Office of the Historian

File No. 652.119/1916

The Secretary of State to the Consul at Curaçao ( Messersmith)

[Telegram]
Washington, October 19, 1918, 5 p.m.

Your October 8, 11 a.m. We have transmitted the following cable to the American Consul at Puerto Cabello:

War Trade Board requires Spanish steamer Villamanrique to call at Porto Rico after leaving Venezuela en route to Canaries and Spain.

Lansing

[The War Trade Board, in considering the plan proposed on October 16 for examining neutral vessels proceeding across the Atlantic to or from northern neutral countries, considered also a plan for examining in a port of Porto Rico or of the United States, Spanish vessels proceeding to or from Spain. These plans, however, were not approved by the Department of State. See ante, pages 1003, 1010, and 1012.]