The three notes last named of the legation of the United States have not been answered by his highness, the minister of foreign affairs, except in a note, dated December 8, 1883, in which he is pleased to renew assurances based upon telegrams from the governor-general, which are utterly unreliable. Wherefore, abandoning hope of justice through the governor-general of Bitlis, and the judicial tribunals of the empire, the legation of the United States finds itself compelled to change its form of application for redress, and demand of the Sublime Porte indemnity in behalf of Messrs. Knapp and Reynolds, for the former £1,500, and for the latter, because of the more serious nature of his injuries, £2,000. THE POSITION TAKEN IN WASHINGTON. (Foreign Relations of the United States, 1884, p. 544.) No. 419. _Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Wallace._ (No. 153.) DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _Washington, February 13, 1884_. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 317, of the 25th ultimo, relative to the case of the Rev. Mr. Knapp and Dr. Reynolds, murderously attacked by Kurds near Bitlis, and to say that, after a careful consideration of all the facts before the Department, the inaction of the governor of Bitlis and the failure of the supreme Government to force him to undertake such measures as the case evidently demanded, must be regarded as a denial of justice. While this Government is always averse to making money demands for indemnity in countries whose administration of justice may differ from our own, the Department feels compelled to resort to this remedy under circumstances which manifestly make the local officers and the Government of the Porte responsible for the failure to do justice in this case. The action reported in your dispatch is, consequently, approved. I am, &c., FRED’K T. FRELINGHUYSEN. THE POSITION TAKEN IN CONSTANTINOPLE. General Lew Wallace is understood to have been emphatically a _persona grata_ as U. S. Minister to Turkey, in fact to have enjoyed, to a very exceptional degree, the personal confidence and friendship of His Majesty the present Sultan. The following quotation will show what treatment even he received in the discharge of his official duties in the case under consideration: _From the Regular Correspondent of the Tribune._ CONSTANTINOPLE, March 1, 1884.