File No. 763.72115/3222

The Secretary of State to the Swedish Minister ( Ekengren)

No. 295

Sir: Referring to your notes of August 271 and October 29, 1917, wherein are proposed certain arrangements in regard to the handling by your Legation, in charge of Austro-Hungarian interests in the United States, of estates, compensation claims, etc., in this country of Austrian and Hungarian subjects, under the “Trading with the Enemy Act,” I have now the honor to advise you of the receipt of a letter on the subject, dated November 19, 1917, from the Alien Property Custodian, in substance as follows:

The office of the Alien Property Custodian will be amply equipped to handle all of these matters, and that office is required, as the Alien Property Custodian interprets the law, to assume the custody of such funds. The Legation of Sweden, in charge of Austro-Hungarian interests in the United States, may, of course, keep itself informed of the funds collected and of the parties interested and may notify the Government of Austria-Hungary from time to time that the funds are in the hands of the Alien Property Custodian.

There is, the Alien Property Custodian points out, also an advantage which may result from this method of procedure, namely, that the creditors in the United States of the owners may proceed in the courts against the funds. This, perhaps, presents a strong ground of objection to the plan proposed by you.

Accept [etc.]

Robert Lansing
  1. Not printed.