The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-02
ARRESTS MADE.
Leishman Refuses to Accept Turkish
 Explanations.

Leishman Refuses to Accept Turkish Explanations. Constantinople. Sept. 1.-The Porte has | notified Minister Leishman that five ar- rests have been made at Beirut in con- | nection with the shooting which led to the
 report that William c. Magelssen, the
 United States vice and deputy consul | there. had been assassinated. The Turk
 ish officials continue to insist that no at- | tempt was made on the vice constirs life and they re-assert that the whole story originated m a Feu-De-Joie fired on the | occasion of q native marriage and in ac- cordance to customs. Mir. Ieshman however, refuses to accept such an expla-'
 nation without conclusive proof that the
 judicial investigation continues.
 The attempt to burn the American col ege at Kharput occurred five weeks ago , and apparently was the work of an indi-
 viduaI who considered he had a grievance
 against the college authorities. When Mir. Leishman was informed of the at
 tempt he demanded that the Porte pro- ect the American institution, and as
 conseuence of his representations instruc- tions were sent to the authorities at
 Kharput to try in the regular courts the charges against fifty Armenians accused in trafficking in arms and engaging in
 other sedtious acts. Among the ac-
 cused is Prof. Tenekedjian of the Amer ican College, whose treatment in prison
 pending his trial was ordered to be im- proved.
 MT. Leishman is pressing for a definite settlement of a number of matters on
 which agreements were reached with the
 Turkish authorities last year, but which
 in spite of frequent promises on the part of the porte. have never been executed.
 For instance a naturalized American Is
 still in prison at Tripoli. Syria. although
 the porte has frequently informed MT. Leishman that the authorities at Beirut
 who have jurisdiction over Trlpoli had been ordered to liberate him. Yesterday MT. Leshman received a telegram from
 Rear Admiral Cotton dated from Genoa,
 Italy, Sunday evening, alssuncing that
 the United States wahships Brooklyn and San Francisco would arrive on Beirut at the end of this week.
 The American officials here attribute | the dispatch of the warships to Turkish
 waters not solely to the Magelssen affair. but to the general dissatisfaction of the authorities at Washington at the non l fulfllment of the porte's promise in re-
 gard to pending questions and to the determination of President Roosevelt to show Turkey that she cannot trife with | American representatives.
 l Diplomatic circles here generally ap-
 prove of. the energetic action of theUnited
 States, which it is pointed out. is amply
 justified by the bad faith of Turkey and it is felt here that the appearance of the | United States warships in Turkish waters | will lead to the immediate settlement of
 the pending dispute.
 Nothing so ippresses the Porte as d | naval demonstration, and the diplomats claim that this will be specially notice | able in the present case, as the Amer | jeans are not fettered like other powers | by agreements regulating the internation- l al, political affairs of Turkey.
 Consular dispatches from Prishtina, near the Servian frontier, confirm the | reports that nearly all the Christian vil- lages in the districts of Dibra. gfty-four miles from Monastir and Glcevo. have | been pillaged and burned and that the inhabitants have fled. It is not stated whether Albanians or Bulgarians were
 the perpetrators of the outrages.
 In spite of the apparent gravity of the general situation, optimism prevails Tn Turkish circles. In the course of the au- diences which the German Ambassador,
 Baron Hirschal von Bieberstein, and the
 Russian Ambassador, M. Zinevieff, have
 been having with the Sultan for the pur-
 pose of recommending more energetic
 action, and entrusting to the Turkish commander in chief full direction of the
 military operations. the Sultan replied
 that he preferred to retain control of
 Constantinople.
 The Government has proposed a per-
 sonal or land tax on the entire popula-
 ton of the empire over the age of lS
 The tax is on different classes and
 ranges from 80 cents to $500 each annu- ally. This Is regarded in some quarters
 as being in the nature of provision for