File No. 811.73/19.
The French Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Washington, July 12, 1915.
Mr. Secretary of State: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your excellency’s note of the 7th instant relative to the taxes recently demanded of the Compagnie Française des Câbles Transatlantiques by certain States of the Union. The note will be made known to the company and French authorities concerned; they will consider the question of principle therein argued.
In the second part of your letter, your excellency was so good as to say that, taking into account the services rendered to the Federal Government by the French company, you had commended to the most favorable consideration of the Governor of Massachusetts the request presented through me so that it may be, if possible, acceded to in practice.
While wishing that this solution at least may come about, I venture to call to mind in this connection that a like claim has been made by the State of Connecticut and that the circumstances would seem to warrant a similar appeal to the Governor of that State.
Be pleased [etc.]