Mr. White to Mr. Sherman.

No. 30.]

Sir: Referring to the Department’s instruction No. 405, of May 26 last, I have the honor to inform you that, although nothing more has as yet been received from the foreign office in regard to his case, a letter has been received from Mr. Jonas Lippmann, in which he states that he has had a letter from the first imperial state’s attorney at Strassburg, saying that he had “been illegally considered by him as German citizen, and that it is by mistake” that he had been sentenced for not having served in the German army. Mr. Lippmann adds that he was informed in the same letter “that the seizure made on his motherly fortune is not legal and will not he maintained.”

In reply to a question from Mr. Lippmann as to whether or not he was not entitled to obtain indemnity from the German Government for losses occasioned by its action in this matter, he has been informed that this question is one for the courts to decide, and one in which the embassy would not feel authorized to act without especial instructions from the Department to do so.

I am, etc.,

And. D. White.