Following the urgent request of the head of the American Board, a friend of mine for many years, I visited the American Ambassador today. Although this visit was entirely outside my programme, after careful consideration I considered it to be my duty not to avoid making it. I believed it necessary to make use of the opportunity to assure the American Ambassador that it is my deepest conviction that, under the current circumstances, our Foreign Office is doing everything that can possibly be done at present in the matter concerning the Armenian Christian population in Turkey.
Unfortunately, evacuation measures now seem to have expanded to include the Protestants and the Catholics.
I reckon with utmost certainty that our houses and institutions with all our children and employees can continue to count on the active protection of our German government in future.
Our sister, Alma Johansen, a Swedish woman, formerly in Mush, also brought with her once again devastating details of glorious deeds by our allies against the Armenian people.
I will take the liberty of sending a detailed report to the Foreign Office.
Today, however, I would like to draw your attention to a fact that will be contained in this report.
You may remember the Kurd riot in the area around Bitlis 2 or 3 years ago, after which a number of Kurdish leaders (I believe it was 13) were hanged as punishment. When the Russian troops approached, these Kurdish tribes believed that the day of retaliation on their part had come, and fugitive Turkish public officials and officers from the area around Van had terrible things to report.
It seems to me to be more than probable that, for particular reasons, these atrocities on the part of the Kurds will be blamed on the Armenians.
According to the oral reports by Spörri, our missionary from Van, with whom I spoke in Berlin just before leaving for here, Armenians did also kill Mohammedans, but they did not carry out any atrocities against men, nor did they rape women and girls or commit brutalities against children.
I reserve some interesting details on forged dispatches from the interior and many other things for my later report. Please excuse my tormenting you from afar, but it is very important that our Foreign Office should have all the facts, in order to see the situation clearly and be better able to intervene when the possibility to do so arises.
Yours sincerely,