File No. 763.72113/452
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland ( Stovall)
1605. Your 2547, January 31, 7 p.m. According to statement of Alien Property Custodian, under Trading with the Enemy Act residence, [Page 289] not nationality, is made primary test of enemy character. Any person residing within territory of enemy, including that occupied by armed forces of enemy, or any person residing outside United States and doing business within such territory, whether such person be a subject of enemy country or not, comes within definition of word “enemy” as used in the act. An American citizen, therefore, resident in Germany, would be within the enemy class and his property in this country might be taken in charge by Alien Property Custodian and administered in pursuance of the act. Whether a person is a resident, however, is to be determined upon facts of a particular case. An American citizen who is in enemy country under such circumstances as do not make him a resident therein, would not come within enemy class and his property would not be taken over by Alien Property Custodian under the act.
The Custodian states further that it is his policy to demand such property, giving the person to whom demand is issued, 15 days in which to show cause why property should not be taken over, and that in a great many cases property of this nature has actually been taken in charge.