File No. 311.523/18
The Secretary of State to the Spanish Ambassador
Washington, February 16, 1916.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 3d instant in which you state that the Spanish Government has decided to remove to Spain the remains of thirty [Page 958] three Spanish sailors who died while prisoners in the United States as members of the crew of Admiral Cervera’s squadron and were buried in the Naval Cemetery of Seavey Island, and ask that the Navy Department interpose no obstacle to the transfer of the remains.
In reply I have the honor to say that the Department is now in receipt of a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, to whom your note was referred, in which he states that his Department has no objection to the transfer mentioned and that it will cooperate in every possible manner with the representatives of His Majesty the King of Spain in removing the remains of the Spanish sailors.
Mr. Daniels points out, however, that the records of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery show that between the date of the arrival of the first detachment of prisoners, July 11, 1898, and the date of their repatriation, there were thirty deaths.
Accept [etc.]