Mr. Leishman to Mr. Hay.
Pera , December 7, 1903 .
(Mr. Leishman reports that the American consul at Alexandretta has informed him that while in the act of placing one Attarian, an American citizen, aboard of a vessel yesterday he was assaulted and insulted by police and soldiers, that Attarian was seized and imprisoned, that the military governor used insulting language toward the consul, and that he had been compelled to go to Beirut for safety. Mr. Leishman states that on account of the consul’s hasty action in leaving his post he has as yet made no formal complaint and is making a thorough investigation. It seems that the [Page 834] trouble was caused by this man Attarian, for whose wife the legation obtained permission a few months ago to emigrate to the United States to join her husband, but who instead of going there joined her husband at Aleppo, the former having entered Turkey again by fraudulent means, and had been arrested on suspicion of being connected with the revolutionary committee.)