File No. 763.72111So4/40

The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Spring Rice)

Dear Mr. Ambassador: I am in receipt of your letter of the 9th instant2 in further regard to the invalided soldiers from Jamaica who were the subject of your former letter of October 7 and my letter of October 12 last in reply. In your present letter you state that these men have all lost legs or arms, but have been provided with artificial limbs and in a short time will be fit to travel; that owing to the lack of passenger vessels, it is practically impossible to ship them direct to [Page 708] Jamaica from Halifax and that, while they are still soldiers, it is proposed to discharge them before they leave Canada and to send them home as civilians. You add that they can never serve again.

In these circumstances the Government of Canada, you state, desire you to make a further appeal to the Government of the United States on the grounds of humanity that permission may be granted, as a special exception, for these men to return to Jamaica by way of the United States.

In reply I beg to say that if these men are discharged in Canada and sent home as civilians, never to serve again in the war and not as an organized body, the Department is disposed to treat this as a special case and will, in the interest of humanity, interpose no objection to their passage over American territory, so long as the immigration regulations are complied with.

I am [etc.]

Robert Lansing
  1. Not printed.