763.72/3469½
The Secretary of State to
President Wilson
Washington,
March 8, 1917.
My Dear Mr. President: I enclose a telegram
which I have just received from Honorable Richard Olney,16 and which I
thought you might like to see.
Faithfully yours,
[Enclosure—Telegram]
Mr. Richard Olney
to the Secretary of State
Boston, Mass.,
March 8, 1917—1:10 p. m.
Entirely concise [concur] in your view that
nothing in the statutes cited impairs the President’s constructional
[constitutional] right and duty to
safeguard the lives and property of American citizens by providing
American merchant ships with guns and other instrumentalities
required to enable them to defend themselves against lawless and
hostile attack.
