763.72111/49½
The Counselor for the Department of State (Lansing) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: In connection with the question as to the proper course which this government should pursue in the matter of the belligerent use of wireless and cable telegraphy, I desire to call your attention to a fact of which I was ignorant when I prepared my memorandum on the subject yesterday.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt informs me that a vessel at sea cannot receive a wireless message at a greater distance than half-way across the Atlantic Ocean, no matter how powerful the sending installation may be. This fact seems to me to have a direct bearing on one line of argument which I presented in my memorandum in relation to the ability of a belligerent in control of a cable line sending a message to its home government on the other side of the Atlantic and repeating it by wireless to its war ships on this side of the ocean.
I think this fact should be taken into consideration in determining the policy of the United States in its treatment of cipher messages, whether by wireless or by cable.
Very sincerely yours,