Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1883
No. 568.
Mr. Wallace to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Constantinople, August 22, 1883. (Received September 10.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith the further correspondence touching the affair of Dr. Pflaum, consisting of a note from the Sublime Porte and a note from this legation, both in copy.
Until a reply is had to the latter it will, of course, be impossible for the President to decide upon final action proper in the case.
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I have, &c.,
Aarifi Pasha to Mr. Wallace.
Sublime Porte, August 14, 1883.
Mr. Envoy: I had the honor to receive the note you were so good as to address me on the 26th of last May relative to the treatment received by Mr. Maurice Pflaum, an American doctor living at Axos, at the hands of the local authorities of that place.
The information which the imperial ministry has obtained on this subject from the governor-general of the vilayet of Aidin does not coincide with what has been reported to the United States legation. This information is to the effect that the authorities of Axos acted towards Mr. Maurice Pflaum in the most regular manner. In the absence of an American consular agency at Axos the tribunal of first instance of that town was obliged, in accordance with the rule always followed in such cases, to judge the facts of which Dr. Pflaum was accused in the presence of the kaimakam, the highest functionary of the place. Found guilty of having insulted Tahir Eifendi, the director of tithes, of having given a blow with his fist to a certain Bekir, sergeant of the gendarmerie, and struck in the face and slightly wounded the corporal, Halii, a sentry, while they were in the exercise of their duties, Mr. Pflaum was sentenced; in virtue of article 113 of the penal code, to fifteen days’ imprisonment. Concerning his transfer to the Greek hospital, it was a measure of simple precaution taken in his own interest, as by his reprehensible conduct and his behavior to the civil as well as military functionaries he had so excited public opinion that he would have incurred the gravest danger if the local authorities had not thought proper, in view of calming the public exasperation, to have him transferred to the hospital under the pretense that he was afflicted with insanity.
Such are the facts. In bringing them to the knowledge of your excellency I entertain the hope that in your spirit of equity you will yourself acknowledge that the conduct of the imperial authorities was most correct and that the complaint of Mr. Pflaum was unfounded.
Be pleased, &c.,
Mr. Wallace to Aarifi Pasha.
Constantinople, August 21, 1883.
Highness: I beg to acknowledge receipt of the note which you had the goodness to send me relative to the demands presented in behalf of Dr. Maurice Pflaum.
Your highness is pleased to say in the note that the information which the imperial ministry has obtained on the subject from the governor-general of the vilayet of Aidin does not coincide with what has been reported to the United States legation.
[Page 880]I regret to have to differ with your highness in this conclusion, and to remark, with your favor, that it is interesting to observe how singularly well the facts of the case as far as they are stated in your note coincide with the facts as they are given in my note.
All the circumstances out of which the unfortunate affair grew, such as that Dr. Pflaum was first insulted by the director of tithes; that the insult charged was a demand for the payment of an account for medical services rendered the director; that this alleged insult, always to be distinguished from violence done or threatened, was the crime or offense for which the governor of the town arrested the doctor and had him summarily brought before him by zaptiehs; that the governor pretended to discharge the doctor that, believing the discharge to have been in good faith, the doctor resisted the zaptieh when, at the governor’s door, they undertook to rearrest him; that the unfortunate man, overpowered, was then committed to a prison of such extreme foulness as to be unfit for beasts; that he fell dangerously ill, and in that condition was hauled by zaptiehs from prison to hospital and back again, and thence to trial, and all in two days. All these circumstances, set out in my note, are not denied by your highness; wherefore it is but just to hold them true and admitted.
In the next place, the assertions of fact of most importance in my note are well covered by your highness’s admissions. Such are the averments that Dr. Pflaum was arrested on a criminal charge, and tried, convicted and sentenced by an imperial tribunal, and that the sentence was executed by the imperial authorities. Indeed your highness is not only pleased to verify these averments contained in my note, you even indulge in some details not before disclosed. Thus we now know that the court which assumed to try this American citizen was the criminal court of the first instance of Axos, and that the offense of which he was accused had reference to the 113th article of the penal code of the Empire. We also know, by your highness’s admissions, that there was no dragoman of an American consul present at the trial, but that, as stated in my note, the hearing was had in the presence of the kaimakam, he who ordered the doctor’s arrest for insulting the director of the tithes. Finally, we are now expressly assured through your highness that the imperial ministry holds all the things so complained of by this legation to have been done in the most regular manner according to custom.
I will ask your highness to pardon me if I pass without comment the excuses furnished the imperial ministry for the wrongs inflicted upon Dr. Pflaum; it is of much greater importance to again request the Sublime Porte to consider if the trial was not void for want of jurisdiction in the tribunal. If the legality of the proceedings from first to last be tested by reference to the treaty of 1830, the doctor should have been sent into the United States consular court at Smyrna. If their legality be tested by the ancient capitulations, they were void from first to last because proceeded with in absence of some one representing the consular authorities. It is worthy of remark also that the assumption of right to execute the sentence of the tribunal is an advance upon the old contention of the imperial Government, the effect of which, if admitted by my Government, would be to abrogate Article IV of the treaty in toto. I very sincerely deprecate a resolution to force the dispute so long pending between the two Governments relative to that article. It seems to me wiser to get along with it as heretofore, and in this opinion I am confident your highness will join me.
Permit me to remark further of your highness’s note, that it does not, anywhere categorically, decline to accede to the demands for the removal of the kaimakam of Axos and the payment for the benefit of Dr. Pflaum of the indemnity asked. In execution of the instructions of my Government, and in its name, I have the honor to renew those demands. If the Sublime Porte is fully decided to deny them, it will at least be good enough to give me a direct answer to that purport.
I avail, &c.,