Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress, December 4, 1893
Mr. Thompson to Mr. Foster.
Constantinople, February 14, 1893. (Received March 7.)
Sir: I have the honor to transmit to you communications which have been addressed by me to his excellency the minister of foreign [Page 600] affairs on the subject of the censorship of the Ottoman Government and the printing of Christian publications in Turkey, showing the injustice of such censorship.
I also send you examples of the mutilations of publications which have been made, which, as you will observe, render them of no value for religious instruction.
I hope my action in this matter will meet with your approval.
I have, etc.,
Mr. Thompson to Said Pasha.
Constantinople, February 14, 1893.
Excellency: I have the honor to call the attention of your excellency to the matter of the publication of books by the European Turkey Mission of the American Board for Foreign Missions, using the Bulgarian language, and the long delay that is caused by the censorial department to which it is necessary that these books should pass before being published.
The delay in that department is so great that but one form in three weeks is all that is passed, and for seventeen months but twenty-five forms have been passed by the censor of the books of commentaries of the New Testament. These forms contain sixteen pages each. At the present rate of examination it will require ten years to publish the three proposed volumes. I would most respectfully urge your excellency to cause a sufficient number of persons to be placed on this censorship as to pass at least one form per week.
It is very evident also that the present censor is incompetent to do the work, because of the matter stricken out by him, which would not be done were he competent to rightly interpret the Bulgarian language. I would most earnestly urge the attention of your excellency to the importance of appointing a mixed commission to pass as censors of these publications, and that, as they are wholly concerning the Christian Religion, a member of that denomination be placed on the commission. The publications of this society are wholly of a religious character, either the Bible itself or Christian history and religious commentaries, and your excellency will readily see the necessity of a censor who is not only well acquainted with the Bulgarian language, but also with the character of the subject to be examined.
The appointment by your excellency of such a commission as I have suggested, to examine the publications of all Christian books, would not be an innovation to have Christian readers for purely Christian literature, because such a provision, I am informed, was at one time made when the board of censorship was instituted. At first representatives from all the Christian bodies were on the council of the department, and purely Christian works were first read by Christian readers and then submitted to the mixed commission, composed of Mohammedans and Christians. I would again most earnestly urge your excellency to cause this commission to be again appointed to examine those Christian books, so as to expedite their publication, because, as must be apparent to your excellency, the rate of publication which is now rendered possible by the delays of the censor amounts to virtual prohibition in its results.
I hope Your Excellency will give this subject the attention its importance deserves.
I inclose to your excellency a few examples of the mutilations of the publications, showing the absurdity of the work of the censors, and there are hundreds of others equally as damaging to these publications, and which I feel sure would not be objected to by your excellency, if properly examined by a competent censor.
Please accept, etc.,
Messrs. Spence and Dwight to Mr. Thompson.
Sir: Remembering the many declarations of the Imperial Ottoman Government which provide religious liberty for its subjects of all classes, and gladly bearing in mind also the many instances in which the Government has shown by its measures at once the sincerity of these declarations and the liberal interpretation which it places upon them, we venture to beg your attention to a state of affairs in connection with the censorship of Christian religious books, which amounts to the refusal of essential religious privileges to the Protestants of the Empire.
The duties of the censors of the press, as defined by law, relate to the prevention of publications politically or morally bad. Latterly we are informed by various Protestant societies engaged in the publication of religious literature in Turkey, the censors, departing from the usage of the past, have extended their sphere to include the destructive modification of religious books of an absolutely unexceptionable character. Some of these censors appear to be unacquainted with Christian doctrine, and some unable to understand the language of the books upon which they are expected to render judgment. The result is a painful trifling with things held sacred by all Christians. The exposition of Holy Scripture in commentaries has been restricted; statements of Christian doctrine in books for the instruction of Christians have been erased or changed; the quotation, in religious works, of the words of Scripture requisite for proof or illustration of doctrine, has been subjected to the will of the censor; single words or phrases in purely religious works have been suppressed, without regard to their context, on the ground that in some other context these words might be used with political significance; the use of some of the ordinary Scriptural titles of our Lord Jesus Christ has been forbidden; and even the printing of religious books has been objected to on the ground that since Christians are graciously allowed to use the Holy Bible, they need no other books of religion.
Appeal from the decisions of the censors is practically unavailing, since there is no one in the council of censure to urge the injustice and needless hardship of such decisions upon the attention of the Mohammedan members of the council.
We inclose herewith (Inclosure A) some examples of this interference with Protestant religious books by the censors, and we beg special attention to the destructive mutilation of the Commentary on the New Testament in Bulgarian, practiced by the Censor Vehmi Effendi, and to the refusal of the censors to permit the publication for the Armenian and Greek Protestant Bible classes in the Empire (numbering over 16,000 members) of the index list, in Armenian, Armeno-Turkish, and Greco-Turkish to the lessons from Holy Scripture prepared by the British Sunday School Union for the year 1893.
A fundamental principle of Protestant usage in all lands is the untrammeled study of the Holy Bible, with all accessible aids to the mastery of its requirements by all the members of the community, as a means to moral and spiritual culture. Religious literature of an expository, doctrinal, and devotional character, applying the principles of Holy Writ to life and conduct, is an inseparable element of the exercise of religion among Protestants. Any refusal of permission to publish such purely religious literature is therefore a direct denial to Protestants of the right to exercise their religion. We do not question in any way the suppression of political matter deemed injurious by the Government, nor do we claim any relaxation of the rule against the publication in religious works of controversial attacks upon other creeds. But we do claim, and we believe that the claim will be admitted as just by all fair minds, that no obstacle may be placed in the way of the publication for Christians in Turkey of the religious books in use among their coreligionists abroad. Such interferences with the liberty to pursue religious culture as we have here set forth are incompatible with the imperial edicts granting to Christians in Turkey freedom to exercise their religion.
We do not hesitate to presume upon your interest in this freedom of the exercise of religion. Its intrinsic importance is nearly equaled in Turkey by its relation to the peaceful progress of the Empire. Friendly representations to the Sublime Porte in behalf of its maintenance have often been made by your predecessors with benificent results. Hence, in last resort, we venture to beg that you will take into consideration the propriety of pointing out to the Ottoman Government the unhappy impression which must be produced upon the people of Europe and America by the acts of petty officials which rightly or wrongly will be interpreted as attempts to hinder Christians in the study of the basis of their own religion. And our suggestion would be that representations be made to the Sublime Porte in the direction of securing, besides the obvious and urgent requirement that quotations from Scripture in religious books be protected from the hands of the censors, the further desideratum [Page 602] that censors charged with the control of religions works of Christian origin should be themselves Christians, competent by education and experience for the duty, and able to avoid the mistake of characterizing the ordinary doctrines of Christianity as unwarrantable or prohibiting them as pernicious.
In behalf of the Constantinople branch of the Evangelical Alliance.
- David Brown Spence, President
- Henry O. Dwight, Secretary.
examples of the mutilation of religious books.
In the Bulgarian Commentary on the New Testament, from the exposition of the words, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (Matt., iii, 3), the following was stricken out:
“Reference is here made to the sending of men before a king or general to remove any obstacles that may be in the way along which he is to pass, to repair the road, to level its steep places, and so to make it suitable for the king or the army to pass along.”
On the words, “The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt., xi, 12), the following was stricken out:
“The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence like a fortified place; but not because it itself is surrounded by a wall, but because men themselves are beset by sins and prejudices, so that only those who strive—the earnest, the zealous, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and who are ready to take up the cross and follow Christ—are able to seize it or enter therein.”
On the words of the Jews at the trial of Jesus, “His blood be upon us and our children” (Matt., xxvii, 25), the following was stricken out:
“And how completely these words were fulfilled in the later history of the nation. Forty years after these events many of these same people and thousands of their children died in the siege of Jerusalem from the sword, famine, and pestilence. So, also, thousands suffered the same death which they were inflicting on Jesus. So large was the number of those condemned to crucifixion that Josephus says there was no room for the crosses, nor crosses enough for those condemned. And from that time to this day the nation has been left to suffer many heartless persecutions at the hands of various enemies.”
On the phrase “The Queen of the South” (Matt., 12:42) the following explanation of the position of Sheba was stricken out:
“A land in southern Arabia, abounding in gold, precious stones, and spices.”
This censor insists that the scriptural phrase “Kingdom of Christ” may not be used by Christians, and that Jesus Christ may not be called King in the scriptural sense.
Wherever the word Jew occurs, Vehmi Effendi strikes it out, making nonsense of the context. For instance in the following examples, the words in italics are ordered to be erased: “Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities;” “Golgotha is a word in the Hebrew tongue;” “Many Jews were settled at Cyrene, in Africa;” “But some think that it was only a Jewish idea that these persons were possessed with devils;” “According to Jewish law.”
The unfitness of this censor to be given the decision of what matter shall be permitted to enter the religious instruction of Christians needs no further proof. Yet pages might be filled with similar examples of his work. Upon complaint being made of these meaningless mutilations of a valuable book, Vehmi Effendi informed his superiors that these phrases were violent attacks on the Jewish religion. The destructive meddling of this censor with the commentary on the gospel of St. Matthew has already delayed its publication for a whole year, and it may be found necessary on account of this obstructiveness to abandon the plan of giving the Bulgarian people the commentary for which so many are ready to subscribe.
The index list of the Bible lessons for 1893 is simply a table of contents prepared by the British Sunday School Union, compressed into the smallest possible space, and containing no word of comment. The censors have refused to permit the publication of this index list unless some fifty of the titles are erased, or modified into a form at variance with the matter of the lessons, or expanded to a degree impossible in a brief table of contents. The following are typical specimens of the requirements of the censors:
St. Luke, 4:14–21, “Gospel liberty.” The word “liberty” must be erased.
Jeremiah 33:7–16, “Sorrow turned to joy.” This title must be suppressed.
Haggai 2:1–9, “Encouraging the people.” This title, which refers to the Divine encouragement given to the people in the work of rebuilding the temple in the days of Zerubbabel, must be erased.
[Page 603]Psalm 33:10–22, “Wicked devices frustrated.” This title must be stricken out.
Esther 4:l–9, “Sorrow in the palace.” This title must be suppressed.
Romans 4:1–8, “Saved by grace.” This title must be modified to read “Saved from sin by grace.”
Psalm 38: 8–15, “Hope in distress.” This title must be suppressed.
Joshua 1:1–9, “Fear not.” This title can not be allowed.
Romans 8:31–39, “Rejoicing in persecution.” This title must be erased.
Romans 15:25–33, “A benevolent object.” This title can not be allowed to stand unless the object is stated. If a full statement of the object is made and it is found to be compatible with the interests of the Ottoman Empire, the title will be allowed to stand with its explanation.
The titles of religious books in common use throughout Christendom are often prohibited and often modified to suit Mohammedan ideas. Of such are the titles of Prof. Drummond’s The Greatest Thing in the World, and Montfort’s The Divine Name, The Law Still Binding, etc. In each of these cases the title of the work was spoiled by the prejudice or incompetence of the censors.