ENPages
TELEGRAM.
ACKED 10/25/15
The White House Washington.
2WU. RA. 95- 8:50 a.m. N. L. Los Angeles, California, Octobor 24-25, 1915
THE PRESIDENT The Synod of California of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, consisting of five hundred fifty eight ministers, fifteen hurered sixteen Elders and more than fifty thousand communicants through the states of California and Nevada, in session at San Diego, California October twenty first, does hereby make most earnest appeal to you to continue to use all your beneficent influence to alleviate the sufferings of the Armenians Christians within the Ottoman Empire. The Synod earnestly assures the President of its prayerful sympathy with him in all his arduous responsibilities.
For the Synod.
Wm. S. Young, Stated Clerk.
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ADDRESS OFFICIAL COMMUMIGATIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE WASHINGTON.D. C.
[STAMP= THE WHITE HOUSE OCT 29 1915 RECIEVED]
[Ackgd 10/29/15]
DEDARTMENT OF STATE WASHINGTON
October 26, 1915.
Joseph P. Tumulty, Esquire, Secretary to the President, The White House.
My dear Mr. Tumulty:
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of October 23rd, enclosing a telegram containing a petition which is being circulated throughout the State of Indiana, relative to the action of the United States Government in regard to the Armenian Christians, and inquiring what reply should be made to this telegram.
In reply I am sending you with this letter a copy of the form letter which the Department has been sending to persons making inquiries of it concerning the Armenian situation, or urging action by the United States on this matter.
Very sincerely yours. Robert Lansing
Enclosure:
Form letter.
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Form letter.
The Department acknowledges the receipt of your letter of _____________, relative to the present condition of the Armenians in Turkey and to the attitude of the United States Government relative thereto.
In reply the Department begs to state that from the beginning the American Ambassador at Constantinople has continued to remonstrate with the Turkish Covernment against their treatment of the Armenians, and that such remonstrances have been followed by orders by the Turkish Government modifying and ameliorating to some degree the orders previously issued relative to the deportation of the Armenians from their homes.
The Ambassador will continue to use his good offices, to the fullest extent consistent with the position of the United States as a neutral country, in behalf of the Armenians in the Turkish Empire.
The Department has recently instructed the Ambassador to notify the Turkish Government that the reports of the treatment of the Armenians have aroused general and unfavorable criticism among the American people, which is destroying the feeling of good will which the people of the United States have held towards Turkey.
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October 28, 1915
[on the right]2554
My dear Mr. Consul General:
May I not acknowledge the receipt through the Department of State of your letter of October twenty-second about tho sufferings of the Armenian people in Turkey, and may I not assure you of my deep interest in the whole subject? The State Department has not been slack in using every endeavor to alter the attitude of the Turkish Government in this matter and to lighten the sufferings of the
Armenian people, and you may be sure that this Government will continue to do everything that it is possible for it to do through diplomatic channels.
Cordially and sincerely yours,
Hon. H.H. Topakyan, Imperial Persian Consul General, New York City.
x 576
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[2554]
Dec. 10. 1915.
To the President o fthe United States of America, Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. President:
You may or you may not remember me as a member of the Class of '76 at Princeton University. It is a long call back to that time. Many men who knew you then and have followed your work since have no little family pride in the splendid work you are doing – guiding the affairs of the country at this time when men’s souls are being tried as by fire. May the good hand of the Lord be upon you to steady and strengthen your heart and hands and continue the grace of wisdom for all the problems you have to consider.
I have just arrived from Adana, Turkey. We were a party of 12 missionaries, large and small. Through the good offices of Ambassador Morganthau at Constantinople and Consul Nathan at Mersine we were allowed to leave the country through the port of Mersine on the U.S.S. Des Moines. On behalf of the party I desire to express our gratitude and our appreciation of the favor rendered us and the very great kindness shown us by Capt. Blakely and the other officers and men of the Des Moines.
I had the privilege of conducting a Sabbath service on board – a novel and startling thing to me. I stood with one hand on a great gun, and in the other was the Gospel – the one made for the destruction of men and the other revealed for their life and peace. I could satisfy myself only with the thought that the world needs
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