867.4016/744
The British Ambassador (Geddes) to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: On the 17th instant you were good enough to send me a confidential memorandum32 communicating the text of two notes addressed to the Angora Government by the United States High Commissioner at Constantinople in regard to the deportation of Christians by the Turkish authorities.33 You also informed me of the conversations which had taken place on the subject between Admiral Bristol and representatives of the Angora Government. I desire to express my cordial thanks for your courtesy in making this communication, which will, I know, prove of great interest to His Majesty’s Government.
My latest news from Constantinople is that there are at present in that city some thirty-five thousand Armenian refugees from Anatolia without means of support. Refugees continue to arrive daily from the Black Sea ports, at which there are understood to be some thirty-nine thousand Greek in addition to an unknown number of Armenian fugitives. The Christians from the interior who are taking advantage of the “permission” granted them by Turkey to leave Anatolia by the 30th instant are also making for the Black Sea ports. The number of people ultimately to be evacuated from those ports is estimated at not less than a quarter of a million.
Having regard to the near approach of the date by which evacuation must cease, my Government have asked me to express to you the hope that, on purely humanitarian grounds, the Government of the United States will be prepared to instruct their representative at Constantinople to press strongly for an extension of the time limit. It is, of course, obvious that the evacuation cannot be effected in the time allowed and there can be little doubt, I fear, of the fate which awaits those who remain after the date fixed by the Angora Government for the termination of the evacuation. My Government are of opinion that representations designed to secure an extension of the time limit, if made, are less likely to prove ineffectual if addressed by the United States representative independently of his colleagues.
I hope to call on you tomorrow, when we shall have an opportunity to discuss this. In the meantime I think it well to let you have my fresh information without delay.
I am [etc.]