Mr. Gresham to Mr. Newberry.
Washington, May 15, 1893.
Sir: I have received Mr. Thompson’s dispatches numbered 78 and 82, of April 24 and 27 last, respectively. They relate to the recent Marsovan incident, the former inclosing your report as to the investigations made under instructions from the minister, and the latter conveying the [Page 633] very gratifying intelligence of tire payment by Turkey of a money indemnity of 500 Turkish pounds for the acts of its officials and the promise of two imperial firmans in favor of Anatolian College. In the matter of the trial of the two native teachers, it will be proper for you to endeavor by all suitable means to secure for them a fair trial, with every possible recourse for their defense, and to enlist, through the British ambassador, the kindly offices of Mr. Newton, the British vice-consul at Angora, to this end.
I congratulate you not only upon the ability and thoroughness of your investigation, but upon the very satisfactory termination of the incident itself, as well as upon the promise, as the Department perceives it, of the disappearance of occasion for future apprehension on the part of American missionaries when the firman granting protection and exemption from taxation shall have been issued.
I am, etc.