File No. 867.4016/258b

The Secretary of State to the German Ambassador ( Bernstorff )2

No. 1794

Excellency: Referring to your unofficial note of October 8, 1915,3 enclosing a copy of a memorandum handed to the Imperial Ottoman Government by the acting Imperial Ambassador at Constantinople on August 9, 1915, protesting against the expulsion of the Armenians, I have the honor to inform you that the United States Government has received and is still receiving information giving detailed accounts of the continued sufferings which have accompanied and resulted from the systematic expulsion of the Armenians from their homes and from the other mistreatment which they have suffered. The information has come largely from private but reliable sources and from individuals of many different nationalities, and indicates that the promise, which you state in your note of October 8 the Ottoman Government had made to the acting Imperial German Ambassador at Constantinople, to the effect that it would take the measures necessary to prevent the repetition of excesses against the Armenians, [Page 848] has not been fulfilled. Being greatly in doubt as to whether I am longer justified in keeping from the American people the terrible facts in my possession, I have instructed the American Chargé d’Affaires at Constantinople again earnestly to appeal to the sense of justice and to the humanity of the Ottoman Government, and to urge it to take prompt action to redress the injuries which have been inflicted upon the Armenians and to adopt measures to ameliorate the condition of the surviving Armenians in the future. My decision as to what, if any, statement on the subject of the treatment of the Armenians by the Turks, should be made to the American people, will depend very largely upon the action which the Ottoman Government takes upon the new appeal made in behalf of the Armenians by the American Chargé d’Affaires.

As your note of October 8, 1915, to the Department, and the note of the acting Imperial German Ambassador at Constantinople, both indicate that the German Government shares with the Government of the United States its indignation at the conduct pursued by the Ottoman Government against the Armenians and its desire to secure an amelioration of the existing conditions, I have thought it proper to communicate to you at this time the substance of the instruction which has been cabled to the American Chargé d’Affaires at Constantinople, in the hope that the German Government may see fit to exercise once more its influence with the Ottoman Government in the effort now being made to put an end to the Armenian tragedy.

Accept [etc.]

Robert Lansing
  1. Copy transmitted to the Ambassador in Germany with instruction to inform the German Government and “acquaint it with the substance of the note.”
  2. Foreign Relations, 1915, Supplement, p. 989.