File No. 195.1/128
The German Ambassador (Bernstorff) to the Secretary of State
Washington, October 14, 1914.
[Received October 15.]
[Translation]
No. A. 1638/14]
Mr. Secretary of State: The German Consulate at San Francisco has reported to me as follows regarding the steamer Alexandria lying there.
This steamer, which belonged to the Hamburg-American Line and was chartered by the Kosmos Line, was sold recently to the Northern and Southern Pacific Steamship Company, an American concern. This company had applied to the Navigation Bureau at Washington for registration in the American ship register and to the Collector of Customs at San Francisco for clearance. Neither thing has yet been granted. The ship must therefore still be regarded as German both in regard to its ship’s register and to the flag it flies.
According to a report of the captain and of the first officer, an armed guard, consisting of a non-commissioned officer and five men of the American Navy, was placed on the ship on the evening of the 3d, having been strengthened to eleven men the next night in spite of the protest of the German Consulate against this measure taken at the instance of the customs authority. During its stay on board the guard set in operation the wireless station, which had thitherto been kept under seal by the Navy Department, and telegraphed to the American warship New Orleans, which was lying in the vicinity and to whose crew the guard belonged.
According to the statements of the naval officer who placed the first guard on board, these measures were taken in order to prevent the ship from departing secretly, though there was no warranted suspicion of such a thing according to the report of the German Consulate at San Francisco.
The German Consulate learned only subsequently of this procedure through the report of the officers of the Alexandria.
I have the honor to most humbly request your excellency to kindly investigate the matter and ascertain, in the spirit of the treaty of friendship and commerce between the United States and Prussia, whether the procedure of the American authorities at San Francisco is in accordance with the provision of Article 12, paragraph 2, of the consular convention between Germany and the United States.
While awaiting an early reply from your excellency, I avail myself [etc.]