File No. 763.72111/4550
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury ( McAdoo )
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of February 20 enclosing a copy of a communication, dated February 19, from the collector of customs at Baltimore, reporting the arrival of the British S. S. Missouri with certain armament on board, and calling attention to what your Department infers is the practice of the collector at that port not to require a new certificate from the consul for each trip of the same vessel, but to regard as sufficient the first assurance filed.1
In reply I beg to inform you that the collector should require the consul to file an assurance in each instance before granting clearance to a vessel carrying armament, notwithstanding the fact that an assurance has already been filed in connection with a previous clearance of the same vessel.
I have [etc.]
Assistant Secretary
- Not printed.↩