Mr. Hay to Mr. Leishman.
Washington, June 9, 1903.
Sir: Your No. 419, of the 21st ultimo, in which you report the progress made in the settlement of various questions pending with the Turkish Government, has been received.
I regret especially to note that the school question still remains unadjusted and that the Government is postponing a friendly settlement until reports are received which may be indefinitely delayed.
[Page 754]You will recall that on February 2 last I sent you an urgent telegraphic instruction to communicate a personal message from the President to the Sultan on this subject, in which a demand was made that American citizens and institutions should be granted the same privileges given to France in November, 1901, and later conceded to Russia, Germany, and other nations. The object of this somewhat unusual method of communication was to impress the Turkish Government with the deep interest which the President felt in this question, in the confident expectation that it would bring about an early acquiescence in the reasonable demand made by him. Much of the force of the message was lost by the delays interposed by the Porte in its delivery and the conditions attached to the manner of its presentation. It is possible also that the presentation of a number of other matters at the same audience may have detracted somewhat from the special importance which the President sought to attach to it.
The conduct of the negotiations on the subject has been left to your discretion. It may be that it would have been wiser to have followed the course which at first occurred to you of securing a definite acknowledgment of the principle of equal treatment, as indicated in your dispatch No. 370, of March 7 last; but having selected the other method of filing a list of the institutions and schools, the Turkish Government should not be allowed, if possible to prevent it, to make that a pretext for delay. I can not add anything to the language of the telegraphic instruction of February 2 to express the interest felt by our Government in the early settlement of the matter. I may state, however, that the President was surprised at the manner in which his message was delayed and the little influence it seems thus far to have had, and he relies upon your earnestness and sound discretion in bringing this long-pending question to an early and satisfactory conclusion.
I am, etc.,