Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Supplement 1, The World War, Volume I

File No. 195./409

The British Ambassador on Special Mission ( Reading) to the Secretary of State

Washington, February 18, 1918.

Dear Mr. Secretary: I have pleasure in certifying to you that Sir Samuel Hardman Lever, K.C.B., Financial Secretary of the British Treasury, and Mr. T. Ashley Sparks, are the official representatives in the United States of the British Treasury and the British Ministry of Shipping respectively, and that their signatures to the agreement of the 30th January 1918,² covering the payment of eighty million, seven hundred and ninety-four thousand, forty-one dollars and sixty-five cents ($80,794,041.65), in respect of the requisitioning of certain ships under the operation of an order made by the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation on August 3d, 1917,³ are recognized as binding on His Majesty’s Government and as holding the United States Government harmless from any liability in respect of any private or international claims which may hereafter arise in connection with any transactions prior to August 4th, 1917, covered by the agreement referred to above.

Reading

2. Not printed.
3. Ibid., p. 614.