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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Lieutenant George L. Dyer, United States Naval Attaché in Madrid, to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt

Madrid, April 20th 1898.

ASTNAV,1 Washington, D.C.

     Have received orders to take Minister’s2 daughter3 across frontier tonight. I know that Spanish Government is apprehensive for Minister’s safety as soon as Spanish Minister4 leaves Washington.5 Minister knows nothing of this telegram, though I have signed his name to insure quick transmission.

                                       Dyer.

                                           Woodford.

Source Note: TD, DNA, AFNRC, M625, roll 33. Stamp: Document includes a rectangular stamp with “OFFICE/NAVAL INTELLIGENCE/Rec’d APR 20 1898” written in the right side of the rectangle. Handwritten into a space in the left side of the rectangle is “12-10”. There is another copied telegraph on this document from Dyer with the same date that gives intelligence on the movement of Spanish ships.

Footnote 1: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt.

Footnote 2: The U.S. Ambassador to Spain Stewart L. Woodford.

Footnote 3: Presumably, Woodford’s youngest daughter, Susan Curtis Woodford.

Footnote 4: The Spanish Ambassador to the United States Luis Polo de Bernabé.

Footnote 5: Woodford left Madrid by train the afternoon of 21 April. The New York Times, 22 Apr., 1898.

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