File No. 763.72111/1869
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Spring Rice)
Excellency: In further reply to your excellency’s note of the 9th instant, and supplementary to the Department’s answer of the 13th instant,1 I have the honor to inform you that the fast German steamships now in the continental ports of the United States have been thoroughly reexamined and searched by American authorities, with a view to verifying the information reported in your excellency’s note of March 9, and that the Department is now in receipt of the results of this investigation. It is deemed unnecessary to review this report in detail, inasmuch as the Government is satisfied from the information at hand that it has fully carried out its duties and obligations as a neutral in respect to vessels of belligerent nationality in its ports.
I have [etc.]