No. 715.
Mr. Heap
to Mr. Blaine.
Constantinople, May 14, 1881. (Received June 4.)
Sir: I have to inform the Department of two more cases of robbery of American citizens by highwaymen.
Rev. Mr. Barnum, a missionary, traveling from Harpoot to Sivas, in Armenia, in company with a post-rider, was waylaid near the latter place by six robbers, who, after taking his money and arms, were persuaded by Mr. Barnum to restore their booty.
Consul Edgar, of Beyrout, telegraphed yesterday that Mr. Montgomery, consular agent at Marash, in Syria, had been robbed by Circassians of one thousand dollars.
I communicated the fact at once to the minister for foreign affairs by telegraph, and requested that energetic orders be transmitted to the governor of Adana, Syria, to pursue the robbers.
I also sent a note to his excellency, recapitulating the three cases of robbery of Americans within ten days, attributing this state of affairs in part to the failure to punish malefactors who have been captured, tried, and sentenced.
Robberies are of daily occurrence, and some are accompanied by acts of cruelty. Another Englishman, Mr. Suter, his wife and child, were recently carried off by brigands from a village near the Gulf of Cassandra, in Macedonia. Although they had the protection of thirty soldiers, the robbers, who were in superior force, overawed them. The wife and child were returned, with a demand for £15,000 as ransom for the husband. They hold him in the mountains pending negotiations with the English consul at Salonica.
The insurrection in Albania has spread confusion in every direction, and a state of anarchy exists which will not cease until the frontier question is settled and the territory ceded to Greece has been handed over to and occupied by her.
I am, &c.,