The Acting Secretary of State to the Russian Ambassador.
Washington, April 13, 1905.
Dear Mr. Ambassador: I have had the pleasure to receive your personal note of the 12th, in further relation to the desire of Captain Berlinsky, commanding the interned Russian transport Lena, to be accorded a leave of absence of four months on account of his health.
I am unable to agree with your view of the power and duty of the United States in regard to the execution of the duties of neutrality within its own territory by interning the Lena and her officers and crew. I can not admit that this government would have the original and exclusive right to transfer the place of internment to the territory of a third power. But, as I have already had the pleasure to inform you, I have learned that the Japanese Government will not make objection to granting Captain Berlinsky the conge he solicits.
The President directs, therefore, that, without prejudice to the parole already given by Captain Berlinsky to the Government of the United States, which engagement continues in full force, leave of absence be granted him for four months upon his parole of honor to report at the expiration of that time to the commandant of the navy-yard at Mare Island, San Francisco. The Secretary of the Navy will be requested to instruct the commandant of the navy-yard in this sense.
I have, etc.,