No. 691.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Straus.
Department
of State,
Washington, June 18,
1887.
No. 25.]
Sir: I inclose for your information copies of
correspondence mentioned below, lately exchanged between the representatives
of the American Bible Society at New York and this Department concerning the
unjust treatment of their agents, and the obstacles constantly interposed to
the sale and circulation of the imprint of the Bible, published
[Page 1116]
in Turkey by the authorities
thereof. These appear fully set forth in the printed letter of the Bev.
Isaac G. Bliss, the society’s agent at Constantinople, one of the inclosures
herewith.
While I think it desirable to bring these matters to your knowledge, I deem
it necessary to do but little more in the way of an instruction for your
guidance than to refer you to my No. 7, of April 20, 1887, wherein are
discussed the rights of our citizens in the Ottoman dominions who are
peaceably pursuing their vocations and violating none of its ordinances.
That instruction, and those of a kindred nature, to your predecessors, of
which there are a number among your legation’s archives, as well as your own
observations, will, I doubt not, have convinced you that the cause of the
missionaries and their beneficent labors in Turkish territory is a fruitful
source of trouble and complaint because of the absence of stringent and firm
measures, as a rule, when complaint is made to check a repetition, not only
of petty annoyances, but greater offenses.
Your presence on the spot, however, makes you the better judge of the merits
of these complaints and how they can best be dealt with successfully, and
gives assurance that whatever can be accomplished for the protection of the
interests and the rights of American missionaries will be done.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 25.]
American Bible Society to
the President
Bible
House, Astor Place,
New
York, April 7,
1887.
Sir: The board of managers of the American
Bible Society, through t Je undersigned, its committee, begs leave to
call your attention to the injustice done to its agents and employés in
the Turkish Empire while engaged in the sale of Bibles and Testaments
whose publication has been approved by the, ministry of public
instruction, and of the copies of the Holy Scriptures which have passed
through the customhouse, after examination and the payment of duties.
Our information is that those agents and employés are constantly and
wrongfully interrupted in their lawful work, and are subjected to
imprisonment and other indignities. Not only in provinces remote from
the capital, but in Constantinople itself, the police in repeated
instances have disregarded treaty and law, so that our employés have
been arrested and imprisoned, and their books have been seized in an
unjust and arbitrary manner. In support of these statements we append a
printed but unpublished letter from Dr. Isaac G. Bliss, agent of the
Society for the Levant, and we beg leave to ask that instructions may be
given, through the State Department, to the United States legation at
Constantinople to protest against these interruptions to the society’s
lawful work, and, if possible, to prevent their recurrence.
We are, etc.,
- Enoch L. Fancher,
President of American-Bible
Society.
- Edward W. Gilman,
- Alexander McLean,
Corresponding Secretaries.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 25.]
Letter from Rev. I. G. Bliss.
[Extract.]
Constantinople, March 4,
1887.
In a recent letter I informed you of the arrest of Colporteur Abraham,
while quietly pursing his work in Galata. His detention in prison was
less than two hours, but on his release all his hooka were taken from
him. The following day Colporteur Theodore was arrested in Scutari and
his books taken from him. The succeeding day
[Page 1117]
Colporteur Paul was quietly passing through the
market-place in Scutari, when he was taken in charge by one of the
police and marched to the station. After being detained for an hour or
two, he was allowed to go on his way, on condition of leaving his books
with the officer. In three successive days three of our best and
law-abiding men were most arbitrarily and unjustly taken into custody,
and their books, 242 in number, taken from them.
On the fourth day these brethren, accompanied by one of our clerks, went
to the above-mentioned station to look after the books and inquire the
reason of such arbitrary proceedings. Were the colporteurs disturbers of
the peace? Was their conduct in any respect to be impugned? Not at all.
No fault was found with the men. The trouble was with the books. Such
books were not allowed to be sold in the streets; they were injurious
and dangerous. When the attention of the officers was called to the
permit of the Government on the title-page of the books, their reply was
that they had nothing to do with that matter. It was a thing to be
settled at the censor’s office whither the books must be taken.
After a day or two, inquiry was made at this Department, and it was found
that the books had been received. Some of the officials manifested
annoyance at the doings of the police, and when questioned said that
several years ago there was an order that books should not be sold in
the streets, but that it had been almost at once rescinded. The books
will no doubt be in a day or two returned to the Bible House.
* * *
This method of dealing is not confined to Constantinople. In one of the
cities in the interior a package of Bibles which had passed the
custom-house was dispatched to a village for sale. It was seized at the
gate of the city, sent to the governor, examined by him and found all
right, returned by him to our agent, and started again on its way to its
distination. Once more it was seized (although the officer was told that
it was the package he had previously taken), sent to the police the
second time, examined and returned to our agent. This occurred several
times before it was allowed to go on to the village. This system of
“Bible circulation” is, to say the least, somewhat novel. * * *
Many of our friends marvel at this state of things and can not understand
why Bible printing and distribution should encounter opposition in so
many forms in the Turkish Empire. They have supposed that the Bible was
recognized as a book above all suspicion, and in the estimation, even of
Mohammedans, as second only to the Koran. Furthermore, it is asked, “Is
not religious liberty the law of the Turkish Empire?” To this we may
answer, yes; it is so written. Various protocols have been issued. All
read well and abound in pledges and assurances very nicely worded. If
diplomacy ever earned a crown, a magnificent diadem was its due when it
secured the pledges referred to. Many years ago these documents were a
source of comfort to all workers for Christ in Turkey. Sultans
recognized their validity; Grand viziers and cabinet ministers did not
quite like to be known as those who disregard the pledges found in those
protocols.
There is, however, a remoteness about all this law of liberty which gives
it a very shadowy look to us of to-day. It is of very little use in
these days to refer to the pledges of the Government in the past. Even
the utterances of that astute statesman, Ali Pasha, are growing of less
and less account. He ruled that the Bible had never been and could in no
respect be regarded an interdicted book in the Turkish Empire. We have
not forgotten how, with his rulings and decisions before them, the
authorities only a few years ago were most reluctant to give permission
to the reprinting of the Turkish Bible, When this was at last secured, a
most persistent refusal for a long time was given to our request for
authority to print the New Testament, single gospels, and other portions
of this same Turkish Bible. You will also recall the difficulties
encountered a little more than a year ago, when permissson was asked to
print two gospels in Bulgarian for distribution among the Bulgarian
soldiers in Constantinople hospital.
We take issue with the authorities in this land in this matter. It is
their privilege, if they deem it important, to exercise, a strict
surveillance over the printing and distribution of the sacred Scriptures
in the various languages in this Empire. They have the right to enact
laws on this subject, and this they have done. According to the present
law no book, not even the Bible or any part of it, can be printed in any
language in any part of the Empire without special permission from the
mooarif, or censorship, connected with the ministry of public
instruction. It is a part of this regulation that when the permission
for printing of-any book is given, the authorization in the Turkish
language is to be printed on the title-page, with the number and date of
the permit, and the name of the individual or society at whose expense
the book is printed. This law has been in operation for several years at
Constantinople, but only within a short time has it been insisted on at
Beirut and other places. All books introduced through the custom-house
from other countries are subjected to a strict examination and duty.
Anything objectionable being found in any such book, it is confiscated,
and the person introducing it is liable to imprisonment. One would
[Page 1118]
suppose that having fully
conformed to the law of the land in respect to book publication, and
having paid duty on all books introduced through the custom-houses from
other countries, our work of Bible distribution would be comparatively
free from embarrassment. This, however, is by no means the case, and
herein we take issue with the Turkish authorities and complain of the
injustice done to us. Our Bibles are not dynamite. They are a safe
commodity. Oar business is as legitimate as the trade in cotton cloth.
We claim that the sale of all books published with the authority of the
central government, showing on their title-page its imprimature, and
also the books on which we have paid customs, should be protected fully
by the authorities in every part of the Empire, Evidently the police of
Constantinople should have no authority to arrest a man engaged in
selling authorized books; nor should governors of the interior provinces
be allowed to sit in judgment on the decisions and imprimaturs of the
central government. Can not our own Government be persuaded to consider
this question in the light of treaty arrangements, and protect a
business so legitimate and so extensive as is our own Bible and book
work in Turkey?
Yours,
