'General information on Persia for any future edition, 1895' [‎87v] (165/211)

Vice-Consul Devey to Acting Consul Hampson.—[Received at the Foreign Office,
October 16.)
Sir, Van, September 23, 1891.
WITH reference to my last, I am glad to announce that Ami, the undoubted
murderer of Mohsi Sahag, has been delivered over to justice. He was brought to Van
by his brother, Shakir, and the latter, now accused as an accomplice, lias also been
placed in confinement.
Eight Armenians, who have been awaiting judgment for several months past,
have just been sentenced to a term of three years’ imprisonment for having written and
distributed threatening letters to extort money last winter; one was acquitted.
Some information respecting these letters was given in my despatch of the 11th
January.
A well-to-do peasant Armenian, named Mohsi Pouan, of Kiziltash village, in
Havatzor Nahiyye, who was lately arrested on suspicion of harbouring brigands and
bad characters, and perhaps also of knowledge as to the murder of the zaptieh,
Ibrahim, lately reported, has been set at liberty; his release is an act of justice and
right. The murder of the zaptieh unhappily remains yet a mystery, but I believe
the police have the end of a clue.
I have, &c.
(Signed) GEORGE POLLARD DEVEY.
No. 83.
Sir W. White to the Marquis of Salisbury.—[Received October 30.)
My Lord, Therapia. October 20, 1891.
I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith copy of a despatch from Her Majesty’s
Acting Consul at Erzeroum, giving an interesting account of the state of that part of the
Ottoman Empire during the past months.
I havp
(Signed) ’ W. A. WHITE.
Inclosure in No. 83.
Acting Consul Hampson to Sir IF. White.
Sir, Erzeroum, October 10, 1891.
WE have now reached a season when all danger of disturbances for this year may be
considered at an end. Winter will soon commence, which effectually stops all movements
in these parts. I venture, therefore, to submit to your Excellency a few remarks on the
situation during the past months. Early in the year it appeared highly improbable that
this district would pass through the spring and summer without collisions between
Mussulmans and Christians of a more or less serious nature. The widespread belief in
the inevitability of such events, and the resulting ill-feeling and suspicion between the
inhabitants, in itself constituted a very real and imminent danger. But the Mussulmans
were restrained from any acts of aggression by the belief which the Vali had inspired
throughout the country of his energy, impartial severity, and determination to maintain
tranquillity at all costs; and the Christians were too cowed and humiliated by the
miserable fiasco in which their plans and intrigues last year had culminated—the climax
being the affair of the 20th June, 1890, in which the Armenians, disappointed of the
external support on which they had counted, played anything but a brilliant or heroic part—
to venture on any open movement, though there still existed much underhand and
disjointed intrigue and complaints. The result is that at present the country is perfectly
quiet and apparently contented^
And, so long as the Armenians maintain this attitude, I believe that they, as distinct
from their Mussulman fellow-subjects, will have very little cause to complain of injustice
or harsh treatment on the part of the Government, except, perhaps, in the case of the
treatment ot travellers, another instance of which is given in my despatch of to-day’s date.
As far as I am able to judge, the Local Ottoman Government wishes to rule its Christian
subjects fairly; but, at the same time, it is fully determined that the Government shall be