867.144/29
The Ambassador in Turkey ( MacMurray ) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 13.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Embassy’s despatch No. 1402 of March 27, 1940 regarding developments consequent upon the closing of the Y.M.C.A. at Istanbul, and to furnish herewith information bringing those developments up to date.
According to information received from the American Language and Commercial School, the provincial authorities at Istanbul on March 28, 1940 turned over the dossier covering the liquidation of the Y.M.C.A., closed in accordance with the new Law on Associations in December, 1939, to the Istanbul 5th Court of Justice of the Peace for final liquidation of the Y.M.C.A. property. Informal statements [Page 999] made at that time by local officials to the Turkish legal advisor of the Y.M.C.A. indicated that the property of this organization at Istanbul would probably be handed over, at the conclusion of the necessary legal formalities, to the duly empowered representatives of the International Committee of the Y.M.C.A.
On July 3, 1940 Mr. Eugene Jenny, who was sent to Istanbul this spring by the International Committee of the Y.M.C.A., informed the Consulate General that the requisite power of attorney naming him, and in addition Professor Scipio of the Engineering School of Robert College and Dr. Birge of the American Board Missions as its attorneys had finally been received from the International Committee of the Y.M.C.A. at New York and that a petition had been submitted to the local Court on June 17 requesting that the property of the Y.M.C.A. still remaining under police seal, consisting of three offices and two safes, be released and turned over to the duly empowered attorneys. No action has as yet been taken by the Court on this petition.
Although the work of the American Language and Commercial School was resumed on February 28, 1940 with a satisfactory enrolment and the usual summer school of the organization is now under way, the organization is handicapped by its inability to use the property still sealed by the police and by the fact that a permanent board of directors for the School has not yet been formed. Following the disbanding of the board of directors of the Y.M.C.A. after the closing of the latter organization in December, an unofficial and temporary board headed by Mr. Fowle of the American Board Missions, looked after the interests of the Y.M.C.A. until Mr. Jenny’s arrival in March 1940. At present a provisional board appointed by Mr. Jenny is canvassing the possibilities for the successful continuation of the work of the School with the ultimate aim of enlisting the services of Turkish citizens as members of its board. This provisional board consists of Colonel Binns, a local British businessman, Mr. Goemans, a Dutch subject, Assistant Manager of the American Turkish Investment Corporation, and Professor Bliss of the School of Engineering at Robert College.
In a recent meeting of the former directors of the Y.M.C.A. and local residents interested in its work, the American Board Missions personnel formerly participating in the Y.M.C.A. board voluntarily withdrew from official participation in the direction of the School. This action, it has been learned, followed the declining of an invitation extended by Mr. Fowle to Dr. Wright, President of Robert College, to serve on the new board of directors. Dr. Wright stated, in declining, that as the head of a foreign educational institution which has only recently achieved a satisfactory standing with the Turkish [Page 1000] public and officialdom after a long and critical struggle, he frankly could not afford to associate himself officially with an organization which (under the name of Y.M.C.A.) had acquired an unfavorable reputation in Turkish circles chiefly because of the suspicion attaching in their minds to all foreign institutions believed to have a missionary or religious purpose. Dr. Wright, in making his remarks, took pains to make clear his sincere respect for and friendly feelings toward the American Board Missions group in Turkey but stressed his belief that to have any chance of continuing successfully in Turkey the type of social and educational work which the Y.M.C.A. promotes, the directors of the American Language and Commercial School must be free, in the mind of the Turkish public, from associations with any missionary or religious enterprise. The Mission group (tacitly) as well as the business and professional men present at this meeting, agreed with Dr. Wright’s viewpoint.
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The summer camp of the Y.M.C.A., which has been the most successful and popular branch of its activities, has not been operated since the status of the Y.M.C.A. came under examination under the new Law on Associations in 1939, and no attempt will be made to press the matter of its reopening until such time as the successor organization may have firmly established itself and regularized its legal status.
It is the Embassy’s opinion that if the work of the successor organization to the Istanbul Y.M.C.A. is to continue at all, it must very shortly be furnished the guidance and energetic management of an American trained in social work and with a broad understanding of the Turkish viewpoint.
Respectfully yours,