File No. 841.857/271
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7 p. m.]
5356. Referring to your telegram 4140,1 of December 7, 3 p. m., following is pertinent part of Foreign Office reply:
No time was lost in transmitting this enquiry to the proper Department of His Majesty’s Government, and I now have the honour to state that the Arabia was not, at the time she was sunk, and had never been, in the service of His Majesty’s Government or of any of the Allied Governments. At the time she was sunk she carried some Government passengers who were booked as ordinary packet passengers, but the cost of whose passage is payable by the Government. As the ordinary passage reports have not been received (they were probably lost with the ship) it is not possible to say exactly how many such passengers there were. The information is, however, being collected. I shall be happy to communicate it to your excellency at a later date if desired. I understand that there were no Asiatics on board the Arabia when she was sunk except the Indian native crew.
I venture to add, with regard to the vessel’s course, to which your excellency states the German Government have called attention as being unusual, that, in view of the number of British and Allied ships sunk by the enemy without warning, it is not to be expected that vessels should follow the ordinary peace route and thereby give the enemy an opportunity of torpedoing from a submerged position.