Evening star., 1925-01-17
U. S. MAY RESTORE
ALIEN PROPERTY
SEIZED DURING WAR

Continued from First PageD
! States absolute powers and authority
over assets seized under the enemy
! trading act, to he disposed of as Con
gresS might direct Congress stern
ly resisted all suggestions to draw
/ upon these assets for liquidation OF
American war claims. While il re-
fused 10 allow the property TO be
commandeered for that purpose. il
also made no move toward prema-
ture restoration of it. Congress
looked upon the property as a moral
guarantee for satisfaction of our
/ claims. President Coolidge Is un-
derstood to have taken the same
view of it.
All to Get Their Dues.
Occasion for divergence Of opinion
is now at an end. The United States
Government and private American
! claimants are to get their dues under
the Paris reparatiuns settlement. II is
| true they Will get them in driblets over
the long term of 2j years But most
authorities consider there is a sub
stantial compensat tion for that tedi-
Gus instalment plan in the fact that
! Uncle Sam lives up to the venerated
American tradition of not holding the
innocent individual nationals of an
enemy state responsible for the obli-
cations of their recreant govern
ments. In other words. il has never
| been American doctrine that because
Won TirpitZ submarines destroyed
American lives and American ships
Johann Schmidt of Magdeburg or
Karl schultz of Berlin should have to
pay the freight"
If Schmidt and Schultz owned Amer
lean property in 1917, it's been Sc
questered and administered by our
alien property custodian in the mean
time. But it's intact. and now, after
certain fnrmalities, will go back to
them. This writer understands that
tentative negotiations are under way
| for some quicker reimbursement of
American war claimants than the
Paris arrangement provides 1t will
| be, If conSummated, a scheme that
! does justice for former enemy prop
erty owners. while affording Ameri-
| can claimants reasonably prompt
| liquidation.
| Few people have any conception Of
! the magnitude of the job Col Thomas
| w. Miller, alien property custodian,
| has filled for the past four years. His
| office has administered and operated
approximately more than 10000
| active trusts. representing real es-
tate, personal property, or corpora
| tions scattered from the Philippine
Islands and Hawaii throughout the
United States to the Atlantic Sea-
board. When Col. Miller became Gus
! todian in March, 1921. there was a
volume of roughly $3.50, 900, 900 of
| alien property in the United States
possession. The Winslow act, passed
| in March, 1928, authorized the return
| of property to owners under certain
| conditions, and also sales and liquid
alton. Through processes of restora-
| tion and sale, the holdings of the
alien property custodian have been
reduced by about AS per cent. He
now holds a residue Of approximately
| $500. .000,0 900.
Women Given First Relief.
| A special act of Congress authorized
| restoration of alien property TO
| American women who were tech
| nically alien enemies because their
| husbands We're Germans, Austrians
| or Hungarians. One of the bene-
| ficiaries of this special legislation
was Baroness Speck Won Sternburg,
| the American widow of a one-time
German Ambassador at Washington.
| Even though Congress were a once
! to legislate the restoration of alien
property, its actual return will en-
| tail administration of hardly less
than three years. The custodian s
office e>oyer that period will have to
be converted virtually into a court
of claims. During the eight years
that have interviewed since seques-
tration of German, Austrian and
| Hungarian assets within American
| jurisdiction countless changes of all
sorts have taken place.
Original owners have passed from
| the scene. Estates have been created
and distributed. Litigation among
time title-holders has arisen.
| Entirely new proprietors have come
| into existence. All these things will
| require to be established with metic-
ulous care. Property is involved that
! is situated in Al different States of
| the Union and in all of our insular
possessions. Owners of, or claimants
to, il are distributed literally through
| out the world.
| There's a job awaiting Col. Miller's
successor that is likely to make his
own task, onerous as it has been, al
most a sinecure by comparison.
| Copyright. 1929