File No. 763.72/1592
The Department of State
to the British Embassy
undated
The Department of State has received His Britannic Majesty’s.
Embassy’s note of March 12, 19152 inviting attention to press reports [Page 356] as to the arrival in a
United States port of a German ship which had on board upwards of
three hundred prisoners of different nationalities, of both sexes,
some, of them citizens of the United. States, and pointing out that,
as the Department of State has doubtless considered, the fact that
had a cruiser of the British fleet met this German ship and engaged
her, these civilians, including citizens of the United States, would
have been in imminent danger of their lives.
[Memorandum]
His Britannic Majesty’s Embassy requests to be informed, should
there be no objection thereto, whether the Government of the
United States has called the attention of the competent
authority to the consequences which may be expected to follow
from the practice of sinking neutral ships and carrying their
neutral crews on a ship of war in constant danger of attack.
In reply the Department of State informs His Britannic Majesty’s
Embassy that, as the information requested appears to relate to
questions between neutral countries and Germany, the Department
of State regrets that it is precluded from discussing the
question presented by His Britannic Majesty’s Embassy.
Washington
,
March 26, 1915.
