No. 442.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Heap.
Department
of State,
Washington, July 17,
1884.
No. 214.]Sir: I herewith transmit a letter of thanks, of the
14th instant, from the corresponding secretary of the American Bible Society
at New York, to whom the information imparted by your dispatch No. 402, of
the 19th ultimo, was communicated. Mr. Gilman refers in his letter to two
recent cases occurring at Constantinople, where the customs authorities have
so far declined to pass the Bibles ordered from Beirut, on the ground that
the books are printed in Arabic and cannot easily be read by the officials.
They are uncertain, therefore, whether the Bibles are what they purport to
be.
Whatever may be necessary to facilitate the passage of these books, provided
they have not been passed upon the receipt of this instruction, you will
do.
I am, &c.,
[Page 569]
[Inclosure in No. 214.]
Mr. Oilman to Mr.
Frelinghuysen.
Bible
House, Astor Place,
New
York, July 14,
1884.
Sir: I take this early opportunity to express
my thanks for the information contained in your communication addressed
to me, under date of July 11, and for the promptness with which the
instructions of the Department were given to the minister at
Constantinople, in respect to matters which had led the American Bible
Society, to invoke the kind offices of the Government.
I cannot forbear, however, to express the conviction that something more
is needed to secure for the society and its agents, even in the capital
of the Empire, the rights of American citizens engaged in lawful trade.
An illustration of this is contained in a letter which I have just
received from Constantinople, written ten days after the date of Mr.
Heap’s dispatch No. 402. My correspondent says, “Two cases of Arabic
Bibles and Testaments which I ordered from Beirut some months ago, and
which have been in the custom-house here for seven weeks, although
having the regular papers and pronounced, over and over again, all good
and harmless, are not yet given up. If we in the capital suffer such
things you can imagine the state of things in the interior. We hope in
the end to get our books, but the whole thing is an outrage.” We
understand the excuse in this case to be that, as the books are in
Arabic, the officials cannot read them well, and that they are not sure
they are what they purport to be.
We are thankful to learn that in the case of the colporteur who was
arrested near Smyrna some months ago our consul, Mr. Stevens, took very
energetic measures, which resulted not only in the release of the man,
but in the issue by the Government of a paper which will protect him in
future.
With renewed thanks for the courtesy we have uniformly received from the
Department, I am, &c.,
EDWARD W. GILMAN,
Corresponding
Secretary.
