File No. 763.72111/3832
The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador ( Jusserand )
Excellency: I have the honor to state, in reply to your note of the 19th ultimo, that your suggestion therein set forth, in regard to obtaining assurances from French consular officers that the armament of French merchantmen arriving in ports of the United States would be used only for defensive purposes, has been approved by the Secretary of the Treasury and will be put into operation at all ports where French consular officers are located.
Instructions to this effect are being sent out by the Secretary of the Treasury to the collectors of customs.1
Accept [etc.]
- Upon receipt of similar notes from the British and Italian Ambassadors, instructions to the same effect applying to ships of their nationalities were sent to collectors of customs, July 20, 25, 1916 (File Nos. 763.72111/3860, 3909).↩