File No. 14102/20.
Ambassador Leishman to the Secretary of State.
Constantinople, September 19, 1908.
Sir: I have the honor to state that among the immediate benefits arising from the establishment of constitutional government in Turkey is the settlement of the difficulty regarding Bible colportage, as the restrictions on the general sale of books and on the freedom of Ottoman subjects to travel have been removed, and, consequently, the American Bible Society will probably have no further cause for complaint.
Similar action in other departments has also had the result of ipso facto settling quite a number of small and petty cases, such as the embargo placed on typewriting machines in the Arabic and Turkish languages, importation of electrical goods and particularly motors, literature that was forbidden by the censor, small hand printing presses, etc., which, happily, disposes of a large number of irritating questions and relieves the department as well as the embassy of a great amount of annoying correspondence.
I have, etc.,