as a nation, would probably have the power to prevent preparations having in view acts of hostility toward a friendly power. Very respectfully, etc., J. C. HANCOCK, Mr. Uhl to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have had the honor to receive your note of the 16th instant, in further relation to the reported organizations of Armenians in New York City for military drill, which formed the subject of your previous note of January 16 last. In my reply of February 19 to that first note I intimated the distinction between infringement of municipal or police regulations under the State laws and any question of violation of the neutrality statutes of the United States. With respect to the former, I stated that a copy of your note would be sent to the governor of New York for proper consideration. As regards the latter, I suggested that, should the consular representative of Turkey in New York City have knowledge of any expedition being set on foot there as indicated, it might be advisable for him to consult with the United States attorney for the district with regard to the proper mode of procedure. You now communicate to me a copy of a letter you have received from Mr. J. C. Hancock, attorney-general of the State of New York, to whom it appears you wrote in this relation on the 9th instant. As before indicated, the construction and enforcement of the statutes of the several States is a subject peculiarly within the jurisdiction of the State courts, and the Federal courts take cognizance of complaints properly supported in cases of asserted violations of the acts of Congress upon proceedings instituted under the direction of United States district attorney of the district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed. MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: I have the honor to give, hereinafter, to your excellency copy of a telegram which I have just received from the first secretary of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, with orders to cause its contents to reach their high destination: The justice which characterizes the American Government is already recognized. By imperial order I pray you to inform the President of the United States that his message of the month of December last, which is in conformity with justice, has met with the high satisfaction of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan our sovereign. Be pleased, etc., MAVROYENI. Mr. Gresham to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 21st instant, communicating the text of a telegram you have received from the first secretary of the Sultan, expressing His Imperial Majesty's high appreciation of the President's message of December last. This is regarded as a pledge of the high sense of justice and international comity which, the President is pleased to believe, must equally animate His Majesty, and as an assurance that the sovereign right which we have recognized in favor of Turkey will be exercised without harshness and duly tempered with friendly consideration, thus fulfilling the President's just expectations as expressed in that message. Accept, etc., W. Q. GRESHAM. PUBLICATIONS BY TURKISH SUBJECTS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES OF MALEVOLENT ARTICLES AGAINST TURKEY. Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Gresham. [Translation.] IMPERIAL LEGATION OF TURKEY, Washington, May 24, 1894. MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: Certain Ottoman subjects, when out of the Ottoman territory, now and then indulge in malicious publications for blackmailing purposes. Your excellency is aware of the fact that, in many instances, the Imperial Government has taken administrative action for the preven tion of intemperate language brought to its notice in Turkish newspapers directed against governments and statesmen who are on friendly terms with us. The Imperial Government therefore hopes that similar measures may be taken by that of the United States whenever it may be necessary. In fact, the Sublime Porte's wish is that such Ottoman subjects as would come to the United States and attempt there to publish, with obviously malicious intent, newspapers or pamphlets, or to spread false information through the local press, be delivered to us. I am pleased to hope that the Government of the United States will be willing to acquiesce in the foregoing. Accept, etc., MAVROYENI. Mr. Uhl to Mavroyeni Bey. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of the 24th instant, in which you refer to alleged malevolent and untruthful publications in the press of the United States by Ottoman subjects against the Turkish Government, and in view of the circumstance that in your country such publications may be prevented by administrative action, you state the wish of the Imperial Government that similar measures be taken by the Government of the United States, and in particular that Ottoman subjects making such publications here be delivered to the Ottoman Government. Under our system the Executive is not clothed with the power whose exercise you invoke, and is equally without authority to deliver an accused person to a foreign government save under due proceedings in extradition under a treaty when the commission of a specified offense in the demanding country is proved by judicial evidence. Accept, etc., EDWIN F. UHL, Acting Secretary. |