From: Manila (Nihro)
To: Tokyo
August 12, 1941
Purple
#507

Re: Your #254. [a]

 

(1) At the time a non-commissioned officer of the American Navy told me confidentially that the ship mentioned in my #414 [a] (8?) [a] was the Warspite and I took this to be reliable information. This British ship, however, had its name painted over. Some spies who viewed the ship when it docked report that it was something like a 7,000-ton vessel. It was further reported that this ship moored at Cavite pier on the --th. Now, considering the shallowness of the water there, I do not see how it could have been the Warspite. (When the Cincinnati approaches that dock, it gradually lets out water ballast.) Judging from its shape, I would say that it was a light cruiser of the Leander class. (According to another report it was an 8,000-ton craft. This seems rather accurate.) (2) Among the members of the crew who came on shore there were some with such names as YORK. GEORGE, etc., on their hatbands and we also have a spy report to the effect that some forty-eight soldiers wounded in the Mediterranean were being accommodated. (3) I know nothing of the movement of this ship after my #451. [b]

 

Lately no British ships save this has entered port here (that is side from the Taggubwno (?) mentioned in my #494. [a]

 
ARMY 21094                                            Trans. 8/16/41 (6)
 
[a] Not available.
[b] (SIS #20468) British cruiser which was anchored at Cavite for several days departed for - - - - - - on the 27th.

 

(EXHIBITS OF JOINT COMMITTEE , EXHIBIT NO. 2 JAPANESE MESSAGES CONCERNING MILITARY INSTALLATIONS, SHIP MOVEMENTS, ETC.)