No. 562.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Wallace.
Washington, July 27, 1883.
Sir: Your dispatch No. 235, of the 19th ultimo, in relation to the arrest and imprisonment of Dr. Maurice Pflaum, a citizen of the United States, at Axar, in Syria, has been received, and the subject, in connection with the inclosures giving full details of the occurrence, carefully examined. The affair, of which Dr. Pflaum so justly complains, appears to be frankly and impartially stated by that gentleman in his affidavit of the 26th of May, sworn to before W. E. Stevens, esq., the United States consul at Smyrna, a copy of which accompanies Mr. Stevens’s dispatch to Consul-General Heap, of the 11th of June, and, resting on this statement alone, the facts present a case of great hardship and of unusual and unwarranted severity on the part of the Turkish authorities. But the matter does not rest alone on this unsupported statement. There is no attempt at denial of the material facts on the part of the local authorities at Axar, and the effort made by the local governor to justify these acts of annoyance and cruelty, as unnecessary as they were unwarranted, is but an aggravatio of the outrage.
[Page 874]Your promptness in instituting an inquiry in regard to the matter is most commendable, and your earnest and energetic demand for the dismissal of the governor of Axar and the payment to you of £2,000, Turkish money, for the use of Dr. Pflaum and as indemnity for his injuries, meets with the approval of the Department.
You will, therefore, press that demand in the name of this Government, and urge its early and equitable adjustment.
I am, &c.,