Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1892

Mr. Hirsch to Mr. Blaine.

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, April 8, 1892. (Received April 21.)

No. 423.]

Sir: I have the honor to inclose a letter from the Rev. H. O. Dwight, relating to the continued interference with the book trade in the interior. I have frequently represented to the authorities that a book once authorized by the ministry of public instruction must not be interfered with by the provincial officials, but it seems that the latter do not respect the rights conceded by the central authorities. Even when seized books are finally returned to their owners, there has usually been so much time lost during their unjustifiable detention that in many cases they are no longer needed.

There is no justification for these actions of which Mr. Dwight complains.

The authorities in Erzeroum, who two years ago seized and still have in their possession some five hundred books, offer to surrender them with two or three pages cut out of each copy. I have refused my consent to this mutilation, as the books all have the required legal authorization.

The frequent ineffectual representations to the Sublime Porte on this subject suggested the advisability of a claim for damages, of which I gave notice in a note, a copy of which is herewith inclosed.

I have, etc.,

Solomon Hirsch.

[Inclosure 1 with No. 423.]

Mr. Dwight to Mr. Hirsch.

Bible House,
Constantinople, March 29, 1892.

Dear Sir: I desire to make known to you the restrictions put by certain officials in the interior of the Empire upon our book trade, which are of a nature to cause great loss and, in some cases, to destroy a legitimate and beneficent business.

The difficulty of which I complain is the absolute refusal of officials in the interior to recognize the authorization of the ministry of public instruction for our books, even when the books are in the original package, bearing the additional safeguard of the leaden seal of the custom-house here. This seal indicates that the box has been examined and prevents any possibility of its being opened by unauthorized parties. Yet boxes of books protected in this way are stopped en route to their destination, opened, examined as if there was ground to suspect their contents, sent long distances for further examination at other headquarters of the province, and even in some cases sent back to Constantinople as suspicious works; and all the time they bear on the title-page the statement of the number and date of the permit for their publication and the further statement of the fact that they are published by the American mission, so that the well-known standing of the publishing house is a voucher for the declaration that the book has been duly authorized as stated.

(1) Books sent from here last September to fill orders from dealers in Bitlis and Van have been detained at Erzeroum until the beginning of this month.

(2) Boxes sent from here via Alexandretta to Marash last November were seized at Alexandretta after the censor had broken the seal of the boxes and had examined the books, and were sent by the authorities to Aleppo, the chief city of the province, and there remained at last accounts. This proceeding just doubles the cost of transportation of the books from Alexandretta to Marash.

(3) We have received from our agent at Samsown formal notification that it is useless to ship any more books via Samsown to our agencies in Marsovan, Sivas, and Cosarea, since the authorities at Samsown seize the books, remove the custom-house seal, which guaranties the correctness of the contents, and then ship the whole consignment as suspicious to the capital of the province, Trebizond, which is 150 miles or more from Samsown. There they are subjected to a conscientious examination by the censors to see if they are fit for publication, and if we choose to send an agent to Trebizond and to pay the cost of freight from Samsown to Trebizond and back we can have such of the books as the censor seems to offer him no reason for revoking the permit under which they were printed. The expense of the extra 300 miles of transportation, together with the damage and loss resulting from such and careless handling of the books while in custody, exceeds the cost of printing the books. Hence the sale of books is prohibited by these extraordinary proceedings.

I have also to call attention to the conduct of the book censor at Erzeroum in seizing our authorized books. He has in custody some five hundred volumes which he has held for two years, offering to surrender them in a mutilated condition, but declining to recognize the right of the ministry of public instruction to authorize them for publication, as it did in their present condition.

The utter needlessness of all this interference with our wares (both we and our books being well known in this country for fifty years, and everyone of our books being officially authorized for publication) leads us to beg that you will point out to the Porte that authorized books are mere merchandise, and interference with their sale by such restrictive measures are an intolerable violation of our rights under the commercial treaties.

Before concluding I would like to mention one farther matter. The governor of Hadjin, of the province of Adana, on the 8th of March last detained the letters arriving by post for Mrs. Coning, American missionary, residing in that place. He said that he had received orders to examine all private correspondence from abroad, and only desisted in this case and gave up the letters on the plea that they were not from abroad.

Rev. Mr. Meade, residing at Adana, also reports, under date of March 14 last that his letters are detained before delivery, sometimes for a day or two. Yet he has no evidence that they are opened.

Very respectfully, etc.,

H. O. Dwight.

[Inclosure 2 with No. 423.]

Mr. Hirsch to the Sublime Porte.

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, April 8, 1892.

The legation of the United States is informed of the continuation of the difficulties which the American missionaries have so long encountered in the delivery of their books to the persons in the interior to whom they are consigned. This subject has formed the basis of several written and many personal representations on the part of the United States minister to the Government of His Majesty.

The Sublime Porte is aware that the American missionaries at Constantinople are now, as they have been for many years past, the publishers of various books for which there is a demand in the various provinces of this Empire. These books are never published until after a careful examination by the Ottoman authorities of their contents. The official authorization by the ministry of public instruction is invariably printed on the title-page of every copy of the book published, thus notifying everybody of its legal character.

Before shipment into the interior these books undergo another searching examination at the hands of the custom-house authorities at this capital, who, after finding their contents in conformity with the legal requirements, seal the cases with the leaden seals and permit them to be taken to their destination.

After having thus been subjected to searching examinations both before and after printing, and having obtained the required legal sanction, and the cases being sealed with the leaden seal of the custom-house in a manner to prevent interference with the contents, these books, like any other merchandise, are entitled to transportation and delivery to the purchaser as owner without any further hindrance. But such, greatly to the regret of this legation, has in many instances not been the practice; for example:

(1) Books sent from here months ago to fill orders from Bitlis and Van have, by order of the authorities, been detained at Erzeroum until the month of March, to the great loss of the owners.

(2) Boxes containing books shipped from here in November to Marash via Alexandretta were seized at the latter place, the seals of the boxes broken, the books examined, and, instead of being forwarded to their destination, were sent by the authorities to Aleppo, where, according to latest information, they were still detained, to the great damage of their owner.

(3) I am informed that the authorities at Samsown seize boxes of books assigned to Marsovan, Sivas, and Cesarea, remove the custom-house seal, which is a guaranty of the correctness of the contents, and then send the boxes for further examination to Trebizond, the capital of the province. If the Americans there desire to recover their property, which has been without their consent transported in an opposite direction from that intended, they are required to pay for the transportation there and back again. His Majesty’s Government will certainly no longer tolerate such an injustice to American citizens, whose business is virtually destroyed by such illegal proceedings.

(4) The authorities in Erzeroum have now and have had for two years in their possession about five hundred volumes of books, the property of American citizens, which, notwithstanding the authorization of the ministry of public instruction, said authorities refuse to surrender to their owners, except in a mutilated condition, thus setting at defiance the authority of the imperial ministry.

The legation begs to call the attention of the Sublime Porte to the fact that a book printed and published in conformity with law, with the approval of the competent authority, is, like other merchandise, entitled to every protection. Such protection has, however, certainly not been granted, but, on the contrary, has been deliberately withheld by the provincial authority mentioned herein.

The legation of the United States requests that immediate steps may be taken for the correction of the evils herein complained of, and in view of the fact that its numerous complaints have met with no result, reserves to itself at the proper time to lay before the imperial ministry of foreign affairs the amount of damages legally and equitably due to these American citizens by reason of these and similar illegal proceedings.