File No. 763.72113/446
No. 1005
Madrid,
December 22, 1917.
[Received January 26, 1918.]
[Enclosure—Translation]
The German Foreign
Office to the Spanish Embassy at
Berlin
Note Verbale
In reply to a note verbale of the 6th of this
month (Am. Div. No. 9590/12722), relative to the treatment of
American citizens deposits and credits in German banks, the
Department of Foreign Affairs has the honor to make the following
statement to the Royal Embassy of Spain.
In its telegram the Legation of the United States at Berne complained
that the said deposits and amounts were subjected to special
supervision by the Imperial Bank which requires Americans wishing to
draw their funds to state the purpose to which the money is to be
put. Considering the treatment to which German deposits in American
banks have been subjected for some months past, the German
Government cannot but express its surprise at the complaint.
As early as June last, the American State Department informed the
Legation of Switzerland at Washington that the banks were under
general instructions as to the supervision of the accounts of enemy
subjects and citizens.2 In July, the State
Department declared all payments from the United States to Germany
have been forbidden since President Wilson’s proclamation of April 6.3 These restrictions
put upon German creditors impelled the German Government to issue in
August a decree forbidding payments to the United States. Apart from
that prohibition, American citizens at the time when the Legation of
the United States at Berne preferred its complaint were still at
liberty to draw on their bank deposits and credits in the same
manner as German, Allied, or neutral citizens or subjects.
In the meanwhile the German Government has obtained knowledge of the
American Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6 which
[Page 281]
deprives German citizens
or subjects of any right to dispose of their property in the United
States. This constrained the German Government to resort to
reprisals. By an order of the 10th of this month (Reichs-Gesetzblatt, p. 1050) certain provisions of the
order of October 7, 1915 (Reichs-Gesetzblatt,
p. 663), were made applicable to American citizens so that they can
no longer dispose of, convey, or carry abroad their property in
Germany without a special license. Those provisions, however, do not
prevent American residents or branches of American concerns in
Germany from disposing of their property for the benefit of persons
residing in Germany. But in view of the grave injury done to German
private rights by the above-cited act, the German Government will be
compelled to consider whether it may not be necessary to adopt still
more effective measures with respect to American private
property.
Berlin, November 30, 1917.
