Minute by Frederick H. Boland

I asked Mr. Benzinger¹ to come and see me on the 15th February in connection with his notes of the 23rd January and the 4th February.

I told Mr. Benzinger that we preferred to answer his enquiries verbally rather than in writing because we had not yet replied in writing to the démarche we had received on this subject from the Allied Governments. I drew Mr. Benzinger's attention to Emergency Powers (No. 335) Order² and explained to him that, as owing to the Allied controls and censorship, no Axis gold, funds or other assets had been able to enter this country during the war, the practical application of the Order was limited to German credits which existed here at the time of the outbreak of the war, and to that extent, as Mr. Sumner Welles³ had hinted, our position was quite different from that of Sweden and Switzerland. I told Mr. Benzinger that the Order applied only to credits of which the holder was a resident in Germany.