Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 2, The World War, Volume II

File No. 763.72111Sp1/74

The Spanish Minister of State ( De Lema) to the American Ambassador ( Willard)¹

[Translation]

No. 402

Santander, August 28, 1917.

Excellency: In reply to Your Excellency’s kind note No. 57–A of the 6th instant,² I have the honor to enclose herewith two statements³ relative to the sinking of the Norwegian steamers Voss and Tromp, in whose crews, Your Excellency states, were American citizens.

From the contents of these documents, Your Excellency can perceive that said ships were destroyed outside of Spanish territorial waters, and that the information furnished to the Embassy, fixing respectively at a quarter of a mile and a mile and a half the distance from the coast at which the above-mentioned ships were sunk, cannot be admitted as exact.

I avail myself of the occasion [etc.]

Marqués de Lema

1. Copy enclosed in the Ambassador’s despatch No. 791, Aug. 31 (received Sept. 22).
2. See telegram to the Ambassador, No. 626, Aug. 1, supra.
3. Not printed.