Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72113/450

The French Ambassador ( Jusserand) to the Secretary of State

[Translation]
Washington, January 30, 1918.
[Received February 1.]

The Secretary of State: My Government has just forwarded to me the text of an order of the Imperial Chancellor published in the Reichsanzeiger of December 18 last, relative to the custodianship of American interests in Germany.

For all pertinent purposes I have the honor to transmit herewith to Your Excellency a copy of a memorandum in which my Government condensed the information it has received on the subject.

Be pleased to accept [etc.]

Jusserand
[Enclosure—Translation]

Memorandum of the French Foreign Office

After making it compulsory, by the order of November 10, 1917, to register property in Germany belonging to persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States of America, the German Government has just extended to the said property the provisions relative to obligatory custodianship.

We find in No. 299 of the Reichsanzeiger of December 18, 1917, the following order:

Order of December 13, Relative to the Obligatory Custodianship of American Interests

By way of reprisals and by operation of article 9 of the order of November 26, 1914, relative to the custodianship of French interests, it is ordered as follows:

The provisions of the order of November 26, 1914, relative to the custodianship of French interests as formulated in the order of February 10, 1916, are declared to be applicable also to persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States of America.

The present order will go into effect on the day of its promulgation.

Berlin, December 13, 1917.

For the Chancellor:
Freiherr von Stein

The order of November 26, 1914, applies to concerns the capital of which belongs wholly or for the most part to French nationals, to branches of such concerns, and to real estate.

The order of February 10, 1916, includes in such property inherited property belonging to a business enterprise, property forming part of an estate and, for special reasons, all other inherited property, such as credits and securities.