EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 



269 



Turkey, was read. The petitions related partic- 

 ularly to the cases of two Christians who had 

 been expelled from their home at Marash and 

 were not permitted to return, and to those of 

 certain Ansairyeh, or Christians of Ansairyeh 

 Christians who had been seized and pun- 

 ished as deserters from the army for not hav- 

 ing presented themselves for enrollment, while 

 it was claimed in their behalf that they were 

 not liable to conscription. The deputation 

 sailed from Marseilles on the 16th of January, 

 having letters of introduction from official per- 

 sonages in England to the representatives of 

 different courts at Constantinople. They ar- 

 rived at Smyrna, January 21st, and had an 

 interview with the two Christians who had 

 been expelled from Marash, obtaining from 

 them their statement of their own case. They 

 reached Constantinople January 23d, and 

 through the British minister sought a direct 

 audience with the Sultan. They had been 

 promised such an interview, but the minister 

 who had given them the promise was now out 

 of office. On the same day, they received a 

 deputation and an address of welcome from 

 the Protestant community of Constantinople. 

 Monseigneur fitienne Azarian, head of the Ar- 

 menian Roman Catholic Church, also called 

 upon them with complaints of persecutions and 

 annoyances suffered at the hands of the Turk- 

 ish authorities at Erzeroum and Angora. They 

 received assurances of sympathy and approval 

 of the object of their visit from the American, 

 French, German, Austrian, and other embas- 

 sies. 



The deputation had an interview on the 26th 

 of January, at the Sublime Porte, with Safvet 

 Pasha, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

 Relating the object of their mission, they rep- 

 resented that very serious feelings of indigna- 

 tion had been aroused in England and other 

 countries by what had recently taken place 

 in the Turkish Empire, and suggested that it 

 was desirable, in the interest of Turkey, that 

 the deputation or some members of it should 

 have the opportunity of presenting to his Im- 

 perial Majesty in person the document, which, 

 they stated, bore the signatures of eminent 

 personages well known in connection with the 

 affairs of Turkey. 



The minister replied that for his Majesty to 

 receive a foreign deputation was without pre- 

 cedent, and might be followed by consequences 

 which the committee themselves would be the 

 first to reject; that religious liberty was guar- 

 anteed throughout Turkey, and that the Turk- 

 ish army must be maintained, and no exemp- 

 tion on religious grounds could be admitted. 

 "With all respect to the deputation, only two 

 cases had been mentioned in the memorial, and 

 these were not sufficient, in the judgment of 

 the Turkish Government, to cause them to de- 

 part from established usage, as they were small 

 matters about which to trouble his Majesty. 



On the 28th of January, the Grand- Vizier 

 gave his decision, to the effect that his Majes- 



ty the Sultan, being Caliph, or religious head 

 of the Mohammedan religion, could not receive 

 a foreign deputation coming to him on religious 

 grounds without seriously offending his Mus- 

 sulman population ; and that, as regards the 

 cases of alleged persecution, the Turkish Gov- 

 ernment would now give or*ders that Mustapha 

 and his family (the Christians expelled from 

 Marash) should be allowed to leave Smyrna 

 for any other place they pleased, but not to re- 

 turn to Marash for the present. With regard 

 to the Ansairyeh conscripts, no alteration in 

 their condition could be promised. 



The deputation then addressed a remon- 

 strance to the British minister, and subsequent- 

 ly one of the same effect to the Grand-Vizier, 

 expressing their disappointment at the refusal 

 of the latter officer to solicit for them an audi- 

 ence with his Majesty, especially after an as- 

 surance had been officially communicated to 

 the Earl of Derby by the predecessor of his 

 Highness that such an audience should be ar- 

 ranged for them, and protesting against the 

 refusal as disrespectful to the distinguished 

 noblemen and gentlemen who had signed the 

 address which they brought with them. They 

 said, furthermore, that they could not hold 

 themselves responsible for the unfavorable im- 

 pression that would be produced in England 

 and elsewhere by the failure of their mission. 



On the 2d of February the British minis- 

 ter informed the deputation that the Porte de- 

 clined to modify its resolution, as already com- 

 municated to them, saying further: 



The Sultan having been duly informed of your ar- 

 rival, and of the object of your mission, left it to his 

 ministers to follow the course which they might think 

 proper, and they do not consider it expedient to rec- 

 ommend to his Majesty so great an innovation upon 

 established usage as to consent that an address to 

 his Majesty, in reference to matters belonging to the 

 internal administration of his empire, should be 

 personally delivered to him at an audience granted 

 to a foreign deputation. The Porte, in declining to 

 accede to your request for an audience, are anx- 

 ious to disclaim all intention of showing the slight- 

 est discourtesy to yourselves, or disrespect to those 

 who signed the address, but they have felt it incum- 

 bent upon them to avoid establishing a precedent 

 likely to be productive of much inconvenience. 

 Although you have been denied the privilege of 

 personally presenting the address to the Sultan, you 

 may at least have the satisfaction of feeling that the 

 principal object of your mission will have been at- 

 tained. The evidence that has been afforded of the 

 indignation with which everything approaching to 

 religious persecution is regarded by the best friends 

 of Turkey, cannot fail to have a beneficial effect upon 

 the Ottoman authorities throughout the empire, and 

 the Government will be desirous of preventing them 

 from giving cause for further remonstrance. 



The committee remarked, at the conclusion 

 of the report : 



"We desire to remind our Christian brethren of the 

 pledge given by Sultan Abdul Medjid, that " no 

 subject of the empire shall be hindered in the exer- 

 cise of the religion that he professes, nor shall he 

 be in any way molested on that account ; " and that 

 upon this pledge Turkey was regarded as having 

 adopted the sentiments of the most civilized na- 

 tions, and has largely profited by her alliance with 



