Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1883

No. 555.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Wallace.

Department of State,
Washington, June 22, 1883.

No. 92.]

Sir: I transmit for your information the inclosed copy of a letter from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at Boston, of the 19th instant, in relation to an alleged assault upon the Rev. G. C. Knapp and Rev. G. C. Reynolds by lawless men in Turkey. We are without other information upon the subject than this letter contains. You will give the matter such investigation as may be possible, and do whatever you properly can to insure protection for the gentlemen mentioned. You will also report hither such circumstances in their cases as you may be able to learn.

I am, &c.,

FRED’K T. FRELINGHUYSEN.

[Inclosure in No. 92.]

Mr. Means to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Boston, June 19, 1883.

Sir: The Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions respectfully call your attention to recent violations of rights of American citizens in the Turkish Empire. There are, as you well know, many of our citizens engaged in educational and missionary labors in Turkey. We suppose that cases of attempted violation of treaty rights have been reported to the United States Government by General Wallace, our minister at Constantinople, particularly in the cases of Rev. H. Y. Perry, of Kara Hissar, and Rev. Lyman Bartlett, of Cesarea. We have just received a letter from one of the secretaries of the American Board, temporarily in Constantinople, dated May 29, in which he says: “We are made anxious by a telegram announcing that Rev. G. C. Knapp, whose residence has been in Bitlis, and Rev. G. C. Reynolds, M. D., of Van, have been attacked by lawless men, and that Doctor Reynolds was smitten by ten sword-cuts. We wait a reply to telegram for further particulars. This assault calls for vigorous measures at Washington.”

Doctor Reynolds and Mr. Knapp, we presume, were traveling in the country at the time.

We are sure it is only necessary to call the attention of the State Department to the condition of things, of which the treatment of Messrs. Perry, Bartlett, Knapp and Reynolds are illustrations, to secure such interposition from our Government as the circumstances demand.

Very respectfully, &c.,

J. O. MEANS,
Cleric of the Prudential Committee and Secretary of the American Board.