File No. 823.857/2
The Peruvian Legation to the Department of State
[Received August 10.]
The Legation of Peru is in receipt of the following information with reference to the claim presented by the Government of Peru to the German Government for the sinking of the Peruvian bark Lorton by a German submarine within Spanish territorial waters, on February 5, 1917.
The German Government having decided to submit the circumstances of the sinking of the Peruvian bark Lorton to a prize court, the Government of Peru has instructed the Minister of Peru at Berlin to state that in accordance with the Declaration of London, invoked by Germany, the sinking of the Peruvian bark Lorton is wholly unjustified, owing to the nationality of the ship, the quality and destination of its cargo, the locality where the ship was sunk, the impossibility for the ship to be acquainted with the German decree establishing a barred zone, which decree moreover the Peruvian Government does not recognize, and the principles ruling maritime warfare and protecting neutral ships.
The Minister of Peru has been instructed further to declare that the Peruvian Government does not and will not accept to submit this question to a prize court, and that it insists upon the reparations and indemnities previously claimed.