[1]. “I am at a loss to know why the Reports of Consuls ceased to be furnished in or about the year 1881. Consuls are supposed to keep their eyes open and to report facts regarding the people among whom they live, and it is altogether a new idea that their Reports are to be regarded as confidential documents. If they are to be so, that is simply condemning the Consuls’ Reports to perpetual barrenness and absolute inutility. Why are not consular reports to be made, and being made, why are they not to be printed? If in this respect I am personally, or anyone associated with me, is open to censure, let the facts be brought out; but do not let a particular act at a particular time be confounded with the adoption of the principle of eternal silence about the horrors that prevail in Armenia.”—Speech by the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, in House of Commons, May 28, 1889.
[2]. The Speaker, London, January 12, 1895.
[3]. “A good deal of misapprehension exists with respect to the constitution of the Commission of Inquiry. It is not an international but a Turkish Commission, and, to judge by past experience, Turkish Commissions are instruments by which truth is suppressed and issues are obscured. It is satisfactory that representatives of Great Britain, France, and Russia will have the opportunity of examining the procès-verbaux, besides being present at the sittings of the Commission; and credit is due to the British Foreign Office for having taken the initiative in securing this concession; but it must be remembered that the powers of the international representatives will be strictly limited, and that they will not be able to guarantee the security of the witnesses.”—F. S. Stevenson, M.P., “Armenia,” in The Contemporary Review, February, 1895.
[4]. See Appendix B on the establishment of new U. S. Consulates in Eastern Turkey. Also Appendix A on American Diplomacy.
[5]. Brother and predecessor of the present Consul Jewett, at Sivas.
[6]. Encyc. Britannica, “Kurdistan.”
[7]. Encyc. Britannica, “Kurdistan.”
[8]. Armenia and the Campaign of 1877.
[9]. A piastre is a Turkish coin of about five cents, or two pence-half penny. In this region the pay of a day laborer is from two to five piastres.