Office of the Historian

No. 575.
Mr. Heap to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

[Extract.]
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, October 31, 1883. (Received November 21.)
No. 296.]

Sir:* * * I have the satisfaction of stating that I have reliable, although unofficial information that the valis of Bitlis and Van, who have caused so much complaint by their criminal connivance with the robbers infesting their districts, and particularly in connection with the attack on Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds, have been unanimously recommended for dismissal by the council of ministers. When other governors have been appointed our missionaries will have a better prospect of redress for the many wrongs they have sustained through the supineness, if not the ill-will, of the present authorities in Koordistan.

In this connection I beg to state that Lord Dufferin has, at my request, instructed Colonel Everett, Her Britannic Majesty’s consul-general at Erzroom, to give our missionaries all the assistance they may desire.

I am, &c.,

G. H. HEAP,
Charge d’Affaires ad interim.