Mr. Olney to Mavroyeni Bey.
Washington, April 15, 1896.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your note, special 17, of the 8th instant, communicating to me copy of an undated telegram addressed to the first secretary of the Imperial Palace, to the Grand Vizier, to the minister of foreign affairs, and to the Armenian patriarch, and signed by a number of persons, apparently residents of Harpoot, protesting against the presence and teachings of foreign missionaries in that city.
It is believed that the vague charges enunciated in that telegram against foreign missionaries are but one incident in a campaign of systematic misrepresentation and calumny. If it be asserted by your Government that these charges lie at the door of the American missionaries and teachers in Harpoot they may deserve investigation, not because of their probability, but in order that such campaign of prejudice and misstatement may be exposed.
This Government will therefore set on foot inquiry to test the truth of the charges and the genuineness of the memorial in question.
Accept, etc.,