No. 455.
Mr. Boker to Mr. Fish .

[Extract.]
No. 83.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt from the Department of State of printed circular No. 33, the contents of which I shal [Page 1108] immediately communicate to the United States consul-general at Constantinople.

Since my return to Constantinople, the following changes have taken place in the Turkish cabinet:

Khalil Sherif Pacha has been dismissed from the office of minister of foreign affairs, and in his place Safuet Pacha, ex-minister of justice, has been appointed. Safuet Pacha held his present office for a short time during last summer, and it was with him that I held the luminous conversation regarding the persecution of the Jews in Roumania, as narrated in my dispatch No. 43.

Midhat Pacha, ex-grand vizier, has been appointed minister of justice. This gentleman was thought to have made a signal failure as grand vizier during his brief tenure of office, to which, however, it is not improbable he may soon be recalled.

* * * * * * *

Rashid Pacha, ex-governor general of Syria and afterwards of Bosnia, has been appointed minister of public works in the place of Ismail Pacha, who has been returned to the council of state.

The above-mentioned changes in the ministry have no political importance. They signify nothing that is not included within the adage concerning the mutability of human affairs.

I have, &c.,

GEORGE H. BOKER.