File No. 763.72111V76/8
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Spring Rice)
Excellency: Referring to my note of December 16, 1915, in response to your note of the 11th instant, relative to the case of the steamship Vinland, which was followed by a British cruiser down the Atlantic coast from Barnegat Lighthouse to a point off McCrie’s Shoal Buoy, Cape May, I have the honor to advise you of the receipt of a letter of December 15 from the Secretary of War, with which is enclosed a copy of a communication from the commanding officer, Coast Defenses of Galveston, Fort Crockett, Texas, from which I quote as follows:
- 1.
- A British cruiser stood off the entrance to Galveston Harbor from about 10 a. m. to 1 p. m., Sunday, December 5, 1915. When asked her identity by signal from Fort San Jacinto, she replied, “A registered British cruiser,” and stated in reply to another query that she did not intend to enter the harbor.
- 2.
- The cruiser did not come within the three-mile limit.
I have [etc.]