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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Secretary of the Navy John D. Long to Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, Commander, North Atlantic Fleet

TELEGRAM

Washington, July 18, 1898.  

     The marine properties captured in the port of Santiago are not properly matters of prize; courts having held that captures by army and navy together are not within prize laws. Will confer with the President1 with regard to the proper department to take charge of these captures; also with regard to the propriety of the navy joining in articles of capitulation. The Department has no doubt that being a joint operation, both army and navy should have been represented.

LONG.        

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 80, Entry 194, vol. 1, p. 292. Addressed above to: “Sampson,/Playa del Este, Cuba.”

Footnote 1: President William McKinley.

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