File No. 763.72112/436
The Consul General at Hamburg (Morgan) to the Secretary of State
Hamburg, November 11, 1914.
[Received November 30.]
No. 108]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s cable instructions dated November 9, 1914,1 in reference to prize proceedings to be held at Hamburg with reference to vessels and cargoes that have been sunk by German warships, and instructing me to keep the Department informed by telegraph as to when proceedings on such vessels are to be held.
In reply I beg to inform the Department that only one such proceeding has taken place in Hamburg up to the present time, which was on November 7, 1914. The only boats brought into this port as prizes have been several steam trawlers and one Finnish freight steamer, the Uleaborg, but on none of these boats were there any American goods.
President Brandes of the prize court, with whom I have conferred, has promised to keep me informed of the dates as to when proceedings on such vessels as may be captured are to be held, and I will keep the Department informed of the dates thereof by telegraph. The President of the prize court exacted a promise from me that I would not give out for publication the names of the boats brought into this harbor and I beg that this information, for obvious reasons, will be regarded as confidential.
I have [etc.]