File No. 763.72112/4161

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page )

[Telegram]

5266. Your 6830, July 24, 7 p.m.1 Until Trading with the Enemy Act, now pending in Congress, is passed, this Government cannot act in this matter. Under this act, as drafted and introduced in Congress, definition of an enemy alien, with a few exceptions, is governed by domicile and not by nationality. Impossible to tell at present date what form final act will take.

Since April 2 banks in New York have voluntarily reported all foreign exchange transactions and often have, of their own initiative, refused to take questionable business.

Federal Reserve Board has sent a warning to all banks under its jurisdiction and an appeal to those banks which are not under its jurisdiction to scrutinize carefully all foreign business.2

[Page 919]

Cable censor refuses to pass suspicious financial cables.

Until Trading with the Enemy Act passes nothing further can be done in this direction.

Lansing
  1. Ante, p. 911.
  2. Ante, p. 814.