Mr. Hirsch to Mr. Blaine.
Constantinople, June 19, 1890. (Received July 3.)
Sir: By referring to dispatch 194 of my predecessor, Mr. Strauss, it will be noticed that the trustees of Robert College, desirous of erecting an addition of 100 by 50 feet to their college building, as also a two-story dwelling house for their president, requested the legation to ask for the necessary imperial iradé, which was finally granted, and was reported to the Department in the dispatch quoted.
Subsequently it was discovered that from some cause the iradé only covered the dwelling house of the president and not the much desired addition of 100 by 50 feet to the college building proper.
Immediate steps were taken by the legation to supply the omission, and after much vexatious waiting and frequent disappointments the correction was finally made by an order of the council of ministers and the necessary papers transmitted to the proper authorities some weeks ago.
The college authorities have begun to prepare the ground for the much-needed improvement.
[Page 770]Iradés in the matter of schools are always among the most difficult things to obtain in this Empire, and it is no small gratification to know that we have been successful in this instance, much of the credit for which is due to the skill and patience of Mr Gargiulo, our dragoman.
I have, etc.,