Mavroyeni Bey to Mr. Olney
Washington , June 8, 1895.
Mr. Secretary of State: In reply to the note which the Hon. Mr. Uhl was pleased to address to me under date of the 6th instant, I have the honor to inform your excellency that the object of my note of April 30 was simply to state that the fears of a lack of security which were expressed by certain American citizens were wholly without foundation, and that the visit of the American squadron to Ottoman waters could not, notwithstanding the malevolent insinuations of certain newspapers, be considered by the Sublime Porte otherwise than as a purely amicable visit. Mr. Uhl is perfectly right in asserting that “abstaining from intermixture in the internal matters of other states, this Government employs its naval agencies abroad only for keeping up the usual courtesies of friendly intercourse and for the protection of American citizens and American interests in other countries. Performance of this latter function is alike the right and duty of every sovereign state. The state so acting can alone be judge of the occasion therefor, and may not be called upon to account for the course it may consider wise or necessary.” I consider these words of Mr. Uhl all the more just in that they apply, by logical and evident reciprocity, to the Turkish Government, as they do to every other.
This being the case, and it being granted that any Government may use such means as it chooses, consistently with its friendly relations and with public tranquillity, for the obtainment of information and for the enforcement of its policy abroad, I see a denial of the rumors hostile to Turkey, which were mentioned in my note of the 7th of April last, in the following sentence of Mr. Uhl:
Our naval commanders, carrying neither diplomatic credentials nor consular commissions, discharge no representative duty save in conformity with the ordinary etiquette of the naval intercourse of nations.
I have, moreover, for some time past been very glad to know what a favorable impression the aforesaid visit made on Admiral Kirkland
Be pleased to accept, etc.,