The decision to resort to demands for indemnity in these cases is the result
of much careful reflection, and a firm belief that there is no other method
of accomplishing redress. A reading of the course pursued in the matter by
the Turkish authorities, high and low, will, it is believed, bring the
Department to the same conclusion, and to an approval of the step I have
assumed to take.
[Inclosure in No. 317.]
Mr. Wallace to
Aarifi Pasha.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, January 24,
1884.
note verbale.
The legation of the United States of America has the honor to invite the
attention of his highness, the minister of foreign affairs, to the
matters following:
By note No. 167, June 13, 1883, the legation informed his highness that
two American citizens, traveling in the vilayet of Bitlis, had been set
upon by Kurds, robbed, and left to die, and that the governor-general of
the vilayet had manifested the most singular indifference about the
affair, and might be fairly charged with responsibility for the escape
of the malefactors. The suggestion was then made that his highness would
serve the cause of humanity and justice by ordering the most energetic
measures to be taken for the apprehension of the robbers.
By a communication, No. 71235, June 13, 1883, his highness was good
enough to answer the note of the legation, and give the pleasing
intelligence that the governor-general had succeeded in discovering the
goods taken from the two gentlemen, and that the robbers had been
arrested and delivered up to justice. This information his highness
reported as derived from the governor-general.
This report the legation found it necessary to correct, and for that
purpose it addressed a second note to his highness the minister of
foreign affairs, No. 179, dated September 10, 1883, declaring that the
robbers had not been arrested, and that the goods and money taken from
Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds had been returned to them, hut in small
parts. Under impression that it was yet possible to obtain the powerful
assistance of the Sublime Porte in bringing the thieves and assassins to
justice, the legation in the same note proceeded to give the full
particulars of the affair, both those connected with the assault and
those descriptive of the action of the governor-general. Of the assault,
it remarked that Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds, accepting the assurance of
the governor-general that the roads were perfectly safe, set out on
their journey without a guard of zaptiehs. They put up for a night at a
house where there was present Moreoussa Bey, son of Meza Bey, an
influential Kurdish chief. When they took their coffee they failed to
send a cup of it to the said Moussa, who, feeling himself insulted by
the inattention, took four assistants and next day waylaid the
gentlemen, one of whom, Mr. Knapp, they beat with clubs until they
supposed him dead. Moussa Bey, with his own hand, cut down Dr. Reynolds,
giving him ten cuts with a sword. The two were then bound and dragged
into the bushes and there left to die. That there might be no excuse,
such as that the murderers were unknown, the legation gave his highness
the names of the subordinate assassins and their places of abode, Sherif
Oglon Osmon and Iskan Oglon Hassan, both of the villege of Movnok. A
third one was pointed out as the servant of Moussa Bey, living in the
village of Kabiaa. Of the action of the governor-general the legation
said further that when the affair was reported to him he made a show of
action by sending zaptiehs to arrest the robbers, but, singular to
remark, he selected Meza Bey, the father of Moussa, to take charge of
the party. Going to the village of Auzont, Meza Bey pointed out four
Kurds of another tribe as the guilty men, took them into custody and
carried them for indentification to Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds, who said
they were not the assailants.
During the night, in Aozou, a bundle was thrown through a window into a
room occupied by the police, which on examination proved to contain a
portion of the stolen goods. With this the governor-general rested from
his efforts and dispatched to
[Page 539]
his highness the minister of foreign affairs, that the stolen goods were
recovered and returned, and the felons captured and punished. This
report the legation took the liberty of informing his highness was not
true, also that the chief of the assassins, Moussa Bey, was still at
large; and to emphasize its statement, the legation further said to his
highness that the details it communicated were current through all the
region of Bitlis, having been first given out by Moussa himself. The
legation then, in the same note, exposed the maladministration of the
governor-general in language plain as respect for his highness, the
minister, and for the Sublime Porte would permit, and suggested as the
only means of accomplishing anything like redress that a brave,
impartial officer be sent to Bitlis to investigate the conduct of the
governor and take the affair in his own hands. “Such a step,” it was
added, “might serve to save the lives of many Christians,” and it was
further represented that “could the assassins be brought to just
sentence it would unquestionably lessen the demand for indemnity which
otherwise it would be the duty of the legation to present against the
Imperial Government in this connection.”
On November 7, 1883, the legation of the United States, by a third note,
No. 184, communicated to his highness, the minister of foreign affairs,
that the governor-general of Bitlis had confronted four persons with Mr.
Knapp for identification, and that that gentleman had recognized Moussa
Bey as one of those who had robbed and wounded him. The legation of the
United States then expressed a hope that the minister of foreign affairs
would give proper orders for bringing Moussa Bey and his companions in
crime before the tribunals for trial.
Still later, on November 12, 1883, the legation of the United States
addressed a fourth note, No. 185, to his highness, the minister of
foreign affairs, detailing again the circumstances of the attempted
murder of Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds, and representing the
untrustworthiness of the governor-general by charging that Moussa Bey
had already obtained from him assurances of immunity in the event of a
trial and conviction.
His highness, the minister, was then requested that, if it was decided to
maintain the governor-general at his post, orders be given for the
transfer of the criminals to Constantinople for trial.
The three notes last named of the legation of the United States have not
been answered by his highness, the minister of foreign affairs, except
in a note, dated December 8, 1883, in which he is pleased to renew
assurances based upon telegrams from the governor-general, which are
utterly unreliable.
Wherefore, abandoning hope of justice through the governor-general of
Bitlis, and the judicial tribunals of the empire, the legation of the
United States finds itself compelled to change its form of application
for redress, and demand of the Sublime Porte indemnity in behalf of
Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds for the former £1,500, and for the latter,
because of the more serious nature of his injuries, £2,000.
