house even of a guilty native, without the help of an officer of the consulate or embassy; the right of citizens of nations of the West to be judged by their ambassadors or consuls in their civil or criminal. litigations and the authority to be given to Ottoman officials to assist diplomatic agents and consuls in securing the execution of pronounced sentences.'

"So far as the Turkish position may be inferred from what has been said heretofore, it implies contention for four alternate stages of procedure, viz:

"(a) The Turks to arrest (which is expressly forbidden by the capitulations).

66

66

(b) The minister to imprison.

(c) The Turks to try the accused in the presence of their minister or consul (but without the latter exercising any of the instrumentality' which the treaty of 1830 admittedly reserves to them); and

"(d) The minister or consul to'punish' in accordance with the offense (although all instrumentality in fixing a punishment in accordance with the offense is denied to the minister or consul).

"Nothing could better show the incongruity of the Turkish claim than this formulation of their position after some twenty years of discussion.

"Under the circumstances, therefore, I can only reiterate the oftrepeated assertion of this Government, that it is still without any intelligible and congruous English or French version which the Sublime Porte admits as correctly interpreting the Turkish text. Certainly none can be deduced from Tevfik Pasha's present note.

"Your report is awaited before further instructing you in the premises.'

Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Wallace, min. to Turkey, Jan. 22, 1885, For Rel. 1885, 827; MS. Inst. Turkey, IV. 205.

Case of Proios.

In January, 1888, Hercules A. Proios, a naturalized citizen of the United States, was arrested in southern Russia on a request of the Turkish Government for his extradition on the charge of embezzling public moneys. The local consular representative of the United States intervened, and Proios was ultimately sent to the Russian consul-general in Constantinople, who turned him over to the consul-general of the United States, with the statement that charges would be made against him by the Turkish Government. The Turkish Government, however, in consequence of the question as to art. 4 of the treaty of 1830, declined to prosecute the case before the United States consul-general, and Proios was discharged.

For. Rel. 1888, II. 1405, 1406, 1573, 1582, 1583, 1588, 1603, 1607.

Gurdjian's case, 1890; Mr. Blaine's offer.

"I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Nos. 168, 174, 178, and 186, of the 19th and 28th of October and the 5th and 18th of November, respectively, in relation to the arrest, by the Ottoman authorities, of Siropé Gurdjian, a naturalized citizen of the United States of Turkish origin, his subsequent delivery over to the consul-general of the United States, and the demands since made by the Porte for his production before the Turkish tribunals.

"The facts in regard to Mr. Gurdjian, as ascertained by you and reported in your dispatches, are that he was born at Cæsarea, in Asia. Minor, on the 13th of September, 1848, and in 1865 came to the United States. From that time until 1872 he resided in the State of New Hampshire as a student. He then entered Bowdoin College, where, in 1877, he was graduated. On the 3d of March, 1874, he was admitted to citizenship of the United States before the United States district court for the district of Massachusetts.

"In 1878 a project was formed in this country for founding a university near Constantinople, and Mr. Gurdjian was invested with power by a board, comprising a number of prominent citizens of the United States, to proceed to Turkey and enter into negotiations for the purchase of land and the obtainment of an imperial iradé for the establishment of the school. It is stated that, with a view to facilitate the accomplishment of the plan, Aristarchi Bey, then Turkish minister at this capital, furnished Mr. Gurdjian with letters to high Ottoman authorities.

"On reaching Constantinople Mr. Gurdjian was registered at the United States consulate-general as an American citizen. His passport is No. 10427, issued on November 8, 1878, by Mr. Evarts, then Secretary of State. After remaining in that city for more than a year, he returned, in 1880, to this country. In 1881, however, he went again to Turkey, where he has since resided. The university project was not successful, and Mr. Gurdjian, who had acquired some knowledge of geology, chemistry, and other sciences, embarked in coalmining enterprises and also worked as chemist and photographer in Turkey.

“At 8 o'clock on the evening of Wednesday, the 15th of October last, an agent of the secret police of Pera, accompanied by two gendarmes, presented himself at the house of Mr. Gurdjian and ordered him to accompany them to the neighboring police station. Mr. Gurdjian alleged his American nationality, and said that when they wanted him they should address the American authorities. The police officer replied that in case he resisted he would be compelled to remove him by force, and Mr. Gurdjian was obliged to submit. It is stated that he was not allowed time to get his boots or

change his clothes, but was forced away, half clad, to the police station, where questions were addressed to him respecting his name, surname, and his past nationality. He again showed his passport, and was then taken to the mutaserifate of Galata Serai.

"The same formalities were gone through with before the mutaserifate, Mr. Gurdjian again exhibiting his passport. He was then sent with two gendarmes, followed by the police agent, to the central police station in Stamboul, where, after submitting to summary interrogation before the superior official, he once more produced his passport. He was then thrown into a dungeon, where he passed the night. At 9 in the morning he was again brought before the superior officer, who, after having made new inquiries as to his nationality, said that those who had arrested him had make a mistake, and directed that he be forthwith escorted to the United States consulate. He was accordingly sent to the consulate. At the same time a citation was, on the 16th of October, addressed to the consul-general for the appearance of Gurdjian, accompanied by the consular dragoman, before the council of police at Stamboul.

"On being informed of these facts, you at once addressed a note, on the 17th of October, to the Turkish minister of foreign affairs, from which may be quoted the following passages:

"The legation can not see its way to permitting the appearance of an American citizen before the Ottoman police authorities without having first been furnished with a statement of the reasons for which he may be summoned, and in this case, in addition to such statement. ample satisfaction for the conduct of the police is an indispensable preliminary to the appearance of Siropé Gurdjian.

"Your excellency, I am persuaded, will agree with me that the occurrence of such an event in the capital itself, without being followed by swift and exemplary punishment of those responsible for the arrest and false imprisonment of an American citizen, and in spite of the most sacred clause of the capitulations and treaties, is of itself a fact of exceeding gravity. With all possible good disposition with which this abuse by the police may be considered, a mistake can not be admitted as sufficient excuse, inasmuch as since the conquest of Constantinople it is a fact known to all that the domicile of a foreigner is inviolable and may not be entered save in the presence of his consul or the consul's deputy. Therefore, if those charged with the public security during the night at the stations of Hendek, at the mutaserifate of Galata, and at the central station in Stamboul are not sufficiently instructed in their duties and their rights your excellency will concede that such a state of affairs is indeed to be lamented.

"The legation is constrained, therefore, to protest in the most vigorous language and in the most formal manner against such intolerable infringement of the primitive civil rights of the individual, and to

demand that His Majesty's Government take steps for the immediate punishment of the offenders and for securing reparation to the victim commensurate with the enormity of the injury inflicted upon him.'

66 To this note a reply was made on the 22d of the same month. In his reply the minister of foreign affairs expresses regret that the subordinate agent of the police should have effected the arrest without demanding the presence of the consular representatives of the United States, but alleges that this omission arose from the authorities being ignorant that they had to do with an American citizen, and that the name of the person arrested was not of a nature to enlighten them. The minister further said:

"Your excellency will nevertheless do us this justice to recognize that as soon as informed of his character (as American citizen) the superior authorities delivered him to his consulate. Measures having been taken to prevent a repetition of similar mistakes, I allow myself to hope that your excellency will, on your part, be pleased to give orders that Seropé Gurdjian may be brought before the police authorities whenever he may be required.'

"On the 28th of October you replied to this note, dissenting from the view that what was done was satisfactorily explained as a mistake, Mr. Gurdjian having exhibited his passport. You further observed that no statement of the reasons why the consulate had been asked to produce Mr. Gurdjian had been furnished. And you informed his excellency that the punishment of those who may have been responsible for the outrage was a matter for consideration before the question of Mr. Gurdjian's further appearance. Replying on the 5th of November, the minister of foreign affairs states that the crime of which Mr. Gurdjian is accused consists in his participating in a revolutionary committee, the seal of which he is charged to have made. With this statement, the minister of foreign affairs renews his request that orders be issued for bringing Gurdjian before the police authorities whenever his presence shall be required. The minister further said: As to the agent guilty of having committed the irregular acts referred to by the legation, he will not fail from being punished.'

"In consequence of the demands of the Ottoman authorities for the production of Mr. Gurdjian you telegraphed to the Department to ascertain whether he ought to be produced. The Department replied that it could not authorize you to produce Mr. Gurdjian to the Turkish authorities and instructed you to report the facts fully by mail. It was after the sending of this telegram that your reports of the case were received.

"In your last dispatch, No. 186, of the 18th of November, you inform the Department that on the forenoon of that day the viceconsul-general called on you with a summons from the police authori

ties requiring him to produce Mr. Gurdjian for examination on the following day. The vice-consul was accompanied by Mr. Dongian, a naturalized citizen of the United States, recently from this country, who stated that he had, at Mr. Gurdjian's request, called on him and prescribed for him; that he found him in a very deplorable state, suffering from heart and spinal trouble and nervous prostration. The doctor expressed the opinion that it would be impossible for Mr. Gurdjian to leave his bed for several weeks, and that, even were he out of Turkey and free from mental anxiety, he would require two months to rally from the shock he had received. You instructed the vice-consul-general not to produce Mr. Gurdjian without further orders from the legation.

"In concluding your last dispatch you observe that you have treated Gurdjian as being innocent of any connection with the proceedings of the Armenian committee, as well as innocent of the charge of cutting the seal. Mr. Gurdjian still maintains his innocence; nevertheless, he now makes an admission that the engraving of the seal was done in his room by another man.

." In a letter written on the 3d of November to the vice-consulgeneral Mr. Gurdjian, still maintaining ignorance of the real cause of his arrest, suggested that a Masonic design which hung upon his wall may have excited suspicion. In a letter, however, addressed to you on the 13th of November, just ten days later, he makes a full statement as to the engraving of the seal, though professing ignorance as to the character of the seal and the purpose for which it was engraved. But it appears that the seal was actually engraved in his

room.

"It is not within the province of the Department, nor would it be proper for the Department under the present circumstances, to comment upon the latest letter of Mr. Gurdjian and express an opinion as to the truth of the various statements on the ground either of consistency or of probability. But while made nearly a month after his arrest, they relate to matters that occurred prior to that time and disclose knowledge which was in his possession from the beginning of his difficulties and of which the legation might at once have been informed.

"In proceeding to the consideration of the legal aspects of the case, the Department desires to express its high appreciation of your conduct throughout the whole transaction. Your representations to the Turkish Government have been characterized by a clear appreciation of the questions at issue and by a just determination to insist upon proper reparation at the hands of the Ottoman authorities. And they have had the effect of obtaining an expression of regret for the wrong done and a promise of punishment of the offenders.