Birmingham state herald., 1896-11-08
SOME BRIGHT PROMISES Sultan of TurkeN Through an
 Ambassador, ANNOUNCES HIS ORDERS Wherein the ArmenianS Are to be No Longer Threatened or Abused
 Ultimatum.

Paris, Nov. 7.--Advices received here from Constantinople show that when the sultan received a report of the speech delivered by M. Hanotaux, the French foreign minister, in the chamber of depu- ties last Tuesday, in response to an inter- pellation demanding to know what action France would take in defense of the Ar menians, he sent one of his secretaries to M. Cambon, the French ambassador, who impressed upon the secretary the urgency that existed for the sultan to adopt measures that would reassure public opinion and satisfy Europe. The Turkish ambassador in Paris has now informed M. Hanotaux that the sultan has decided upon carrying out the following reforms
 The release of prisoners throughout the empire against whom no charges are pre- ferred; to instruct the police that peace able ArmenianS are not to be prosecuted; ; to convoke an Armenian assembly to elect patriarch; to court martial Mazhr Bey for allowing Father Salvador to be murdered; to dismiss the vali of Diarbe- kir for the share he took in the disaster there; to precisely instruct the valis to repress violence; to undertake the in- identification of the Roman Catholic con- vents in Anatolia, which were damaged during the outbreaks; to assist the inhab-
 
 most, and to publish shortly a decree or dering the prompt execution in Anatolia Of the reforms granted in 1895, and the issuing of these reforms to the whole em- pire.
 M. Hanotaux thanked the ambassador for the information and told him that he had precisely instructed M. Cambon to watch the application of these prelimi- nary measures. In his speech to the deputies in response to the interpolation which was submitted by M. Denys, Deputy for Cochin China, and supported by De La Posse, Hubbard and others, M HanotauX said that the Armenian movement would not have taken upon itself such an intensity if contact with Europe had not imbued certain Armen- ians with a desire for independence. The excesses of the Ottoman government, he said, had furnished legitimate motives for complaint, and when the question as- sumed an aspect of grave importance, England understood the danger of acting alone. A concert was established among the powers and in October, 1895, an under standing was reached with the porte that the latter would grant reforms, which, unhappily, had not been applied Owing to the anarchy which reigned in the administrative spheres, troubles en- sued and France was bound to use lan- guage, the strength and significance of which Turkey understood. The powers he said, were convinced of the necessity of their solid union, but there must be no isolated action and no interference with the integrity of the empire.
 Among the fertile results of the re- cent visit of the emperor of Russia to Paris, M Hanotaux said, may be men tioned the precise exchange of views in regard to Armenia and the perfect com munity of ideas which exist in united Europe will give the sultan to under stand the necessity of his assuring the security of all his subjects of whatever race. But violence will not aid the task of Europe. France does not forget the traditions of the religious protectorate which she exercises in the Orient, nor the bonds which unite her to the Otto- man empire, but she must proportion her efforts to the extent of all the tasks devolving upon her"