CONGRESS. (Tun ARMEXIAX QI-ESTIOX.) 



211 



shall bo offered either to the hierarchical organiza- 

 tioii of the various coininuniuns or to their relations 

 with their spiritual chiefs. 



The right of ollicial protection by the diplo- 

 matic and consular agents of the powers in Turkey 

 is recognized both as regards the above-mentioned 

 persons and their religious, charitable, and other 

 establishments in the holy {daces': and 



II '/,, ;v</.s the extent and object of the above- 

 cited provisions ol' said treaty are to place the 

 Christian subjects of the Porte under the protec- 

 tion of the other signatories thereto, and to secure 

 to such Christian subjects full liberty of religious 

 worship and belief, the equal benefit of the laws, 

 and all the privileges and immunities belonging to 

 any subject of the Turkish Empire: and 



' \\~/ii-/-f>is by said treaty the Christian powers 

 parties thereto having established, under the con- 

 sent of Turkey, their right to accomplish and secure 

 the above-recited objects : and 



llVit/rrt-s the American people, in common with 

 all Christian people everywhere, have beheld with 

 horror the recent appalling outrages and massacres 

 of which the Christian population of Turkey have 

 been made the victims : 



Resolved by the Senate of the United States (the 

 of Representatives concurring). That it is an 

 imperative duty, in the interest of humanity, to 

 express the earnest hope that the European concert 

 brought about by the treaty referred to may speedily 

 be given its just effect in such decisive measures as 

 shall stay the hand of fanaticism and lawless vio- 

 lence, and as shall secure to the unoffending Chris- 

 tians of the Turkish Empire all the rights belong- 

 ing to them both as men and Christians and as 

 beneficiaries of the explicit provisions of the treaty 

 above recited. 



" Resolved, That the President be requested to 

 communicate these resolutions to the governments 

 of ( Treat Britain, Germany, Austria. France. Italy, 

 and Russia. 



" Resolved further. That the Senate of the United 

 States, the House of Representatives concurring, 

 will support the President in the most vigorous 

 n he may take for the protection and security 

 of American citizens in Turkey, and to obtain re- 

 dress for injuries committed upon the persons or 

 property of such citizens." 



Senator Cullom, who presented the report, spoke 

 in favor of the resolutions. He said in part : 



" Mr. President, it is unnecessary for me to say 

 that it is amazing to the people of this country, at 

 least, to witness such a terrible slaughter of those 

 innocent people, and at the same time witness the 

 apparent indifference manifested by the powers 

 who agreed to see that they were protected. 



"Mr. Henry Norman, of the ' London Chronicle.' 

 in an article published recently, in the 'Star' of 

 this city, says : 



" ' Yet Abdul Hamid II seems to sit firmly on his 

 throne, secure in the jealousies of the great powers 

 unable to agree upon the division of his kingdom. 

 One of them will do nothing to introduce stability 

 or further autonomy into the Balkan peninsula, 

 preferring to wait until the ripe and rotten fruit 

 shall drop into her lap, and the hands of the others 

 are thereby paralyzed. And if the Sultan loses 

 heart for a moment in the desperate game he is 

 playing, he can find fresh courage by thinking, as 

 Prof. Grosvenor in his great book has recently re- 

 minded us. that the British embassy stands upon 

 land presented to England in gratitude for help 

 against France in 1801": that the site of the French 

 embassy was given to France in thankfulness for 

 aid against England in T807 : that the shaft among 

 the cypresses of the cemetery at Scutari commemo- 

 rates English and French support against Russia in 



?. and that another column on the Bosporus 

 tells how Russia saved Mahmoud II hi< empire in 

 *:: " You think us weak," said a Turkish .- 



man recently to a foreign ambassador, "but the 

 truth is we are very Mrong, for our strength is 

 rooted in your division-." ' 



Before the Treaty of Berlin was entered into by 

 the great powers in ls?s, Great Britain announced 

 its own treaty of defense with the Porte, which, it 

 is said, caused a great sensation among the allied 

 powers. This treaty between Turkey and England 

 provides that England was to join his Imperial 

 Majesty the Sultan in defending certain portions 

 of his territory against any future attempt on the 

 part of Russia to take possession of the same, and 

 the Sultan promised England to introduce the 

 necessary reforms, to be agreed upon between the 

 two powers, in his Government, and for the protec- 

 tion of the Christian and other subjects of the 

 Sultan. As a guarantee of good faith, the Sultan 

 consented to the occupation by England of the 

 island of Cyprus. That compact was secretly 

 signed at Constantinople on the 4th day of June, 

 1878, only a few days before the congress convened 

 at Berlin to make the treaty of 1878. 



" So that, Mr. President, the English Government, 

 making greater pretensions to the observance of the 

 rights of the people than perhaps any other Gov- 

 ernment in Europe, has an additional obligation 

 resting upon it to protect the Armenians in Turkey. 

 and yet nothing has been done by it, notwithstand- 

 ing this double obligation resting upon it, nor by 

 any of the other powers looking to the enforcement 

 of their treaty obligations beyond a mere diplomatic- 

 correspondence between them and the Sultan." 



Senator Frye. of Maine, said in part : 



" The Senator from Louisiana rather indicates by 

 his first remark, in which he says he is glad that the 

 Committee on Foreign Relations has at last evolved 

 something, that there has been neglect on the part 

 of the committee and on the part of Congress to 

 take notice of the horrible condition of affairs in 

 Turkey. From letters which I have received and 

 from remarks I have heard made I am inclined to 

 think that the religious people of America have 

 looked upon Congress as moving very slowly in this 

 affair. 



Mr. President, I desire, in behalf of the Com- 

 mittee on Foreign Relations, to say that at the last 

 n of the last Congress two missionaries ap- 

 peared here from Armenia, both of whom I knew 

 personally, one of whom was formerly a resident of 

 my own city, and stated the grievances, the troubles. 

 the massacres, their fears. They were asked what 

 was the remedy, and they said to the committee 

 that in their judgment if a consulate could be es- 

 tablished at Erzerum and another at Harpoot and 

 consuls appointed, then there would be no trouble 

 in that great interior, because the eye of America 

 would then be upon it. In less than a week after 

 that the Committee on Foreign Relations reported 

 a bill establishing two consulates, one at Erzerum 

 and the other at Harpoot, and it became a law. 

 The President of the United States appointed the 

 consuls. 



- irely the committee and Congress did every- 

 thing then as expeditiously as anybody could a-k. 

 and did exactly what these missionaries desired 

 should be done. Turkey refused exequaturs to 

 those two consuls. I do not know what the execu- 

 tive department has done as to that refusal. I do 

 not know what the executive department can do as 

 to it : but it seems to me that some pressure ought 

 to be brought somehow, that when there can be no 

 objection to the persons of the consuls appointed 

 exequaturs shall be granted. 



' Now. Mr. President, consider this incident. If 



