§ 16. Mr. Shepherdasked the President of the Board of Trade the general grounds, under his regulations, on which enemy aliens are allowed to retain their property, and have it confiscated, respectively.
§ Mr. Walker-SmithNo control by the Custodian of Enemy Property or the Board of Trade was exercised over the property of enemy aliens (that is, German enemy subjects resident in this country during the war), in cases where the owner was not the subject of special restrictive measures, or internment, by the authorities. In some cases, where the owner was interned, his property was vested at an early date by the Board in the Custodian to prevent any possible advantage to the enemy.
After hostilities ceased, the property of interned aliens who were allowed to remain in the United Kingdom was restored to them. About 1,200 were, however, repatriated to Germany and their property then became subject to control to the same extent as the property of all those German nationals who had been resident in Germany during the war. If, however, a repatriated German reached Germany after the 11th March, 1946, and also had not been in internment after the 8th November, 1945, his property was exempted by a Statutory Rule & Order (No. 331 of 1946, dated the 11th March, 1946), from the general provisions.
In a very small number of cases a released internee who was to be sent back to Germany could not be repatriated, but was ordered to leave the 14W United Kingdom. In such a case the vested property is being treated in the same way as that of the repatriated internees who were outside the exemption I have mentioned, or as that of a German always resident in Germany. All such property is Germany Enemy Property available for the purposes of the Distribution of German Enemy Property Act, 1949.