Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1892

Mr. Hirsch to Mr. Blaine.

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, January 11, 1892. (Received January 25.)

No. 375.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge your instruction, No. 263 of December 14, 1891, completing and amplifying the instructions contained in your No. 249 of October 1, 1891, touching the subject of the conversion of dwelling houses into churches and schools without authorization, in regard to which subject the Sublime Porte had addressed a verbal note to the legation on August 17, 1891, a copy of which, together with a proposed reply in concert with the British embassy was sent to you by the chargé d’Affaires in his No. 344 of September 10, 1891.

In closing your dispatch I am instructed if it would aid in the comparison of views between the legation and the British embassy, to communicate its contents to the ambassador.

The much lamented death of Sir William White unfortunately rendered it impossible to avail myself of this part of your instructions, and in view of the uncertainty of Sir Clare Ford’s arrival here to assume the functions of ambassador, it has not seemed well to me to leave the Porte’s verbal note of August 17 longer without an answer. I have therefore to day handed to the minister of foreign affairs, and had read to him, in translation, in my presence the verbal note of which a copy is herewith inclosed.

In conversation the minister said that it was not the intention of the Ottoman Government to interfere with the free exercise of religious rights, but that there were laws and regulations and it was expected that these be observed. The note of August 17, he observed, was a circular note, sent to all embassies and legations, and he had not heard of any special infraction of the law imputed to American missionaries, and in case such comes to his notice he would notify the legation.

I told the minister that the United States Government expected American citizens to obey the laws of the land in which they were domiciled, and that the missionaries had always done so and would continue to do so as long as rights secured to them under the capitulations and treaties and until now exercised, not only with the knowledge of but also under the protection of the Turkish Government, be not interfered with, and that we expect that they be permitted the continuation of the enjoyment of the privileges to which many years’ sanction entitles them. I took occasion also to say that reports from the interior of the Empire would seem to indicate a less friendly spirit toward our missionaries than was formerly displayed. I permit myself also to express to the Department my apprehensions aroused by the disquieting and unfavorable change in the attitude of the local authorities all through the Empire, and in this connection feel constrained to suggest to the. Department the urgent necessity of establishing a United States consulate at Erzeroum, the center of an important mission district, and one where we have no consular representation, our citizens living there being left to the good offices of the British consul.

The discouraging signs in divers quarters convince me that the establishment of a consulate there is now become an immediate necessity.

I have, etc.,

Solomon Hirsch.

[Inclosure in No. 375.]

Mr. Hirsch to the Sublime Porte.

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, January 9, 1892.

In acknowledging the verbal note, No. 101120–10 of the 17th of August, 1891, which the ministry of foreign affairs addressed to the United States legation, in which it is stated that it has sometimes happened that missionaries and religions have converted their dwelling houses into churches or schools without authorization, and that instructions have been given to the competent authorities to see that such conversion be prevented, the legation is constrained to observe that the definitions of the said note are so vague and wanting in exactitude that a categorical reply to the request contained in it is scarcely possible. This legation would therefore invite the ministry of foreign affairs to explain in what it conceives such conversions to consist. It may, however, be here laid down as a fundamental principle inherent in and protected by the capitulations and treaties, that the missionaries and religions possess the right to worship according to the rites of their several denominations in their houses and upon their premises, as long as the rights of others and public order be not thereby trenched upon or disturbed; it is not, therefore, conceivable that the verbal note of August 17 was animated by an intention to curtail or infringe upon this, the first and most necessary right of foreign missionaries.

Pending a clearer understanding of the meaning and intentions of the Sublime Porte, it has not been found expedient to comply with the request contained in the said note, that its provisions be communicated to the American missionaries in the Empire. It is moreover expected that instructions sent to the competent authorities in the provinces contain nothing affecting the status of American missionaries to their disadvantage, or subjecting them to any new or unusual treatment.