File No. 763.72111G27/4
The Acting Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Spring Rice)
Washington, October 30, 1914.
Excellency: The Department has received your note of the 28th instant protesting against the continued presence of the Geier in a United States harbor and requesting that she may be interned. In reply I have the honor to inform you that the Imperial German Ambassador in this capital has been advised of this Government’s intention to fix a definite period within which repairs to this vessel should be completed, and that if she is unable to leave American waters within the period set, the United States Government will [Page 586] feel obliged to insist that she be interned. The appropriate authorities of the United States have been instructed to inform the captain of the Geier in this sense.
You also call attention in your note to the German ship Locksun now in Honolulu with 1,000 tons of coal on board, and state that she sailed from Manila, ostensibly for Menado, in the Celebes, but did not call there and arrived at Honolulu on October 15 in company with the German cruiser Geier. You further state that as she obviously made a false declaration of destination, there appears to be circumstantial evidence that she has already been engaged in furnishing supplies to a belligerent warship and that, under the general rules of international law and the United States regulations of September 19, there is ground for detaining her for the purpose of inquiry. In reply I have the honor to advise you that instructions have been issued to detain this vessel, pending an investigation as to whether she has been furnishing supplies to belligerent warships. This matter will be made the subject of a further communication to you when the examination has been completed.
I have [etc.]