SEIZED ENEMY PROPERTY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 207, 16 August 1927, Page 7

SEIZED ENEMY PROPERTY.

ANGLO-AMERICAN AGREEMENT FOR RETURN IN CERTAIN CASES (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, Aug. 14. The text is issued of the letters exchanged and the agreement reached between Great Britain and the United States regarding the reciprocal release of property sequestrated under trading with enemy acts. A memorandum drawn up by the United States Government explains the conditions for the return of pro perty to married women in the United States and Great Britain, which was seized during the war. With regard to debt claims, the United States Trading With the Enemy Act authorizes, on a basis of reciprocity, payment from sequestrated property of debts owing to and owned by British claimants before the passage of the Act, provided such debt was in the nature of a pledge or lieu and arose in reference to money or other property held bv the Alien Property Custodian or Treasurer if the United States. The position-of the British Government is that, in al] cases where enemy business, whether conducted by a corporation, partnership or by individual concerns, has been liquidated in Great Britain under war legislation claims of the United States, die creditors, wherever resident have been treated on an equal footing with those British creditors. Another section of the memorandum sets out the respective positions of the two Governments in regard to shares and stock in the deposit account f German banks, and a further section deals with cases in which the return of assets of a corporation is permitted by the British Foreign Office. In the letter accepting the memorandum. a statement of the position adds that the British Government is prepared, on being granted reciprocal treatment by the Government of the United States within the terms of the memorandum, to realise such pro perty as is covered by the terms if understanding and on the conditions stated therein.