File No. 763.72113/469
The Secretary of State to the Alien Property Custodian ( Palmer)
Sir: The Department has received your letter of January 9,1 asking our opinion as to the advisability of your office making demands for property in this country belonging to persons who, while not consuls or in the Diplomatic Service, were while in this country the agents or representatives of a government or ally of a government with which the United States is now at war.
The Department has given this subject very careful consideration and is of the opinion that persons whose names appeared in the Diplomatic List issued by the State Department at the time of the severance of relations with the enemy or ally-of-enemy government [Page 335] should be accorded the same treatment as regularly accredited diplomatic or consular officers.
I am [etc.]
Assistant Secretary
- Not printed.↩