763.72113/2212
The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador (Claudel)
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to your Excellency’s note of October 3, 1927,12 regarding the claims of certain Alsace-Lorrainese filed with the Alien Property Custodian to secure certain shares of stock in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad held in sequestration, and to state that I am in receipt of a communication from the Alien Property Custodian dated January 4, 1928, concerning the matter.12
The Alien Property Custodian informs me that the standing of such claimants will not be affected by the enactment of the pending legislation for the return of this sequestrated property, excepting that these claimants will not be obliged to prove pre-war ownership. It is added that, however, unless reciprocity is accorded by France to the claims of American citizens, this property can not be returned under the proposed act.
It is also observed by the Alien Property Custodian that he has no present means of identification of the individual claimants to be included in such category nor indication of their citizenship. In these circumstances the claimants would have to await their turn in the administration of claims in excess of thirty-eight thousand.
[Page 466]In order to facilitate an early consideration of the claims of Alsace-Lorrainese, now French citizens, for the release of their property, it is suggested that the Department be supplied with a list of the names of the claimants with a notation of the shares of stock claimed and the basic facts of their present French citizenship.
Accept [etc.]