File No. 585/15–16.
Ambassador McCormick to the Secretary of State.
Paris, December 20, 1906.
Sir: With reference to the department’s No. 219, concerning the deplorable accident which resulted in the death of Lieut. Clarence England, in the port of Chefoo, China, I have the honor to report that I sought the first opportunity to lay the matter before the foreign minister. I laid stress on the fact that I did not come with a demand, but with the conviction that when the facts were fully known to the French Government similar action would be taken to that of the Government of the United States following the accidental killing of two men and four officers of the French frigate Suffren at Toulon in 1833.
My representations were most sympathetically received by M. Pichon, who said that we could not feel more deeply than his Government on the subject, concerning which he was already in conference with the minister of marine, and that I feel assured that the result will be entirely satisfactory to us.
As has been my habit, I left a memorandum with his excellency, M. Pichon, embodying the substance of my verbal representation, copy of which I inclose herewith.a
I have, etc.,
- Not printed.↩