Evening star., 1922-03-30
GERMAN PROPERTY
SEIZED IN WAR MAY
PAY CLAIMS mus.
Col. Miller, Custodian, Gives
President Plan to Prevent
Berlin Confiscation.
SMALL ESTATE OWNERS
WOULD GET PROTECTION
Proposes Using sloO,Ooo,ooo as
Basis for Billion Credit to Re-
Establish Trading.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Americas problem with respect to
German property held in the United
States is growing acute.
To give back the property to the
German owners, it has just been dis
covered. would mean virtual conf1s-
cation by the German government. and
the proceeds would go into the national
treasury either for government uses
or to pay reparations to the allied
governments.
Col. Thomas W. Miller, alien prop
etty custodian, who has been work
Ing on the tangle for months. has
presented a plan to President Hard
ing out of which it Is expected a
policy soon will be evolved.
Three Essential objects.
Here are the essential objects
which it Is sought to attain by the
plan:
First. American citizens, whose
relatives lost their lives in the
Lusitania, or who lost property at the
hands Of Germany during the war,
shall be paid.
Second, German citizens who have
small estates which have been seized
by the American government shall
not be made to suffer unduly, but
should have their property back as
soon as possible, and the German gov
ernment shall be required to agree not
to apply its severe tax laws to this
Third. instead of permitting the Ger
man government to conf1scate through
taxation the bulk Of the estates held by
the alien property custodian. the Ameri-
can government shall use portion Of
the proceeds to pay American claims
and a portion as collateral for huge
trading corporation which shall help re-
establish commercial relations between
the United States and Germany.
Basis for Billion Credit.
One hundred million dollars OF Ger
lnan assets held by the American gov
ernment would be sufaoient basis, 1t
is calculated. for a billion-dollar
credit. There are German owners with
q hundred million dollars Of property
here who have expressed strong De.
sire to have their asoets pooled in
such q quasf-government corporation
which would operate under the Edge
law.
ulo lHc I1dTulH6 70
not committed to any specific pro-
posals and is still welcoming sugges-
tions, it is true that the plan submit
ted by Col. Miller is the first official
solution which has been brought for
ward.
The United States, government is, of
course. opposed to confiscation Of the
German property and does not intend
to sanction any such scheme. The
new plan, therefore, attempts to use
approximately that portion OF the
German assets which would go to the
German government instead Of Its
citizens. Copies Of the German tax
law have been received here and have
been carefully studied. There Is
nothing in America comparable to 1t.
Capital Being Conascated.
The Germans actually are taxing
capital and are applying such per-
centages as to make it possible for
them to take away from the German
owners the largest part of any prop
erty returned to them by the Amer
lean government
The theory back of the anti-con-
fiscation policy of the United States
government always has been that
individuals should not be made to
suffer for the acts of war Of their
were to return tomorrow without
condition all the property seized
from Germans, the allied governments
and citizens Of allied countries i'm
mediately would be benefited while
German owners would be hurt as
would American citizens whose claims
against Germany are likely to re-
main unpaid Indefinitely so far as
Germany is concerned.
The working of the German tax law
ID unique. All property or capital
brought-into Germany is subject to
two separate taxes-one an "empire
need tax" which goes to pay allied
reparations, and the other a general
capital tax for government expenses
In one case the value of the mark is
taken at thirteen marks per dollar,
as Of July, 1919, and in the other
forty-nine marks to the dollar, as of
December, 1919.
To explain actually how the sys-
tenn works, it may be supposed, for
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