File No. 763.72111G27/20

The Counselor for the Department of State to the German Ambassador (Bernstorff)

My dear Mr. Ambassador: In reply to your note of the 11th instant, inquiring on which rule or regulation the internment of the German ship Locksun is based, I would advise you that the Locksun has been interned on the principle that she has been acting as a tender to the German warship Geier, as the facts set forth in my note of the 7th instant substantiate. If, under the circumstances, the Locksun has been in fact a tender to the Geier, the question involved does not relate to the amount of coal which either the Locksun or the Geier has taken on within three months, but rather relates to the association and cooperation of the two vessels in belligerent operations. The Locksun, having been shown to have taken the part of a supply ship for the Geier, is, in the opinion of this Government, stamped with the belligerent character of that vessel, and has really become a part of her equipment. In this situation it is difficult to understand on what basis it would have been possible to distinguish between the two vessels, so as to intern the one and not the other. This Government, therefore, has taken what appears to it to be the only reasonable course, under the circumstances, and directed that both vessels be interned.

I am [etc.]

Robert Lansing