The Counselor for the Department of State to the German Ambassador (Bernstorff)
Washington, December 23, 1914.
My dear Mr. Ambassador: In reply to your note of the 21st instant, with reference to the British S. S. Mallina and Tremeadow , which you state have served as tenders to British cruisers, and are demanding coal in the Panama Canal Zone, I would advise you that these vessels have been considered by the Canal authorities as coming under rule 2 of the President’s proclamation of November 13 last in relation to the neutrality of the Panama Canal Zone,2 which [Page 654] accords to transports or fleet auxiliaries the same treatment as that given to belligerent vessels of war.
I am [etc.]