People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1896 — MAY LEAD TO WAR. [ARTICLE]

MAY LEAD TO WAR.

TURKISH GOVERNMENT IMPRISONS A MISSIONARY. Rev. George <3. Knapp, an American, Unjustly Detained at Hi*l e>—Selfridge May Make a Naval DemonstrationState Department Not Uneasy. Constantinople, April 8 (via Sofia, Bulgaria, April 7). —Advices received here from Diarbekir indicate beyond any reasonable doubt that the Rev. George C. Knapp, one of the American missionaries at Bitlis, is confined in the jail at Diarbekir, capital of the Vilayet of that name, in Turkish Armenia, and that serious international complications are likely to follow. The Turkish government replying to the representations of the United States charge d’affaires, Mr. John W. Riddle, has announced through the grand vizier and through the minister for foreign affairs that no news has bee.; received by the porte i?s.u*ding the rey-rted expulsion of the Rev. Mr. Knapp : .~i Biti A nd it wr. < intimated that if ic wer r; he had arrived at Diarbekir it would appear that the local authorities were desirous of secretly CX; .. *1 lio Ar'icricr *ry. But the latest news from Diarbekir shows that this cannot possibly be the case, as it is further announced that the Rev. Mr. Knapp is to be sent frbm Diarbekir to Alexandretta, a seaport on the Bay of Iskanderun, opening into the eastern portion of the Mediterranean, there either to be shipped out of the country or delivered to the representatives of the United States. It is now said that the United States squadron in the Mediterranean, consisting of theflagship Minneapolis, commanded by Admiral T. O. Selfridge, and the cruiser Marblehead will shortly assemble in the gulf of Iskanderun; and at the same time a formal protest against the treatment of the American missionaries may be made to the porte, coupled with the demand for an adequte indemnity for the damage recently done to the property of Americans. The imprisonment and pioposed expulsion from the Turkish dominions of the Rev. M. Knapp is, however, understood to be but a prelimiary to the expulsion of all the Christian missionaries, mogtly Americans, English aud French Catholics, from Asiatic Turkey and possibly from European Turkey as well. Besides it is rumored that the agents of the American Red Cross society, now distributing relief funds in Asiatic Turkey in the presence of local Turkish officials, are also to be expelled from that part of the empire. It is believed here only that prompt and energetic action will prevent the issuing of the imperial irade providing for the expulsion of the missionaries and Red Cross society agents.