5

5

of them holding places of high responsibility
at the Porte; - that fourteen were employees
at his palace, and that many of his trusted
Pashas were also Christian Armenians.

He insisted that the reported atrocities never
occured, and that the excitement among Christian
Governments was caused by a wicked conspiracy
of revolutionists. He said that the District of Sassun
had been selected as the best place for revolutionary
action, because remote; with mountain fastnesses,
where there were many Armenians, who there (like
the Kurds near them, were half barbarous* and equally
cruel over whom he had little control; for there
his Government had never been able to properly collect
its revenue. He specially emphasised the following
fact viz. that though Gipsys {sic} are found among
every other peple, they are unknown among Armenians
except at the place in Sassun where the troubles occurred.
Then, there is a village of Gipsy-like Armenians who
wander from place to place, and like the Kurds have
no settled home; - and though they belong to races
that hate each other, there was the closest of friendship
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*Note This the British Consul [Genl?] (Col Stewart) (of Odessa) had before assured
me is true_ He knows the country and people well T.