File No. 13329/1–3.
President Roosevelt to the Emperor of Japan.
[Telegram.]
Washington, May 1,
1908.
The American people are deeply grieved and shocked at the terrible naval disaster which has just caused the loss of the lives of so many [Page 506] gallant officers and men of the Japanese Navy. On their behalf and personally on my own account I desire to express my profound sympathy and concern, and I wish it were in my power to show this sympathy in more practical fashion than by mere words.
Theodore
Roosevelt.