852.00/5553: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in Spain (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:40 p.m.]
653. My 652, May 29, 6 p.m. An official communiqué announces that yesterday afternoon while engaged in a reconnaissance flight over Ibiza two Government planes were fired upon by a warship anchored some 200 yards off the dock although the planes had effected no aggressive act toward the vessel in question or the city. The planes replied to the attack by dropping 12 bombs 4 of which struck the warship and exploded. Intercepted radio messages indicate that the war vessel is the German cruiser Admiral Scheer.
The communiqué adds that foreign warships engaged in control work should exercise supervision at the minimum distance of 10 miles from the coast, and that furthermore such service with respect to the Island of Ibiza was delegated to the French Navy for which reason the German cruiser had no legitimate errand at that place within Spanish jurisdictional waters.