File No. 857.857/58
The Ambassador in Germany (Gerard) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 28, 5 p. m.]
4791. The following note relative to the sinking of the Norwegian ship Delto has just been received:
Foreign Office, Berlin , December 25, 1916 .
The undersigned has the honor to inform his excellency, Mr. Gerard, Ambassador of the United States of America, in reply to the note of Mr. J. C. Grew, [Page 328] dated the 21st ultimo (Foreign Office No. 1442), relative to the sinking of the Norwegian ship Delto by a German submarine as follows:
According to the investigations of the German naval authorities the Norwegian ship Delto, not Delta, which was chartered by the Italian Government to carry coal, was stopped on October 13th last about 40 nautical miles southeast of Cape Palos and sunk by artillery fire on account of unneutral service to the enemy (?), also Article 46, Paragraph 1, No. 3 of the Declaration of London, after the German commander had taken the ship’s papers on board and caused the crew to enter the lifeboats. The crew was given half an hour to leave the ship; the weather was good and very clear; the wind was very light. The boats had a comparatively short way to go to reach the Spanish coast, so that there was full security for saving the crew.
The presumption expressed by the American Government that the lives of American citizens on board the Delto were jeopardized is therefore not correct.
The undersigned requests that the above (be?) communicated to the American Government and avails himself [etc.]