File No. 763.72113/626
The French Ambassador ( Jusserand) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 18.]
Mr. Secretary of State: By a note dated May 25 last Your Excellency was pleased to acquaint me with the grounds upon which the Federal Government intended to authorize the Enemy Property Custodian to seize, for its protection, the property owned in the United States by Frenchmen now residing in the enemy country or in the territory occupied by the armed forces of the enemy.
Before carrying the measure into effect, however, Your Excellency expressed a wish to know whether it would meet with any objection on the part of the Government of the Republic.
My Government, to which I did not fail to refer the matter, informs me that, taking into account the fact that the property to be sequestered in the United States was that of Frenchmen residing in the country of, or occupied by, the enemy, in the interest of the said Frenchmen who, being absent, could not take proper care of their property, it had no positive objection to the contemplated measure. But it very earnestly wishes that the measure, if deemed absolutely necessary, be carried out by the Federal authorities in such a broad-minded and cautious manner as would secure the owners from any difficulty. From that standpoint it should be expressly understood, at the very least, that:
- (1)
- The sequestration should entail no cost or expense on the owner.
- (2)
- That the authority concerned, the Attorney General in such cases, would examine in the most benevolent spirit the objections [Page 305] that may be offered by the owner himself, or a regularly appointed attorney, or through the French Government, and that the property taken into custody would be returned without delay or difficulty to the lawful owner as soon as he is in position to manage it directly or through an attorney in fact.
- (3)
- That the firms or commercial houses whose owners residing in the occupied country are regularly represented in the United States would not be sequestered.
I may add that I did not fail to impart to my Government the explanations and assurances of a general order which the Honorable the Assistant Secretary of State was pleased to give me on the subject in his unofficial letter of June 27 last.
Be pleased to accept [etc.]