Mr. Leishman to Mr.
Hay.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, November 28,
1903.
No. 642.]
Sir: I beg to inclose herewith, for your
information, correspondence with the Sublime Porte showing the position
which the Ottoman Government continues to assume in reference to the
Beirut troubles.
* * * * * * *
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure
1.—Translation.]
The Sublime Porte to
Mr. Leishman.
Sublime Porte, Ministry for Foreign
Affairs,
November 21,
1903.
Mr. Envoy: I have had the honor of
receiving the note which your excellency was good enough to address
to me the 2d instant, concerning the assault of which the United
States vice-consul at Beirut thinks himself to have been the
object.
Permit me, Mr. Envoy, to call your attention once more, being
confident in your just and enlightened judgment, that the
vice-consul can only have been under the impression of an
illusion.
Indeed, from none of the investigations, carried out at Beirut with
the most minute attention, has it appeared that this officer has
been the object of the least assault.
Common sense, moreover, refuses to admit of such an assault. All that
the imperial authorities have been able to do in this affair is, as
you know, to inflict a punishment on those who had given vent to
noisy manifestations during a wedding while the vice-consul was
passing.
However, if this officer can produce the slightest proof that he was,
in point of fact, the victim of an attempted assault, or furnish
some clues, the local authorities, your excellency can be absolutely
certain, will hasten to strain every effort for the detection and
arrest of the single or several guilty, and for their exemplary
punishment.
As to the ex-vali of Beirut, Rechid Bey, if the Imperial Government
felt it needful to cause his being replaced, owing to circumstances,
it does not follow that his recall implied his being removed from
all service.
The Imperial Government could not abandon its faculty of employing
this functionary somewhere else; and to wish to alienate this right
is to infringe upon a principle that the United States Government is
always and everywhere the first to wish to protect.
Please accept, etc.,
[Page 787]
[Inclosure 2.]
Mr. Leishman to
the Sublime Porte.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, November 23, 1903.
Your Excellency: I have the honor to
acknowledge receipt of the note which your excellency addressed to
me under date of the 21st instant, relative to the attack made upon
the life of the American vice-consul at Beirut.
Your excellency will pardon me for expressing my great surprise at
the character and tone of said note, which certainly could not be
considered as a proper or satisfactory reply to the note which I had
the honor to address to your excellency under date of November
2.
To term the fact of an attempt on the life of our vice-consul as an
“illusionary impression” appears, to say the least, discourteous,
and certainly nothing short of the most positive and indisputable
facts proving the contrary would offer, sufficient apology for
disputing the truthfulness and correctness of the statements
contained in the official reports of the American consul and of the
admiral in command of the American squadron at Beirut, both made
after a thorough and separate investigation, proving beyond doubt
that on the night of the 23d of August, 1903, an attempt was made
upon the life of the American vice-consul by an unknown person,
while the said vice-consul was driving within a short distance of
the consulate, also proving the general state of insecurity
resulting from the misgovernment of Beirut under the last
régime.
These points form the basis of the legation’s complaint in reference
to the troubles at Beirut—the question of the promotion of the
former governor-general being merely incidental, and arising no
doubt from the lack of proper understanding of the facts; and I am
satisfied that the whole matter will be promptly corrected when
brought to the attention of His Imperial Majesty.
Consequently, while protesting against the insinuations contained in
your excellency’s note, I must renew the demands contained in my
note of November 2, and insist upon the entire matter being at once
submitted to His Imperial Majesty the Sultan.
I take this occasion, etc.,
