Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 7, 1896, and the Annual Report of the Secretary of State
Mr. Terrell to Mr. Olney.
Constantinople, November 16, 1896. (Received Nov. 30.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith my cipher telegram of this date regarding renewed pressure for recognition of liability and payment of indemnity for spoliations at Harpoot and Marash.
The Porte has intrenched itself behind the false reports which it has received from local functionaries, and has been firm in its unwillingness to recognize the justice of the claims of the United States for indemnity.
It seemed proper that a record of the basis for the claims of the United States should be embodied in the inclosed note, the terms of which I hope will meet your approval.
I have, etc.,
Mr. Terrell to Tevfik Pasha.
Constantinople, November 16, 1896.
Sir: Your excellency was informed by my note on the 11th of August last that your note to His Excellency Mavroyeni Bey of July 11, in reply to Mr. Olney’s note of May 29, was not satisfactory to my Government. No answer to my note has been received. I have since received a note of His Excellency Mavroyeni Bey of October 8, addressed to Mr. Olney, which is equally unsatisfactory. A more careful statement of the facts and reasons on which my Government bases its claim to be indemnified for the burning and pillage of property at Harpoot and Marash is here given for the information of your excellency.
On the day when what is termed the “scheme of reforms” was announced last year by Imperial irade I went immediately to the Porte and demanded efficient military protection for every American citizen and his property in Asiatic Turkey. That protection was distinctly promised by your predecessor. The records of your ministry will show that repeatedly before that time continual military protection for my exposed countrymen in Asiatic Turkey was demanded by me and promised by the Imperial Government.
On the 12th of March, 1895, in my note No. 53 to His Excellency Said Pasha, the following language was used:
I demand that you telegraph orders to every portion of the Ottoman Empire where American missionaries reside to require all civil and military functionaries to protect their persons and property and to relieve them from the annoyances and insults which have recently become too frequent.
In my note No. 87, of October 3, 1895, to his excellency the minister of foreign affairs the following language was used:
I respectfully demand that your excellency will cause telegraphic orders to be sent requiring a continuance of respect and protection for all American citizens.
In my note No. 89, of October 15, 1895, to his excellency the minister of foreign affairs the following language was used:
I was recently compelled to demand that your excellency should send telegraphic orders for prompt and efficient protection of American missionaries residing in the towns of Aleppo, Marash, Hadjin, Tarsus, Mersina, and throughout the vilayets of Aleppo and Adana, because the missionaries were apprehensive of assassination by seditious Christians no less than from the fury of the populace who might be rendered desperate by the practices of seditious men.
The records of your ministry should show that on seven different times before and during the sad events of last autumn and winter I demanded telegraphic orders, which were promised, for efficient protection for the lives and property of Americans in Turkey.
Such frequent repetitions of telegrams was deemed necessary to impress the minds of officers in the interior. Unfortunately, at Harpoot and Marash no such result followed.
Being unable, after repeated demands, to secure an exequatur for an American consul at Harpoot, the sworn testimony of witnesses in that city has been obtained through the courtesy of the British consul there. He examined the college buildings which escaped the fire, and he confirmed with his statement the fact which I had been informed of before, viz, that artillery had been used against that American property. The high character of the witnesses examined is known to my Government, and on the truth of their testimony it relies.
That testimony shows:
- First. That while the villages near Harpoot were being burned and plundered, and before the burning of the college buildings, the president of the college demanded protection from Gen. Mustapha Murin Pasha, who commanded an ample military force near by at the city of Mezreh, and also from Col. Sukri Bey, the commandant in the city.
- Second. That both of these officers gave assurance of protection before the burning at Harpoot began.
- Third. That no adequate protection was furnished by them, and while the college buildings were being burned and pillaged the soldiers assisted in the work.
- Fourth. That artillery was used by the Turkish troops against the buildings, which were torn by shot and shell, and fired upon by Turkish infantry. Marks of shot and shell which are still visible on the college buildings leave no room to doubt as to who assisted in the destruction of the college.
- Fifth. That a military force of Turkish troops was on the ground and was amply sufficient for protection.
At Marash like protection was demanded and promised to the American educators there two weeks before the killing and burning began. The military force was present and ample, but instead of affording protection, participated in the pillage.
I quite understand the feelings of regret with which your excellency has read the above statements. Evidence could perhaps be found by those whose negligence or guilt caused the injury to disprove those statements. But your excellency will please to remember that men who are made the victims of wrong are quite as likely to speak truth as those who wantonly inflict it; the former have already suffered, while the desire to escape punishment is a temptation to the latter.
The note of His Excellency Mavroyeni Bey to the Honorable Richard Olney, Secretary of State, dated October 8, has been considered by my Government, and, even if the evidence which implicates the Imperial troops as active participants in the burning and pillage be disregarded, the position assumed by his excellency the late minister from Turkey to avoid the liability of the Imperial Government for indemnity is quite untenable.
Your excellency can not fail to recognize the just limitations to the international rule which exempts a Government from liability for damage caused by mobs or insurgent forces. That rule can not apply when the loss is caused by the culpable negligence and failure of the government [Page 897] to protect after protection has been demanded and promised, especially when a force adequate to protection is present and available.
There is no precedent for a rule which would excuse a government from the payment of indemnity for losses sustained by citizens or subjects of a friendly power whose property has been wantonly destroyed by a mob if it could have been protected by disciplined troops available and present and whose protection was solicited at the time.
But surely when the danger has been apprehended in advance—when ample military protection has been repeatedly promised, as it was by your predecessors after timely application both by me and the Americans at Harpoot and Marash, a rule which would excuse a government then from liability on the ground that insurgents inflicted the injury, when an ample military force was present and could have prevented it, is without precedent. If such a precedent can be found, my Government can not recognize it, for it would certainly be repugnant to every principle of justice. Under such a rule life and property in an alien land would be always at the mercy of the vicious and the covetous, and commerce, deprived of protection, would be impossible.
The written evidence, authenticated by the British consul, and to which reference has been made, will be submitted to your excellency should you desire to inspect it.
It is hoped that your excellency will appreciate the importance of terminating at once in some conclusive manner the disagreement which has existed between our respective Governments, and will transmit at an early hour the final answer of the Imperial Government to the demand which is now renewed for the payment of indemnity for the burning and pillage of the property of United States citizens in Harpoot and Marash, This claim is made without prejudice to other claims pending.
The Congress of the United States assembles on the first Monday of December, and the answer which your excellency may be pleased to make to this demand will be telegraphed to the State Department for its information.
Receive, excellency, etc.,