Evening star., 1915-10-15
ASSERTS THAT ARRESTS
WERE DUE TO SPYING
Turkish Embassy Denies That the
Ottoman Government Persecutes
Religious Bodies.

J The Turkish embassy at Washington
! has made public a statement asserting
| that the arrests of members of reli-
| gous bodies in Turkey have been due
| to their alleged acts as spies. About
. 100 persons, priests and nuns. the
statement says. were found to be in
forbidden correspondence with others
outside Of Turkey. furnishing informa-
| tion of military value to the enemies
! of Turkey, although forty-six persons.
not sufficiently implicated. the state-
ment says, have been released.
; These religious people, the state
ment continues, have not hesitated to
appeal to the press in order to show
themselves as victims of persecution
on the part of the Ottoman authorities.
Embassy Statement.
/ The statement sets forth in part:
Three months ago the martial court
was instructed to begin an inquiry
about certain letters addressed from
Constantinople to Saloniki. in the name
of Father LOBBY. containing most pes
simstic information in regard to the
imperial navy and military operations,
hidden among the words in the inside
of envelopes or under the postage
stamps affixed thereto.
Those members of religious orders
who. after the declaration of war. had
not been authorized to remain in Con-
stantinople had, before their departure,
made an agreement with those of their
colleagues who were to stay behind in
that city to use a secret code intended
to designate in their correspondence
the names of towns. military places and
all those in the imperial navy. These
priests in coming to France left some
of their numbers in the respective es-
Establishments of their orders situated in
Rumania, Greece. Bulgaria. Italy and
Switzerland.
The latter served as Intermediates
between the monks who had gone to
France and those who had remained in
Turkey for communicating by code the
information gathered by them.
The dates of the letters exchanged
between the interior and the foreign
lands and vice versa, and the fact that
they contain exact information concern
scheme of operations. completely bring
ont the Importance of this correspond
epce.
SMYRNA Gases Discussed.
.The inquiry made in regard to
Smyrna. based on the confiscated docu-
ments, moreover demonstrated that cer-
tain individuals in that city were trans
nitting to the Eastern Telegraph
Agency. at Syra. the intelligence they
were receiving from the capital and
the interior.
"Out of 100 or SO persons who were
thus engaged in this correspondence
fifty-four were discovered through
their addresses. Their examination es-
tablished the fact that, in accordance
with the rules of their orders. the su-
periors of converts were corresponding
Under the names of the priests or nuns
under their direction, and that they
were also carrying on a system OF in-
formation through the agency OF Cath
olics residing in the empire.
THE preceding statement seems sur
ficient to refute the ill-founded asser-
tions of the aforesaid priests and to
show that their biased publications can
have no other object than to mislead
the public as to their contemplate con-
duct toward the imperial government.
In reality. they will only succeed to
prove their lngratefulness toward a
country which has granted them. for
ages. the largest and most cordial hos
pitality."