File No. 763.72111So4/18
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador ( Spring Rice )
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: I have received your communication of the 7th instant, in which, on behalf of the Governor General of Canada, you inquire whether there would be any objection to some invalided soldiers from Jamaica, now at Halifax, being sent from Halifax to Jamaica via New York.
In reply I regret to say that on account of the desire of this Government not to allow soldiers, whether discharged, invalided or in the active service of the belligerents, to pass over American territory to belligerent territory, I am unable to comply with the request of the Governor General of Canada.
I am [etc.]