volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

144 Application for a Permit
for the excavator. The Foreign Ofi&ce apphed to the
Porte for the permit (through the British Ambassador,
Sir WiUiam White), but reminded the Trustees at the
same time that Sir WiUiam had written in November,
1887, saying that diplomatic representations would not
succeed in obtaining permits of an exceptional character.
Early in July a dispatch was received from Sir William
White, who stated that in his opinion it was undesirable
to attempt to obtain a special permit to excavate
in Mesopotamia. He went on to say that Mr. Consul
Wrench had had a conversation with Hamdi Bey on
the subject, and that he had promised to do what he
could to forward the interests of the British Museum.
And he also said he would take steps to secure the
appointment of a more suitable Delegate to accompany
the excavator and to watch his work. No complaint
had been made by the Trustees about the unsuitability
of the Delegate who had been sent with me for his task,
and as I had feared that he might be sent with me a
second time I had made no comment upon it. The
Minister of Public Instruction was disappointed at the
behaviour of his nominee, and told Hamdi Bey that he
would not employ him again as a Delegate to watch
the interests of the Turkish Government.
In the last week of July the Principal Librarian
received an answer to a letter which he had sent to
Mr. Consul Wrench concerning the probability of the
Trustees obtaining a permit to excavate. Mr. Wrench
described in detail the conversation which he had had
with Hamdi Bey, and then suggested that the Trustees
should make an application for a permit for two years,
and state in it the names of the sites which they wished
to excavate and the order in which they proposed to
excavate them. This application must be accompanied
by a detailed description of the situation of each site,
and of the parts of each that were to be excavated, and
a map of each site must be appended. It must be
distinctly understood that no two sites could be excavated
simultaneously, and the application for the
permit must be addressed to the Ministry of Public