File No. 862.85/456
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Peru ( Smith )
Your June 3, 9 p.m. Department coincides with opinion of the Minister for Foreign Affairs that in order to expedite matters, negotiations regarding the ships should be carried on at Lima and the United States Shipping Board will immediately send a representative to Peru to cooperate with American Legation in these negotiations.
Convey the following informally and orally to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, even though military guards have been placed on board German vessels.
The attention of the Minister for Foreign Affairs is invited to the importance and necessity of maintaining complete control over vessels and of definitely excluding the German crews from access to them. In Colombia the German crew destroyed a vessel in spite of the fact that negotiations had been concluded between the United [Page 705] States Shipping Board and the German owners of this vessel for its purchase. It is believed that unless some action as suggested above is taken the crews of the vessels now in Peruvian waters, under instructions from the German Government may make a determined effort to destroy them.1
Howland Gardner, representative of Shipping Board, will leave for Peru in about a week’s time. Department feels that all technical negotiations should await his arrival.
- In a telegram of June 28 the Chargé reported that the crews had been disembarked on the 25th (File No. 763.72/10550).↩