Terrell to Walter Gresham, December 23, 1894

US Legation Constantinople, Dec^r, 23, 1894,

To the Honorable Walter Q. Gresham Secretary of State Washington

Sir - The interview so long delayed with the Sultan, occured at Gildiz Palace last night, and was protracted for three hours, during which the Sultan more than once expressed his embarrassment over my persistence, and that of my Government in demanding that Mr Jewett be furnished with an escort to go and investigate alleged atrocities at Sassun.

The interview began by his request, that I state the wishes of my Government in demanding that Mr Jewett . This was done in the terms of your dispatch of the 15 inst. Without waiting for his answer, I informed him that the desire of my Government was natural, - when our newspapers were full of details of atrocities, inflicted on Christian Armenians, and it should be remembered, that we had more of our citizens living in Asia Minor

with their wives and children than any other Christian power. I informed him that public opinion in the United States rendered my request a very serious one, and therefore I had insisted on having a positive answer to my demand to send Mr Jewett to make an independent inquiry, direct from his own lips, and not from the Porte.

He then reviewed his actions in the premises, by stating, that to secure a functionary from a friendly neutral Power, he had postponed his answer to the demand of England to send one of her consuls to Sassun, and requested me to nominate an impartial American citizen to sit as a member of the Turkish Commission, with permission to note in its report his own conclusion on points of difference. That when this request was refused by the United States he had agreed with England, Russia, and France that each should appoint a representative of the consuls at Ezeroum (but not a consul) who should accompany the Turkish Commission, and have full power to secure a thorough investigation

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When this had been agreed on, the President then had altered his mind and requested him to recognize Mr Jewett as an independent commissioner. "Now (said he) this request embarrasses me, and can only lead to confusion; different reports will be made and who shall judge which is true? Would there be another commission asked for by the other powers? You see that while I am trying to satisfy the Christian powers, a second commission while it can do no good, may do much harm. Again, as soon as an American Consul would be recognized as an independent commissioner, it would give offense, not only to the powers that wished to send Consuls, but Italy, and perhaps Germany, would at once demand a representative. To permit this would lead to great confusion, and I fear to bad results. He desired to know if I did not think his views reasonable? To this I answered, that my {carat: "Government"} was on the other side of the world, and that it was not my privilege, or duty, to know the considerations that influenced it, but to execute its orders in

procuring an answer from his Majesty. He then proposed that I should telegraph to the President and ask him to personally select an American Director for the Commercial College here (whose selection I had requested him to make) and that on his arrival here the Sultan would place him on the Turkish Commission. This proposition seemed so transparent, that I declined to entertain it.

Finally the Sultan said that he would [ab....] take the judgment of his Council of Ministers to day, and then give me his answer. In a lengthy conversation that followed in regard to the Armenian question, he emphasised the fact that it was unjust for Christian nations to charge any irregularities in Sassun, to religious prejudice - that religious toleration was more pronounced in Turkey than in any Government in Europe. All who worship the one God are alike free, and only the idolatrous fire-worshiper prohibited; that there were over seventy Armenian Christians on his Civil list, many

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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 ---------- *Note This the British Consul [Genl?] (Col Stewart) (of Odessa) had before assured me is true_ He knows the country and people well T.