File No. 763.72111Ei9/63
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the
Secretary of State
No. 2708]
London,
December 16, 1915.
[Received December 29.]
Sir: I have the honor to acquaint you that on
December 3 I received from His Majesty’s Foreign Office a note, a copy
of which I attach herewith,1 requesting that inquiries be made of the German
Government concerning the identity of one Lieutenant zur See
Henry Koch, who recently escaped from
internment at Norfolk. This inquiry was accordingly transmitted to the
Embassy at Berlin on December 7, with the request that the desired
particulars might be obtained.
On December 6 Lieutenant Koch, who is now detained at Edinburgh,
addressed a communication to the Consul there who immediately
transmitted it to this Embassy. Copies of Koch’s letter and the Consul’s
letter of transmittal were presented to His Majesty’s Foreign Office on
December 13, and I have the honor to transmit herewith copies of these
two communications.
No reply has been made by this Embassy to the suggestion made in
Lieutenant Koch’s letter to the Consul at Edinburgh.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
The Consul at Edinburgh (Fleming) to the Ambassador in
Great Britain (Page)
Edinburgh,
December 8, 1915.
Sir: I have the honor to report that
Lieut. Henry Koch, German naval officer, is a
prisoner of war in Edinburgh Castle. He was taken off the Danish S.
S.
[Page 844]
Tyskland, bound from New York to Copenhagen,
at Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on the 14th November, 1915. Lieutenant
Koch was an officer on the interned German auxiliary cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, lying at Portsmouth,
Virginia, and fled in the early part of October, with the intention
of reaching Germany via Denmark. Lieutenant Koch shipped on the S.
S. Tyskland as a member of the crew.
A letter addressed to this consulate by Lieutenant Koch is herewith
enclosed.
I have [etc.]
[Subenclosure]
Naval Lieutenant Koch
to the Consul at Edinburgh (Fleming)
Edinburgh,
December 6, 1915.
Dear Sir: I was officer on board of the
interned German auxiliary cruiser Prinz Eitel
Friedrich lying in Portsmouth, Va., have fought out of the
American internment and have been taken from a neutral ship in
England, If it is possible that the United States Government grants
to me indemnity because of my flight, I beg the United States
Embassy, at the same time representing my own Government in this
country, to ask the British Government for its agreement that I dare
return on my own costs to United States of America and into the
American internment.
I think to be condemned to inactivity in the same degree in America
as in England, especially after an attempt of flight. Further I
would not cause any expenses either to the British or to the
American Government.
Yours truly,
