It is this answer alone which we have in consequence bound ourselves to bring to the knowledge of the people, with the fullest confidence in the promises of the Imperial Government, which has declared that the persons fulfilling this sacred duty need not fear the threats made to them. It is for your Highness to arrive at such a decision as may be dictated by a sense of justice and conscientious feeling.
Done at Prosnero, July 20, 1866.
We have, etc.,
The Members of the Central Committee.
(Here follow the signatures.)
TRANSLATION OF AN ADDRESS TO THE EUROPEAN CONSULS OF THE CHRISTIAN DEPUTIES, ASSEMBLED UNDER THE NAME OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF CRETANS, SITTING AT PROSNERO, CANTON OF APOCORONA.
MM. les Consuls: The Representatives of the Christian people of the Isle of Crete, respectfully undersigned, assembled under the title of the Assembly General of the Cretans, feel it our imperative duty to call you to bear witness to the violence which obliges us, in spite of our wishes to the contrary, to take up arms by right of lawful defence.
Greeks by origin and by tongue, having taken part in the struggle borne by our brothers in 1821 for our national independence, but yet not having profited by the advantages of that war, our only object in assembling here is to claim the enjoyment of the rights which were guaranteed to us by the three Protecting Powers by Treaties and Protocols, and of those which His Imperial Majesty the Sultan deigned spontaneously to decree to us by a Hatti-Humayoun.
But the Governor-General, changing the meaning and the point of our humble petition, by which we claimed pacifically, and without resorting to arms, the execution of written promises, after leaving us for three months in a state of uncertainty, finally incited the Porte to return an unfavorable and menacing answer, and, opposing violence to right, he appeared before us in arms.
Calling the Representatives of the protecting and guaranteeing Powers to bear witness to this, we take up arms for our defence and safety, and we make the Turkish Government responsible before the civilized world for all the consequences of the struggle which is about to break out.