It would seem that the exhaustive examination to which it is subjected before
authorization is given and the care bestowed upon it, as above shown, to
prevent fraud, ought to insure the book against undue and vexatious
interference on the part of subordinates. Such, however, is not the case.
Seizures have been made in Erzerum last autumn of books destined to the
mission stations at Bitlis and Van. In this case the books were shipped from
here in cases which were sealed with leaden seals of the custom-house and
should not have been disturbed until they arrived at their destination.
Within a few weeks a box for Rev. G. C. Raynolds, at Van, which had been
passed and sealed by the custom-house here, was opened at Trebi-zonde and
some of the books taken and sent back here for examination, and then on
reaching Erzerum was again opened and more books sent back here for
examination. Other similar cases might be mentioned.
It is a serious loss and hardship to have the contents of boxes handled en
route by inexperienced as well as irresponsible parties; moreover, there is
no valid reason why the seal of the custom-house should not protect the
boxes and contents while en route to their destination.
It was claimed by subordinate censors in the interior that, inasmuch as it
had at one time happened that publications had been circulated with
fraudulent authorizations printed on them, they were unable to determine
which were genuine without a reexamination, and hence these seizures.
The missionaries have never claimed or circulated an unauthorized publication
as authorized and are not open to any such suspicion.
Very recent seizures at the custom-house here of authorized books destined
for other points plainly indicate that there is a deeper significance to be
attached to them than would appear from the excuses made by censors in the
interior, and that the reasons given by the latter are not the real ones,
for here, where the officially sealed copy of each authorized publication is
kept, there is no ground for claiming that the books might possibly be
unauthorized, notwithstanding the printed authorization on the
title-page.
I have within the last few weeks had very frequent interviews with H. H., the
Grand Vizier on this subject, and have strongly protested against these
unnecessary annoyances and the losses arising therefrom. I found him
personally very desirous of adopting some method by which further troubles
of the kind might be avoided, but I thought best finally to observe to him
that no method could be successful in stopping these seizures unless the
principle is first laid down that an authorization once made by the proper
authorities shall not be revised or revoked, for I have satisfied myself
that the contents of the books form the real grounds for the seizures.
Unless this is conceded by the Turkish authorities, we may be prepared for
endless vexation and annoyance, for every time there is a change in the
office of censor a new modification may be expected.
The matter is of the greatest importance to the missionaries, as the
existence of their book trade seems to be depending upon the result. I will
give it the close and constant attention which its importance merits.
A statement on the subject, made by Rev. H. O. Dwight, is herewith inclosed
for the information of the Department.
[Inclosure in No. 104.]
Memorandum of interferences with the book trade of
Americans in Turkey.
The American societies engaged in the hook trade in Turkey are the
American Bible Society, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions (Boston), and the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (New
York). The American Tract Society also makes grants of funds for the
missionaries for the publication of tracts. These societies have carried
on the book business in the Turkish Empire since the year 1834, when the
first named of the two missionary societies tranferred to Beirut the
printing press which it had established at Malta in 1822. Their
publishing houses are now situated at Constantinople and at Beirut. The
value of the stock and manufacturing plant of these societies in Turkey
is estimated at about $500,000.
The American Bible Society prints the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the
New Testaments in all of the various languages of the Empire, and keeps
on sale, also, a stock of the same in all European languages. The
publishing committee of the mission of the American board, established
at the Bible House, in Constantinople, prints the Turkish,
Armeno-Turkish, Græco-Turkish, Armenian, Greek, and Bulgarian religious
and devotional books and tracts and text books for schools. The American
press at Beirut, under the charge of the missionaries of the
Presbyterian Board of Missions, prints in Arabic religious and
devotional books and tracts, school books and scientific works, and
general literature of a high class. Both of the missionary societies
also publish religious family newspapers with extensive subscription
lists.
The books published are transported at the expense of the societies to
the various parts of the Empire, so that they are sold everywhere by
agents of the societies at the catalogue price of each work.
At the beginning of this book trade no specific law regulated the
publication of books in Turkey. In fact, at that time books were rarely
published, unless by the Government itself. All books were, however,
subjected to examination at customhouses, and were authorized for
publication by the seal of the custom-house censor. In 1874 a law of the
press was put in force, under which no book can be published in Turkey
without the authorization of the ministry of public instruction. This
authorization is obtained by submission of the manuscript with a request
for permission to print it. After the book is printed it can not be
published without a second examination for the purpose of verifying its
conformity to the manuscript as authorized. Every book is required to
bear on its title-page a statement of the fact that it is authorized;
and, under a regulation issued in 1882, this statement must give the
date and number of the permit of the department of public instruction. A
regulation was adopted in 1883 expressly applying to the books issued by
the American societies, by which all books from their presses must
indicate on the title-page the fact that they are published by a Bible
or missionary society, as the case may be. The works issued from these
presses have always conformed to the laws in force at the time of issue.
Nevertheless, the trade of the American societies has long been
subjected to vexatious and destructive interference (1) by the arrest,
long detention, or confiscation of authorized books, and (2) by the
restriction of liberty to choose the market in which the books are to be
sold.
(1) The seizure of authorized books:
Within the last 3 years there has been a marked increase of restrictions
upon the book trade. Book censors have been appointed in all the
provinces, whose duty it is to prevent the circulation of dangerous
books. These censors have their attention chiefly directed to the books
offered for sale among the Christian populations of the Empire, and
especially (as some of them have been frank enough to say) to those
books which encourage the people to think. The power of these book
censors to injure the business of dealers in books, as well as the
injustice actually suffered at their hands, will be readily understood
by a few illustrations of their narrowness, ignorance, and incompetence
as a class.
One of these, a Mohammedan passing upon a Christian book written in a
language that Mohammedan in Turkey can not read, condemned it on the
ground that he had already permitted the Bible, and that is as much as
any man ought to ask. Another in similar circumstances condemned a work
which treated of Christian doctrine as calculated to stir up strife, for
a Mohammedan might perhaps see it and be stirred thereby to attack the
Christian for believing such things. Another objects to the Christian
hymn “Am I a soldier of the Cross?” as revolutionary, and so suppresses
in his province the hymn book used by all the Protestant churches in the
Empire. Another objects to a Sunday-school book that it contains the
word Fatherland, which word will recall to Armenians the name of
Armenia, and that name is a forbidden one. Another for the same reason
condemns a physical geography which gives the name Armenia in a list of
copper mines mentioned by Strabo as worked in his time. Another
suppresses a child’s book of Bible pictures because it contains a
picture of Mt. Ararat. Another has confiscated a part of a shipment of
Bibles as dangerous and has released the remainder as innocuous, not
being able to perceive that all the copies are identical.
[Page 755]
The results of the incompetence of these censors are no less
extraordinary. In many cases they pass without question the nauseous
mass of immoral French romances which are issued in translations by the
native publishing houses, but regard as necessarily dangerous
schoolbooks, religious books, and other works of a more or less solid
character. Hence, as a purely precautionary measure, they will arrest
the whole stock of an agent of the American societies while they send on
to Constantinople to learn if the authorization of the department is
really intended to permit the circulation of the books. This involves
long delay. In one such case, where books of one of the American
societies were seized by the censor in 1889 at Erzerum, they are still
in custody at the time of this writing, 7 months later, the censor not
having been able as yet to learn whether the authorization printed on
the title page is authentic. Yet the time usually occupied by the post
in the journey from Erzerum to Constantinople is from 8 to 10 days.
Similar cases of arbitrary interruption of our business are
frequent.
The department of public instruction condones such interferences with the
trade of the American societies by claiming that the provincial
officials can not certainly know, without sending the books to
Constantinople, that their authorization is genuine.
The fallacy of such an argument is evident when it is remembered that the
books are carefully examined by the censor in the custom-house in
Constantinople before shipment; and that the boxes are there securely
sealed for the express purpose that provincial censors may, on seeing
the seal of the custom-house intact, be assured that the books in the
box are authentically authorized books. But more than this, the American
societies are publishing houses long established in Turkey and having
permanent investments of a considerable amount within the Turkish
Empire. The Ottoman Government has therefore the power to hold them
rigidly to account, were they to issue illegal publications. When these
societies publish a book stating on the title-page over their Own
imprint that for this publication they hold a permit of a given date and
number, they offer for the truth of the statement a guaranty
commensurate in value with the value of their investments in Turkey; for
those investments must necessarily be sacrificed if they were to publish
a single unauthorized book with forgery of the authorization of the
department of public instruction. The official who feels anxiety
concerning the authenticity of the authorization of a book published by
one of the American societies can allay all reasonable doubt by
requiring the local agent of the society to certify that the book is one
for which the society is actually responsible. Such a certificate might
to secure the books from arrest, for under the circumstances the
probabilities are overwhelmingly against the supposition that the
printed declaration in the books will turn out to be unauthentic. At the
same time, if the official still doubts, he can send a copy of the book
to the department for verification, sure that if the permit be not
authentic the parties responsible are always at hand for punishment.
This being the case, the course now pursued by the officials of the
department of public instruction has the effect on the mind of being
based on a will to hamper the Americans in their book trade rather than
upon any necessity of police administration.
Furthermore, these censors claim the right, each for himself, to revise,
and, if he sees fit, revoke the authorization given by the central
Government and to confiscate the books belonging to the American
societies exactly as if they were printed without permission. The
assertion of such a claim results in such abuses as the following:
Books of the American societies duly authorized and sold freely in all
parts of Constantinople have been seized on being taken into the
custom-house in that city for shipment to other parts of the Empire or
to foreign lands. The reason of this is simply that the officials in the
custom-house do not care to observe the authorization that is respected
on the outside of the custom-house. Books sold freely in one province of
the Empire are instantly confiscated on being taken into the adjoining
province, because the censor in that province differs in view from his
colleague. And, books that have passed the ordeal of the Constantinople
custom-house, and have been packed in boxes sealed with the official
leaden seal, and have been shipped to a distant inland city have been
opened and overhauled by any censor that felt a curiosity to see the
contents of the boxes, although they were destined for a city entirely
outside of his jurisdiction. And in some such cases these amateur
censors by the wayside have taken the liberty to confiscate books that
seemed dangerous to their refined tastes. Again, other censors, not
deeming it needful to inquire into the authenticity of the permits of
the books of the American societies, have torn out some pages of whose
contents they did not approve, and then have suffered the mutilated and
ruined books to go free. And in one place the local dignitaries, to
emphasize their right of revising the action of the ministry at
Constantinople, have torn out the title-page containing the official
authorization, and have then confiscated the books as unauthorized, or
at least improper in their view to be allowed circulation.
[Page 756]
The department of public instruction at Constantinople gives
encouragement to these acts of spoliation upon the property of the
American societies by refusing to order that its own authorizations be
regarded, by taking into serious consideration the proposals of the
petty censors of the provinces for the suppression of our authorized
books, and by actually claiming for itself the right to establish from
time to time new canons of censorship and then to confiscate all books
which it had authorized before the new standard was devised. A notable
instance of the latter class of wrongs is the case of the primary
geography published by the American mission at Constantinople in 1881
with the authorization of the department. This book has the name Armenia
in one of its maps, and the department now claims that it has decided
not to authorize the use of this name, and that it may therefore
confiscate the books, although it is admitted that the use of the name
was authorized when the maps were made. Its seizure of these books
wherever found, whether in the hands of private persons or in the hands
of the book agents, has destroyed the value of the geography as an
article of merchandise. In other cases its officials delay for months to
order the release of books illegally seized while it considers the
question of entirely suppressing the sale of the books. In one case the
delay extended to the period of 9 months during all of which time the
agent of the society was under arrest at a remote town in Asia Minor
waiting to learn whether, besides the loss of his books, he was to
suffer punishment for having been found selling them, although published
under the authorization of the department.
(2) Restrictions of the right to choose the market in which the books of
the societies are to be sold:
The usage of these societies is to establish book depots at central
points and thence to send out traveling agents to offer the books for
sale in the country districts. This practice has been followed for years
without evidence of any injury to any legitimate interest of the Ottoman
Government. But in many parts of the Empire the book agents are arrested
whenever they appear in villages or country districts. In the course of
the last month (February) an American missionary was thus arrested for
having in his possession twelve copies of books authorized by the
Government, and which it was supposed that he might try to sell. He was
held in arrest for 4 days in violation of the law and of the treaties,
and although finally released with an apology, he was informed that the
books could be sold only in towns, not in country districts. In the
province of Erzroom the customers on whom depends the sale of the books
most in demand live principally in the large villages. But the
authorities undertake to hold the position that they have a right to
restrict sales in these villages notwithstanding the authorization of
the books.
From what has been said it will be seen that the interference complained
of is due to the adoption by the authorities of the following principles
of action in regard to the books of the American societies:
- (a)
- Any official who doubts the authenticity of the authorization
of a book may provisionally confiscate it,
- (b)
- Books authorized by the department of public instruction may
at any time be confiscated by a censor who chooses to revoke or
ignore the authorization.
- (c)
- The department of public instruction may confiscate books
which it has itself authorized.
- (d)
- Officials may designate the localities where authorized books
are to be sold, or may entirely prohibit sales.
These principles, of the working of which examples have been given above,
we hold to be contrary to good sense and to equity, to be demanded by no
legitimate interest of the Ottoman Empire, and to threaten the
extinction of the long-established book trade of those American
societies. It is therefore hoped that the United States Government will
take such measures as may seem fit to bring about an amelioration of the
conditions under which these societies suffer needless and heavy losses
every year. Perhaps the admission by the Ottoman Government of the
following principles would cover the needs of the case:
- (a)
- Books authorized by the department of public instruction are
everywhere free from seizure.
- (b)
- Books published by a responsible publishing house and bearing
on the title-page the statement of the number and date of
authorization are free from arrest or confiscation, unless the
statement has been proved to be false.
- (c)
- No restrictions other than those placed on other traffic are
to be placed on the traffic in authorized books.
Without the intervention of the United States Government to secure some
relief, the American societies may be expected to lose their business as
book publishers and a great part of the capital invested in this
business in Turkey.
Henry O. Dwight,
Missionary of the American Board.
Bible House,
Constantinople
,
March 20, 1890.