Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1892
Mr. Blaine to Mr. Hirsch.
Washington, April 22, 1892.
Sir: I transmit a copy of a letter containing further representations of the interference of Turkish officials with the labors and school work of citizens of the United States in Syria.
You will continue to act in the interest of our citizens with the energy that has heretofore met the approval of the Department.
I am, etc.,
Mr. Miller to Mr. Blaine.
New York, April 5, 1892.
Sir: We have been instructed by the board of foreign missions of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America to call the attention of the State Department to what we regard as an illegal interference on the part of the Turkish authorities with our school work in Syria. Although our missionaries have always been careful not to provoke hostility and have complied with all the requirements of the law relating to public instruction, schools have been arbitrarily closed, teachers driven from their homes, and property confiscated. In open violation, as we believe, of treaty engagements, and certainly in violation of the interpretation that has always been put on these treaties by the Ottoman Government and that of this country, the territorial rights of our missionaries have been, and are, persistently trampled upon.
Without presuming to direct the State Department as to the steps that should be taken, we respectfully urge that such action shall be taken at once as shall put an end to this interference with our work. Owing to the illegal closing of the schools, persons in the employment of our society, though regularly drawing salaries, have been unable to render any service, and we are, therefore, forced to claim pecuniary damages for the same, in addition to the value of confiscated property. In asking redress we base our appeal on the sacredness of treaty obligations, the past attitude of the United States in this matter as recorded in the volume for 1887 on “Foreign Relations,” and our own loyalty to the Supreme Ruler of Nations.
We have, etc.,
- R. M. Sommerville,
- Walter T. Miller,
Committee.
Mr. Easson to the board of foreign missions of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Dear Brethren: You will remember that the Turkish Government issued a new school law early in 1886, and in the summer of that year began to close our schools because we had no official permits. The matter was taken up by our legation, and after a good deal of trouble an agreement was reached and a circular of instructions was issued by the minister of public instruction, a copy of which I inclose. (See p. 564.) We immediately complied with article 129, and informed the local authorities to that effect. Our text-books were approved and the programme of studies indorsed, but our teachers’ certificates have never been returned, and although the fault is theirs, they blame our teachers for teaching without certificates.
Our Government, on April 20, 1887, decided that we had a right to reopen all of our old schools without asking for permits or waiting for the approval of our teachers’ certificates, so we informed our teachers to quietly reopen.
When I showed the order to our local governor, he said: “You have no old schools in the mountains, for the Government does not recognize a school where you do not own the building.” And so our teachers have never been able to work openly in their schools, and they never will until the legation demand and secure an order requiring the local authorities to let our old schools alone, mentioning the name of each school.
We would call attention to the following cases of interference with our work since the agreement between our legation and the Sublime Porte:
- First. The school in the village of Ishtubgu, which was established in 1878, and reopened after the settlement of the school question, was closed in 1888 as follows: The judge and other members of the local government came to the village, asked to see the school, and after examining the children they sent them home and locked the schoolroom door, telling the teacher he could not teach without a permit and a certificate. Then they went to the teacher’s room and examined all his books and private letters, and took the teacher and some of these to the seat of government at Bahenna. There they made him sign an agreement not to reopen the school without the permission of the local authorities.
- Second. In the fall of 1888 the school at Gunaimia, in the same Kai-ma-kamati, was also closed; and in September, 1889, the teacher, who after the closing of his school was acting as the spiritual leader of the Protestants of the village, was ordered to leave the village. I made a complaint of religious persecution against the mutasserif to the English vice-consul, who secured his return to the village, but in December of the same year their place of worship was closed and they were forbidden to meet in it.
- Third. In September, 1890, the schools in the villages of Jendairia, Mushairefey, Sit Markhu, and Ain Lebu were closed by orders given to the chiefs of the villages. These schools were established as follows: Jendairia in 1865, Mushairefey in 1865, Sit Markhu in 1870, and Ain Lebu in 1876.
- In February, 1891, I secured an order through our consul from the vali of Beirut for the reopening of all of these schools, mentioning them all by name, and also repeating the order for the opening of the school in the village of Ishtubgu. No attention was paid by the mutasserif to this order except by sending word to Beirut that he had not closed any American schools. In October, 1891, he sent for the teachers of these four schools and forbade them to teach for us or to do any kind of work for the “infidel foreigners.”
- Fourth. In August, 1890, the school at Inkzik, near the Jisse, was closed by orders from the vali at Aleppo. This school was established in 1885, before the promulgation of the new law, and hence we have a right to have it open.
- Fifth. On October 13, 1891, the mission property in the village of Jendairia was restored to the former owners without the form of law. I suppose the governor wished to be able to say that we had no building there, and hence no right to a school. This property has not been restored to us yet. The case has been referred to Constantinople.
- Sixth. On November 2, 1891, orders were given for the seizure of the mission property in the village of Aldainey and the banishment of the teachers from the village. Through the earnest protests of our consul the execution of this order has been stayed for a while, but I am sure the matter has not been dropped.
- Seventh. In January, 1892, the teacher at Inkzik, who is a native of the village, was arrested and imprisoned and an attempt made to banish him from the village.
- Eighth. In February, 1889, the local authorities refused to give us a title deed for a lot we had bought in the city. We were delayed a whole year, and had to refer the case to Constantinople before we could secure our rights.
- This order of January, 1892, reopens the whole school question. In the Beirut Valaiyat only a month and a half has been given for those who have schools to secure firmans; and if it is carried out, as it appears to be the intention of the Turkish Government, all of our schools and places of worship will be closed, both in the city and in the mountains.
- Ninth. We might say there has been interference with our personal liberty, for the mutasserif has given orders to the chiefs of several villages not to allow any of the missionaries to enter their villages. In this way he is exciting the people against us, and if the people were to act as required by the governor, it would not be safe for us to go out among them; but we are thankful to say the people are very friendly to us.
The above will suffice to show that it is necessary for the powers to take a firm stand and demand that the rights of their people in the prosecution of their lawful work be respected, and that explicit orders be sent to all the local authorities requiring them to not only cease obstructing our work, but that they also protect us in our work when required.
The certificates of our teachers should be immediately sanctioned and returned to us to be placed in their hands.
May the Lord of the work guide you in all you do, and we hope and pray that the time may soon come when this kingdom shall become a kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Yours, in His name, in behalf of the mission,
Circular of instructions of Munif Pasha to the provincial governors.
A number of schools within the Imperial provinces having been established without permission, general instructions were issued some time ago, with the object that three months’ time should be given them, and if within that time they did not comply with the requisite rule action should be taken against them in accordance with the law. Now, according to the information which reaches us, some of these schools have for some reasons been closed, but several of them have now given assurances of their readiness to conform to the terms of the law, consequently you will see fit to allow the reopening of such schools that will conform to article 129 of the law of the public instruction, the closed schools of the Jesuits to be excepted until further instructions.