No. 634.
Mr. Maynard to Mr. Fish.
Constantinople, August 16, 1875. (Received September 8.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department of State that on the 12th instant Reuter’s Telegraphic Agency published the following dispatch, viz:
“America, Washington, August 10.
The Government has ordered the frigate “Hartford” to go to Tripoli and make an inquiry into an outrage perpetrated upon the American consul.
Inquiry was made at the legation for further information, of which I had none.
The following day Safvet Pasha, the minister of foreign affairs, sent for the dragoman, Mr. Gargiulo, requesting him to call at his private residence on Saturday morning. He wished to know the meaning of the dispatch. Mr. Gargiulo could not give it, as the legation had received nothing about it, either from Tripoli or Washington. He then wanted to know our opinion in the premises. Mr. Gargiulo could only surmise that our Government, weary of the frequent and tedious delays to obtain satisfaction for injuries to her citizens, had decided to conduct investigation through other than diplomatic channels. The minister expressed regret that any such supposed necessity should have arisen, and remarked upon the decision which characterized the Americans.
At that moment there was handed the minister a cable dispatch from Aristarchi Bey, Ottoman minister at Washington, in relation to the same affair. When the minister had read it, he handed it to Mr. Gargiulo, who requested a copy. This the minister declined to give according to the tenor, on the ground that it might be used to disclose his official cipher, but gave him the substance in language of his own. I inclose this version of the dispatch, as well as the dispatch itself, according to Mr. Gargiulo’s recollection of the language, both translated into English.
The minister then dictated a dispatch to the governor-general of Tripoli, which he submitted to the inspection of Mr. Gargiulo, in substance as follows:
“An American man-of-war has been ordered to go to Tripoli to seek satisfaction for the American consul there on account of an insult done him and his wife by some natives. You are invited to take the matter up immediately, have the necessary investigations made, and reparation given before, the said ship arrives there, and in such a way as to fully satisfy the consul.”
Yesterday he communicated to me the result of his visit, which I embodied in a telegraphic dispatch in these words:
“Saturday, Porte, informed by Aristarchi, telegraphed governor, ordering reparation made American consul before Hartford reaches Tripoli.”
As you will perceive, I am wholly in the dark, except as I can infer from the two dispatches from Washington.
There are some reasons to give the Ottoman authorities disquiet in the matter besides an evident disinclination to incur the displeasure of our Government, towards which in various ways they have manifested kind feelings.
It brings into sharp controversy the question presented in my dispatch No. 10, of the 6th July last. As long as the action of our Government appeared only in our official publications and diplomatic correspondence, it was by no means so serious as if it should assume a quasi hostile attitude [Page 1309] toward Tripoli, without any notice, either to the Ottoman Porte directly or through their minister at our capital.
The troubles in Herzegovina, too, are of importance enough to make it inconvenient to entertain any other issue of gravity at this time.
Then, too, the financial situation is understood to be not free from difficulties.
Seeing such a temper, I hope I shall not be thought to have transcended the line of due observance in making this communication without waiting for instructions or further information.
I am, &c.,