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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Secretary of State Robert Lansing to United States Ambassador to The United Kingdom Walter Hines Page

Copy                                   August 30, 1917.

PARAPHRASE

                      INCOMING     TELEGRAM

To         American Embassy, London

From       Department of State signed Lansing

Dated      August 29,  3 p.m.

Received   August 30, 1917  3 p.m.

No.        5355,

     With reference to the matter contained in your 7005 of August 22, 4 p.m. the Legation at Lisbon telegraphs that it has been informed by the Foreign Minister that Portuguese authorities in the Azores will be instructed to extend the same treatment given British war vessels to similar vessels of the United States.1

Lansing. 

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B. The signature is handwritten. There is an identifying number in the upper right-hand corner that appears to read: “In 3-.”

Footnote 1: The British were allies of the Portuguese, but the United States Navy was preparing to assume responsibility for protecting the Azores. However, some in the Portugese government feared that the United States was looking to annex the islands, a move that a number of Azoreans supported. See, Seward D. Livermore, “The Azores in American Strategy Diplomacy, 1917-19,” Journal of Modern History, 20 (September 1948): 197-211.

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