File No. 763.72113/535
The Minister in Switzerland ( Stovall) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 27, 4.50 a.m.]
3163. Department’s 1409 [1309], [January] 8,1 and 1414, [January] 28,2 and subsequent correspondence relative American property [Page 297] in Germany. I have received from Spanish Embassy, Berlin, note verbale from Imperial Foreign Office dated March 23, from which following is extract:
At the beginning of the month, the Swiss Legation transmitted to the German Government a communication according to which the Government of the United States has [which had] already ordered the taking over of all the property of Germans residing outside of the country and the liquidation of German insurance companies, has taken measures to liquidate the other German enterprises in America. As reprisal, the German Government has decided to apply to the United States the sequestration of enemy enterprises, the registration of enemy property, and the liquidation of such property.
The German Government insists upon believing that the Government of the United States will limit itself in the use of the new administrative rulings to cases where there seems to be an urgent state interest. On its part, the German Government is resolved to carry out the above-mentioned regulations only in so far as the American authorities execute the laws issued against German property in America.
The Foreign Office requests the Royal Embassy to transmit the foregoing through the medium of its Government to the knowledge of the United States Government.