'General information on Persia for any future edition, 1895' [‎88v] (167/211)

It appears that the Government having obtained information from private sources of
the existence of a Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. , the object of which was to propagate seditious ideas
among the Armenians, the Governor-General gave some months since strict orders to the
Ka'imakam of the above-mentioned place to watch, without giving cause for disturbances,
the movement, and find out the principal actors in the said Committee^ and as the result
of his investigation the last-mentioned functionary reported to the Yali that the chief
movers in the matter were the Bishop and a certain Schimavon, the Director of the
Armenian High School, who is suspected of being a Russian subject, though possessing a
Persian passport, and stating further that they were continually disseminating opinions
detrimental to the authority of the Government among the youth of the said community
through preaching and teaching.
The murder of a policeman in the streets of Arabkir one night last winter aroused
the suspicion of the authorities against four Armenians supposed to be members of the
Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. ; three of them were arrested, but the fourth, named Daniel, dis
appeared, and no clue could be found as to the place of his concealment.
In the meantime, a letter posted and addressed to a certain Armenian, signed only
with initials, fell into the hands of the Local Government. The contents of this letter,
if genuine, are of a most compromising character.
It was not to be expected that the affair would pass off without* causing some sort of
excitement among the lurkish population , loud complaints fiom all sides were beginning
to be heard, and the Moslems of Arabkir seemed so insolent and sensitive that clash
between them and the Armenians was greatly apprehended. They demanded that the
Bishop should by force be expelled, which, had it been attempted, the Armenians would
possibly have resisted with all their might.
Under these circumstances, the Governor-General felt it his duty to strengthen the
garrison of that place by dispatching two additional companies of the troops in Kharput,
requesting at the same time the Sublime Porte to press the Armenian Patriarch tor
removing, without delay, the Bishop to another place. These precautionary measures, I
must state, had the desired effect; the Bishop departed quietly far Diarbekir; Schimavon,
however, suddenly disappeared, but shortly after he, in company with Daniel and two
other Armenians, was arrested in the Dersim Mountains by one of the Chiefs of the
district and brought with a large Kurdish escort to the Vali in Kharput, charging them
with having been in the villages endeavouring to persuade the people to join them in an
insurrectionary movement by declaring that the Armenians were ready to rise, that they
had a large sum of money at their disposal to enable them to attain their object, and that
Schimavon was able to manufacture guns, all sorts of ammunition, and deadly weapons,
such as bombs, two of which they exhibited to the Kurds.
As a matter of course the prisoners denied all these charges, declaring that they were
on their way to Erzeroum, and had been set upon by their accusers, who maltreated and
robbed them of all their money and effects, and that they knew r nothing about the bombs.
It must be remarked that it is hardly conceivable that the Kurds should invent all these
charges, or could manufacture the bombs, which are thought to be dynamite, nor is
it likely that they would bring the prisoners to the authorities if they really fell upon them
for the purpose of plunder.
I have also to add that Arabkir seems quiet at present, and there are only six
Armenians in the prison here, who are all accused of being members of the Secret Com
mittee, and four of them are further charged with being involved in the above-stated
murder case.
I have, &c.
(Signed) THOMAS BOYAJIAN.
No. 85.
Acting Consul Hampson to Sir W. White .— (Received at the Foreign Office, October 30.)
Sir, Erzeroum, October 10, 1891.
NEWS has just reached me that a few days ago a party of nine Armenians, while
crossing the Sinek Dag Mountain, near Kara Kilissa, in Alashgerd, were attacked by a band
of Kurds, said to belong either to the Jelali or the Zilanlu tribe.
Seven of the Armenians were killed, the other two escaping. Of the Kurds, two are
said to have been killed, and tw r enty more to have been arrested by the authorities at Kara
Kilissa.