Message to the Congress Transmitting Final Report of the Office of Alien Property.
To the Congress of the United States:
I am pleased to transmit the Annual Report of the Office of Alien Property for Fiscal Year 1965 as required by Section 6 of the Trading with the Enemy Act. It is the 23rd report of proceedings under that Act.
As this report indicates, we have reached the end of a very long road. After June 30, 1966, for the first time in 49 years, there will be no Government unit whose sole task will be the processing of alien property matters arising from the wartime seizure of property. Some alien property work remains which cannot be completed by June 30, 1966, principally because it is affected by litigation or proposed legislation. These remaining matters will be completed in the future by the part-time work of personnel of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. But this does not detract from the fact that as of April 30, 1966, the staff which has completed the processing of about $900,000,000 in vested property will have dosed all but about 50 of the more than 67,500 claims which were filed, all but about 450 of approximately 62,000 accounts, and it will have pending only about 30 of the more than 7,000 cases which it has litigated.
The imminent dosing of the Office of Alien Property is another step in our determination to find the most efficient way to serve the American public. In the War Claims Act of 1948, as amended, Congress has authorized thousands of American citizens to file claims against the net proceeds of vested property which are maintained in the War Claims Fund. Since the costs of the Office of Alien Property are deducted from the proceeds of vested property, closing the Office will soon mean the end of deductions of its administrative costs, thereby leaving more funds for the claimants to share. And the public generally will benefit by the absorption into other necessary work of the mere handful of knowledgeable and dedicated employees who have brought this fruitful work virtually to its close.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
The White House
June 29, 1966
Note: A memorandum for the President from the Attorney General, dated June 28, 1966, concerning the closing of the Office of Alien Property, with a summary of the highlights of the Department's activities in the field of alien property, was also released.
The report was entitled "Annual Report, Office of Alien Property, Department of Justice, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1965" (22 pp., processed).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Message to the Congress Transmitting Final Report of the Office of Alien Property. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238609