File No. 763.72/2052
The Italian Ambassador (Macchi di Cellere) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 23.]
Mr. Secretary of State: I have the honor by order of my Government to bring the following to your excellency’s knowledge:
From the date of the signature of the treaty of peace of Lausanne on October 18, 1912, the Ottoman Government has been violating that treaty and the violations have not ceased for an instant until now.
As a matter of fact the Imperial Government never adopted in earnest any measure to bring about the immediate cessation of hostilities in Lybia, as it was bound to do under its covenants solemnly entered into; and it did nothing toward the release of the Italian prisoners of war. The Ottoman soldiers remaining in Tripoli and Cyrenaica were kept there under command of their own officers, continuing to use the Ottoman flag, holding possession of their rifles and cannons. Enver Bey continued to direct in person the [Page 54] hostilities against the Italian Army until the end of November 1912, and Aziz Bey did not leave those parts with 800 men of the regular forces until June 1913. The way in which both these commanders were received on their return to Turkey is proof evident that their acts were fully assented to by the Imperial authorities After Aziz Bey’s departure, on the other hand, officers of the Turkish Army continued to find their way into Cyrenaica. On this very day there are more than a hundred there whose names are known to the Italian Government. In April last thirty-five young men from Benghazi whom Enver Bey had taken in December 1912 to Constantinople against the will of the Royal Government and who were there admitted into the military academy were sent back to Cyrenaica without our knowledge. Again the King’s Government positively knows, any declaration to the contrary notwithstanding, that the holy war was also proclaimed against the Italians in Africa in 1914. And a mission of Turkish officers and soldiers bearing gifts to the Senussi chiefs in rebellion against the Italian authorities in Lybia were recently captured by French warships.
The relations of peace and friendship which the Italian Government thought it could establish with the Ottoman Government after the treaty of Lausanne therefore never existed, through the latter’s fault. And after every diplomatic representation against violations of the treaty had proved utterly useless, there remained nothing for the Royal Government to do but to provide otherwise for the safeguard of the high interests of the state and the defense of its colonies against the persistent menace and the actual acts of hostility on the part of the Ottoman Government.
It became all the more necessary and urgent to reach a decision as the Ottoman Government quite recently committed patent invasions of the rights, interests, and very freedom of Italian citizens in the Empire, the more energetic protests entered on this point by the King’s Ambassador at Constantinople being of no avail. In the presence of the tergiversations of the Ottoman Government on the specific point of letting Italian citizens freely depart from Asia Minor, these protests had, in these last few days, to assume the form of an ultimatum. On the 3d of this month, the Royal Ambassador at Constantinople addressed by order of the Royal Government a note to the Grand Vizier setting forth the following four demands:
- 1.
- That the Italians be free to leave Beirut.
- 2.
- That the Italians in Smyrna, the port of Vurla being unavailable, be allowed to leave by way of Sighajik.
- 3.
- That the Ottoman Government let Italians embark unmolested from Mersina, Alexandretta, Haifa, and Jaffa.
- 4.
- That the local authorities in the interior stop opposing the departure of Royal subjects proceeding to the coast, and, on the contrary, endeavor to facilitate their journey.
On the 5th of August, before the expiration of the term of forty-eight hours set in the Royal Government’s ultimatum, the Ottoman Government, in a note signed by the Grand Vizier, accepted every point in the Italian demands. On the strength of such solemn declarations, the King’s Government arranged to send two ships to Rhodes with instructions to await orders to proceed and take on [Page 55] board the Italian citizens who for some time had been staying in the above-named ports of Asia Minor until they could return home. But now it appears from reports of the American consular officers, whom the United States Government has graciously authorized to assume the protection of Italian interests at various posts, that the Turkish military authority at Beirut canceled on the 9th instant the permit to leave granted but a short time before. It was likewise canceled at Mersina. It was further announced that the Ottoman military authorities had opposed the embarkation of other Italians residing in Syria.
In the presence of this patent breach of categorical promises made by the Ottoman Government in consequence of the Italian Government’s ultimatum, the Royal Government has issued instructions to His Majesty’s Ambassador at Constantinople to deliver a declaration of war on Turkey. And the declaration of war was delivered this day at Constantinople to the Ottoman Government by the King’s Ambassador.
Accept [etc.]