File No. 711.673/62a.
The Secretary of State to Ambassador Morgenthau.
Washington, September 16, 1914.
You are instructed to notify the Ottoman Government that this Government does not acquiesce in the attempt of the Ottoman Government to abrogate the Capitulations, and does not recognize that it has a right to do so or that its action, being unilateral, has any effect upon the rights and privileges enjoyed under those conventions. You will further state that this Government reserves for the present the consideration of the grounds for its refusal to acquiesce in the action of the Ottoman Government, and the right to make further representations later.