File No. 811.741/165
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Memorandum
Chapter 1, Article 3, of the Hague convention of 1907 on the rights and duties of neutral powers forbids belligerents to erect on the territory of a neutral power a wireless telegraphy station or other apparatus for the purpose of communicating with belligerent forces on land or sea.
According to trustworthy information it appears that the German Atlantic Communication Company has recently erected a new apparatus at Sayville, of 100-kilowatt power, with towers 500 feet high, capable of communicating at any hour with Nauen. The machinery is entirely German and has been transported since the war began from Holland. German officers in the employ of the German Government, and noted experts, have been sent over to this country for the express purpose of superintending the new construction: namely, Prof. Jonathan Zenneck of Munich, recently serving in the German Army, Mr. Behrendt, an engineer in the German Army, and Professor Braun, the well-known expert in wireless telegraphy.
It is natural to conclude that the German Government is interested in the establishment of the new apparatus and the British Embassy has the honour to express its confidence that the United [Page 888] States Government will take the necessary steps to prevent the use of the apparatus for unneutral purposes.1
[Received June 12.]
- Early in August, operation of the Sayville station was taken over by the Navy Department in the same manner as the Tuckerton station.↩