Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 5, 1916

File No. 312.11/7645

The Secretary of State to the Secretary of Commerce

Department of State,
Washington, May 1, 1916.

Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith a copy of a telegram dated April 30, 1916, from the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, of San Francisco, California, with reference to the transportation to the United States of about 40 American citizens who are now at Manzanillo, Mexico. It is feared that the steamship Newport, which is scheduled to call at Manzanillo on May 3 or 4, may not be in a position to accommodate all of the Americans mentioned, unless the Pacific Mail Steamship Company is permitted to authorize the Captain of the Newport to take aboard more passengers than is usually permitted by the vessel’s certificate.

Inasmuch as these forty American citizens have been detained at Manzanillo for nearly a month, I have the honor to request that the collector of customs at San Francisco be instructed not to penalize the Pacific Mail Steamship Company or the steamer Newport in case the vessel takes aboard more passengers than she has been authorized to carry.

I have [etc.]

Robert Lansing