Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 8, 1885

No. 633.

Mr. Wallace to Mr. Frelinghuysen .

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople , January 13, 1885. (Received January 31.)

No. 461.]

Sir: I have the honor to inclose for your consideration a copy of a communication received yesterday from the Sublime Porte relative to the affair of Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds.

It follows the proceeding in the case of Dr. Pflaum by saying that irregularities having been committed by the judge of the examining court and the deputy of the imperial prosecuting attorney, they (the judge and the deputy) have been “put under judgment.”

In the first place we are not informed of the irregularities discovered. In the next place we are not told what the judgment is under which the two officials have been put. Nevertheless, the President is expected to be satisfied with what is here doled out to us and forego further demands. Such is evidently the purpose of the communication.

Mr. Knapp is now in America when here he was taken by the interpreter of the legation before the minister of justice, and in answer to a question put by that official said, “They brought four or five men to me, and I was asked if any of them were my assailants; I pointed at one of them and answered, ‘Yes, that is the man.’” The individual thus clearly identified was Moussa Bey, who I am informed is to be seen every day going about in perfect freedom.

I respectfully advance the same opinion in this matter as in the case of Dr. Pflaum.

Very respectfully, &c.,

LEWIS WALLACE.

[Inclosure in No. 461.—Translation.]

Assim Pasha to Mr. Wallace .

Sublime Porte , January 12, 1885.

Mr. Envoy: Referring to the note of my department, under date of the 21st of last April, No. 74294, 17, relative to the act of aggression followed by robbery, of which Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds were the victims, in the vilayet of Bitlis, I have the honor to inform your excellency that the inquest made by the ministry of justice having revealed certain irregularities committed by the examining magistrate and the deputy imperial prosecutor, these two magistrates have been put under judgment.

Concerning the examination and judgment of the affair itself, the judicial authorities will carry them out with the greatest activity, and there is every reason to hope that they will shortly be entirely finished.

In reserving to myself to make known to your excellency the solution obtained as soon as it shall have been communicated to me by the ministry of justice, I seize, &c.,

ASSIM.