No. 639.
Aristarchi
Bey to Mr. Fish.
New York , October 15, 1874. (Received October 16.)
Mr. Secretary of State: I did not fail to transmit to Constantinople the annual reports of the Commissioner of Education, which accompanied [Page 1319] your note of the 26th of March last, and the imperial government expressly instructs me to convey its sincere thanks therefor to the Washington Cabinet.
His excellency Safvet Pasha, minister of public instruction, writes to me as follows:
“By the very full and able reports of the United States Commissioner of Education, we have been enabled the better to appreciate the progress which is daily made in a country in which public education occupies so high a position.
“As a matter of course these reports, as well as any other communications relating to public instruction in the United States, cannot fail to possess great interest for us.
“I therefore beg you to be pleased to convey the expression of our sincere gratitude to the persons who have so kindly complied with our request, and I have the pleasure of sending a copy of each of the works used in our schools, to be presented as a complimentary offering to the Commissioner of Education, for his library.”
I have the honor, Mr. Secretary of State, to send you the Turkish works referred to by his excellency Safvet Pasha, and he desires me to procure copies of certain works used in America in the instruction of youth.
Be pleased to accept, &c.,