Mr. Cambon to Mr. Day.
Washington , July 1, 1898 . (Received July 2, 3.38 p.m.)
Mr. Secretary of State: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letters dated the 27th, 29th, and 30th of last month, relative to the prisoners coming from Spanish captured vessels and [Page 797] whom the Federal Government has decided to send away from the territory of the Union.
I have hastened to inform my Government that the Federal authority will take charge of transporting these 400 men from Key West to New York, whence they will be dispatched to their respective destinations through the care of the consul-general of Austria-Hungary, to whom the protection of Spanish interests in that port is intrusted. I have, at the same time, begged the minister for foreign affairs to ask the Madrid cabinet to send with urgency to the consul-general of Austria the necessary instructions and funds.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,