Mr. Olney to Mavroyeni Bey.

No. 91.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 25th instant, embodying the text of a dispatch received by you from His Excellency Tevfik Pasha in reply to the note which I addressed to you on January 14 last, in regard to the burning of the property of American missionaries at Harpoot.

It is not perceived that the explanations of the minister of the interior to Tevfik Pasha controvert in any way the information furnished to this Department and stated to you in my note referred to. Even admitting that water was not procurable in sufficient quantities to immediately extinguish the fire, this can not account for the unchecked destruction and pillaging which were carried on for several hours before a guard was furnished the American missionaries.

A copy of your note and of this reply will be sent to the United States chargé d’affaires ad interim at Constantinople for his information.

Accept, etc.,

Richard Olney.