File No. 763.72/1269
The Special Agent in France ( Garrett ) to the Secretary of State 1
[Received 12.15 p. m]
[Telegram]
Referring to your cables to the Embassy at Paris which were repeated here. The Embassy directs me to transmit following note from the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. Referring to Ottoman Government’s statement that French consuls and nationals would be expelled or kept as hostages etc., unless the Turkish Government is promptly assured that unfortified seaports will not be bombarded, Delcassé urgently requests you to inform Ottoman Government:
- (1)
- That the Government of the Republic has all the more reason to be astonished at this communication since Ottoman warships even before any declaration of war bombarded two unprotected towns, Odessa and Novorossüsk:
- (2)
- That if a single French citizen is molested in the Ottoman Empire the Government of the Republic will find itself obliged to hold the present Ministers of the Interior and of War both personally responsible.
Referring to telegram regarding Ottoman officers arrested by a French warship and the threat of the Ottoman Minister of the Interior that unless these men were set at liberty at least two leading French citizens would be arrested and exiled in retaliation, the note goes on to say:
Eyoub Sabri and Fuaddibra captured on board the Italian steamer Forino by the French cruiser Waldeck Rousseau are evidently meant.
The French Government asks to inform the Ottoman Government—
That these two persons were arrested long before the rupture of relations between France and Turkey, not in their capacity of former Turkish officers but because they were bound for Albania to foment agitation there. The Government of the Republic therefore acted in the circumstances not as a belligerent but as one of the guarantee powers of Albania. It expects, therefore, that the two Frenchmen who are stated to have been sent to Ismid be immediately released and it will hold the Minister of the Interior, Talaat Bey, personally responsible if they are in any way whatever molested.
- Repeated to the Ambassador in Turkey December 1.↩