File No. 4960/8.

Ambassador Leishman to the Secretary of State.

[Extract]
No. 190.]

Sir: With further reference to my dispatch No. 189a, of the 21st instant, concerning the present status of our missions in the Ottoman Empire, I have the honor to inform you that I to-day laid the matter before the Sultan and left with him the copies of the notes and memoranda in Turkish of our recent correspondence with the Porte. I also had occasion to enlighten His Majesty with respect to the justice of our position in demanding equality of treatment, and that while we asked for no more we could accept no less. The Sultan, who listened attentively, assured me that our matters would receive his urgent attention and that he would examine these questions the next day with the grand vizier with a view to their immediate settlement. I therefore have good reason to hope that our questions may be finally and definitely regulated. After three years of patient efforts with the Porte, whose final approval has at last been secured, and after having succeeded in laying these matters before the personal attention of His Majesty, I feel as if all means of diplomatic action were now exhausted and that my present task was at an end.

I have, etc.,

John G. A. Leishman.
  1. Not printed.