No. 629.
Mr. Boker to Mr. Fish.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, March 9, 1875.
(Received April 2.)
No. 276.]
Sir: I have the honor to say that the attention
of the Department may have been attracted to a report made current by
the American and the British newspapers, to the effect that it was the
intention of the Ottoman government to suppress the Protestant schools
throughout the empire, and that efforts to that end had already been set
afoot in the province of Syria.
As the officials at the Sublime Porte have always unhesitatingly denied
any such intention, both to the British ambassador and to myself, I
thought it advisable to instruct Mr. Baraczi, on his recent visit to
Syria, to investigate the matter, so far as that province was concerned,
and to communicate the result of his observations to the legation.
From Mr. Baraczi’s report—a copy of which I herewith inclose—it will be
seen that no Protestant schools have been closed, nor has any attempt to
close them been made by the Ottoman government, although I can say, of
my own knowledge, that many of them were opened without having received
the permission from the authorities required by the law of this
country.
It seems to me that the statement of those two facts should relieve us
from all concern on the subject, for governments and their
representatives can have nothing to do with undeveloped and disavowed
intentions. There is no doubt that there exists great popular hostility
to the Protestant schools of Syria, which are generally conducted, or
have been established, by American and British missionaries; but this
opposition, in almost all cases, owes its origin to the fanaticism of
the native Christian sects, and rarely to the antagonism of the indolent
Mussulmans.
There is hardly one Turk in a year converted to Christianity of any kind,
so that the converts to Protestantism are, as a rule, recruited from
those native Christians who, under various sectarian names, lean toward
the discipline of Catholicism in subjecting themselves completely to
priestly domination.
The clergy and the notables of the native Christian sects, who hate
Protestantism, which they call atheism, more than the faith of Islam,
and who sit in the councils of the local communes, in which the
Protestants have no representation, often use the pliant Turks as cat’s
paws, or carry them along in the current of good-fellowship toward
measures directed against the Protestants, or cunningly devised to
incite popular odium and even violence against them. I have, however,
seldom been called upon to deal with one of those constantly-recurring
difficulties between the American missionaries and the natives of Turkey
which could be traced to a Mussulman origin. Now and then a
[Page 1295]
good-natured Turk blunders
into such an affair, but he is usually the surprised victim of a
priestly intrigue, and not seldom the most innocent of all the parties
concerned, while he is ever a willing, and, if unnoticed, grateful
fugitive.
As the report of Mr. Baraczi will give the Department full information as
to the true condition of a matter which has attracted great attention in
the religious world, both in the United States and in Great Britain, it
will not be necessary for me to continue the subject.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 276.]
Mr. Baraczi to
Mr. Boker.
Constantinople, March 4, 1875.
Sir: I have the honor to state that, while
I was in Syria, the American missionaries complained that the
Turkish government persecuted the Protestants in Syria, and, in
order to prevent the conversion of the people to Christianity, it
not only submits the converts to a hard and unjust treatment, but
recently directs all measures against the missionaries
themselves.
The principal points of their complaints are—
- First. That the custom-house authorities make great
difficulties in letting pass, free of duty, the goods
destined for the private use of the missionaries.
- Second. That the government made difficulties about the
establishment of a printing-press connected with the
Bible-house at Beirût.
- Third. That it refused to grant the permission to practice
to the graduates of the medical college at Beirut.
- Fourth. That their elementary schools had been closed by
the Ottoman authorities.
The latter complaint having filled almost all the newspapers of
America and Europe, I felt it my duty to examine it. The other three
questions having previously been brought to the knowledge of the
legation, I found no object in investigating them.
The results of my inquiries, in reference to the question of the
elementary schools, do not coincide with the exaggerated and
perverted statements published in so many papers. I found that while
one part of the population of Syria is friendly to the missionaries,
because they feed and clothe their children, the greater part, the
Mussulmans, are the most implacable foes of the foreign teachers,
who, according to their opinion, sap the foundations of Islamism.
This fanatic part of the inhabitants accused the missionaries of
promising foreign protection and exemption from military service to
those who would become Protestants; of sending the daughters of the
Ansayrich inhabitants to America; and of founding schools without
asking the authorization of the government, as they are required to
do by the laws of the country.
The two former complaints afforded no reasonable ground for a formal
proceeding, but the third accusation was brought to the knowledge of
the Sublime Porte, which instructed the governor-general of Syria to
put a stop to such abuses and to prevent the missionaries from
building and opening schools without the permission of the
government.
Halet Pasha, the governor-general of Syria, addressed a circular to
the governors under his jurisdiction, ordering them to watch that no
schools be built and opened by foreigners
without previous authorization of the Ottoman government. The
governors transmitted this order to the caïmmakams of their
districts, who communicated it to the consular officers, on whom the
schools depended.
I herewith inclose a copy of a communication sent by the caïmmakam of
Latakia to the United States consular agent at the same place.
The note of the caïmmakam contains a request to stop the building of
schools, and to close those which had already been opened. But the
latter part of his communication is only an explanation of the order
received from the governor of Tripoli, which is repeated in the
first part of the said communication. An ambiguous Arabic word made
the caïmmakam believe that the schools already existing should be
closed, while the order really said, “to prevent the building and
opening of schools by foreigners.”
As far as I could ascertain, no American school in Syria was closed
by force, and the above communication arrived a long time after the
schools had been closed by the missionaries themselves for reasons
entirely independent from the above orders.
Still the communication of the caïmmakam of Latakia was termed every
where a governmental measure by which the Protestant schools in
Syria had been closed.
[Page 1296]
The real reasons for closing the schools are the following:
The greatest part of the converts to Protestantism consist of
Ansayrichs, who embraced Christianity in order to escape certain
obligations imposed on them by the Ottoman laws. It was impossible
for me to find out whether this hope was fostered by the
missionaries or not. When the converts heard that three conscripts
were taken out even of the American school at B’hamra and sent to
Damascus to do military service, they lost all confidence in the
power of the missionaries. After waiting some time, and when they
saw that the conscripts did not come back from Damascus, they
deserted their new faith. Reports of cruelties exercised by Turkish
officials and soldiers against the Protestant conscripts contributed
very much to intimidate and determine them to remain on a better
footing with the Ottoman authorities, which they had ignored up to
that time. So, in the spring of 1874, the chapels and schools of the
missionaries counted but very few visitors. The elders and notables
of some villages, in order to get entirely rid of the missionaries,
addressed a petition to the caïmmakam of Djebleh, asking the
expulsion of the missionaries and closing their schools. The
caïmmakam, of whose order I inclose a copy, took into consideration
only the latter part of their request, and authorized them only to
prevent their children from going to school and to abstain from all
intercourse with the missionaries, so as to compel them to go whence
they came. The school at Bahloolich was consequently abandoned in
June, and the benches of the school of B’hamra became empty about
the same time, and, as the schools already existing remained empty,
there was no inducement to the missionaries to continue building new
schools.
The communication of the caïmmakam of Latakia arrived only three
months after these events had taken place. Whatever might have been
its contents, it could not effect the closing of schools which were
not open.
While I repeat that no violent act took place on the part of the
Ottoman authorities in regard to Protestant schools, which is proved
best by the medical college and preparatory school at Beirut, which
have never been molested, I leave it to your appreciation to decide
whether the proceedings above stated were illegal or not.
I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your most obedient
servant,
Hon. George H. Boker,
United States Resident Minister,
Constantinople.
[Subinclosure 1 in No.
276.—Translation.]
Order of the Caïmmakam of Djibleh.
Twenty-third Rebi’el Cooel 1290.
(May 5,
1874.)
To the Elders and Notables of the
Village of Bahloolieh:
We have read your report asking that the schools established in your
village by American missionaries should be abolished, because the
instruction given in them by the Protestant teachers is contrary to
the principles of your religion, and because said schools have not
been established with permission from the imperial government, as
should have been done. As you ignored in the beginning that the
lessons given in those schools are contrary to your religion, and as
it is improper to establish schools without the permission of the
government, we have made the necessary representations in order to
obtain the closing of said schools. As to you, you are instructed to
prevent your children from going to those schools, and from
associating with the teachers so that they [the teachers] might move
with their families to the place where they came from.
Be it known to you.
MOHAMMED SALEH,
Caïmmakam of
Djebleh
[Subinclosure 2 in No.
276.—Translation.]
The Caïmmakam of
Latakia to the United States
vice-counsul.
Seventeenth Saba’n 1291. (September 16,
1874.)
To our honored friend the
Vice-Counsul of the mighty United States of America, at
Latakia:
We have the honor to receive an order from the high government, (at
Tripoli,) which has been sent in consequence of an order of the
government-general at Damascus, based upon an order from the Sublime
Porte. The substance of the said high order is that constant care be
taken to prevent the building and opening of schools by foreigners,
whosoever they may be. We, therefore, inform you that you are
requested to do
[Page 1297]
your
best to prevent the subjects of the Government which you represent
from doing anything of the kind. And if anything of the sort has
taken place, you will be kind enough to stop it, and to close the
schools already established, and to inform me of the measures you
take in that respect. Hoping that you will kindly acknowledge the
receipt of this communication, I seize this opportunity to assure
you of my sincere friendship.
[
l. s.]
ABDELRAHMAN
NADJIM,
Caïmmakam of
Latakia.
