File No. 763.72115/323
The Ambassador in Turkey (Morgenthau) to the Secretary of State1
Constantinople, December 12, 1914, 6 p.m.
[Received December 13, 11:30 a.m.]
[Telegram]
149. Your 134, December 10, 7 p.m. Facts therein stated have been repeatedly presented to the Sublime Porte and results reported to you Ottoman officials are disappointed not receiving favorable answer to my 16, November 11; 30, November 14; 40, November 16; 76, November 23 104, December 2.2 Condition aggravated on account of notification that British and French intend holding Minister of War and Minister of the Interior personally responsible. Fearing worse treatment than is justifiable to detained belligerents, I have labored unremittingly for their repatriation and succeeded with over 1,700 from Constantinople, being practically all who desired to leave.
Positive promises of British and French Governments not to bombard unfortified towns and release of Ayoub Sabri and Zenun, Prince Omar, and Turkish Consuls at Bombay, Johannesburg, and Manchester [and] at Malta and their Turkish personnel may secure consent of Turkish Government for repatriation of belligerents now in the interior and at Mediterranean ports. There is unconfirmed report that many Armenians have been massacred near Erzerum by Arab troops connected with Turkish army.