File No. 195.1/487
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of Commerce (Redfield)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Department’s letter of July 28, 1915,1 regarding the matter of the sale of the Dutch ship Laura to Mr. R. G. Wagner, an American citizen residing in Milwaukee, and to say in reply that it has received the careful consideration of the Department, in connection with other facts pertinent to the transfer to American registry of the Wagner ships.
The aspect of the matter in which this Department appears to be interested is that, in case American registry is granted the Laura, the applicant should be advised that the Government of the United States cannot, of course, give any assurance that the American claim of ownership of the vessel will not be challenged by belligerents, or that the ship will not be arrested on the high seas and sent to a prize court for adjudication of that question; and that, with the facts before it, the Department of State is of the opinion that the case will be one appropriate for a decision of the question of ownership by a prize court.
I have [etc.]
[For notification of the abrogation by the British and French Governments of Article 57 of the Declaration of London, see telegram No. 3104 from the Ambassador in Great Britain, October 28, 1915, and despatch No. 1545 from the Ambassador in France, October 29, 1915, above, page 179.]
- Not printed.↩