Office of the Historian

File No. 656.119/426

The Consul General at London ( Skinner) to the Secretary of State

London, April 22, 1918.
[Received May 8.]

Subject: Ex-President Taft’s memorandum respecting the requisitioning of Dutch ships1

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the memorandum on the above subject received recently from the Department of State, which I caused to be circulated in various circles in London.2 I have to-day learned that the Foreign Office being upon the point of despatching a note to Holland on the legal aspect of the affair and Lord Robert Cecil not having seen Mr. Taft’s opinion, he has asked to be provided with a copy which is now before him, and which no doubt will be of assistance to him in dealing with the matter. Any material of this kind sent to me for distribution is always re-addressed in such manner as to bring about the most useful results.

I have [etc.]

Robert P. Skinner
  1. Ante, p. 1425.↩
  2. According to despatches from the Consuls at Halifax and Moncton, the memorandum was communicated by them to local newspapers and published. (File Nos. 656.119/331 and 334.)↩