may be placed by the Government. The contractor will accept future orders from the Government upon prices to be agreed upon, which shall not include any charge for the use or on account of the cost of said Facilities. Subject to the rights of the Government as herein provided, the contractor may use said Facilities for purposes, if any, normally incident to the production carried on by it, providing that before accepting an order which involves the use of such Facilities from any one other than the War Department, the contractor will first obtain the written consent of the Chief of Ordnance of the War Department."

As I read paragraph 1 of the proposed Supplemental Agreement as now drafted, it provides (1) that the facilities involved shall be maintained without cost to the Government during the remainder of the present emergency upon which the national defense program is based or for five years after November 1941, whichever is the longer period; (2) that during such period the facilities are to be available for use for the benefit or in the interest of the Government, if and when required; and (3) that at the end of such period the facilities are to be subject to such future use and disposition as may be required by the Government under applicable laws. It is believed, however, that the paragraph should be modified or changed to make this more definite, and the following redraft of the paragraph is suggested:

"1. The contractor, at its own expense, shall care for and maintain such facilities without cost to the Government for a period of five years after the completion or termination of this contract or until the end of the emergency period, whichever date shall be later, in order that said facilities shall be available to the Government during such period and thereafter be subject to such future use and disposition as may be required by the Government. During said period the contractor will give the Government priority in the use of said facilities, keeping them available, at its own expense, for future orders which may be placed by the Government. The contractor will accept future orders from the Government upon prices to be agreed upon, which shall not include any charge for the use or on account of the cost of said

facilities. Subject to the rights of the Government as herein provided, the contractor may use said facilities for purposes, if any, normally incident to the production carried on by it, providing that before accepting an order which involves the use of such facilities from any one other than the War Department, the contractor will first obtain the written consent of the Chief of Ordnance of the War Department."

It is also believed that paragraph 2 of the proposed Supplemental Agreement should be modified or changed so as to prevent the facilities from being mortgaged or disposed of at any time without the consent of the Secretary of War The following redraft of the paragraph is suggested:

"2. The title to all the emergency facilities shall be in the contractor. The contractor shall allow no mortgage or other lien hereafter to become an encumbrance upon the emergency facilities and shall make no conveyance or transfer of said emergency facilities or of any item thereof, unless written consent of the Secretary of War thereto is first obtained."

It is my opinion that if in connection with and under the circumstances surrounding the case outlined in your letter of November 28, 1940, you find that the proposed Supplemental Agreement, modified or changed in accordance with the suggestions herein for the redrafting of paragraphs 1 and 2 thereof, will adequately protect "the United States with reference to the future use and disposition" of the facilities involved, and that finding is concurred in by the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense, the proposed Supplemental Agreement so modified and properly executed by the parties to the original contract will constitute sufficient basis for the issuance of a certificate under the above-quoted provisions of subsection (i) of section 302 of the Second Revenue Act of 1940. Concurrence in this finding by the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense is necessary, since the statute requires that Commission to join with you in the issuance of the certificate.

Respectfully,

ROBERT H. JACKSON.

FOREIGN PROPAGANDA, EXCLUSION FROM MAILS

A person outside the United States who uses the mails to commit here an act forbidden by statute is liable to the penalties of the statute.

Propaganda dispatched by an agent of a foreign principal who has not registered under the act of June 8, 1938, as amended, may be excluded from the mails.

The POSTMASTER GENERAL.

DECEMBER 10, 1940.

MY DEAR MR. POSTMASTER GENERAL: In your letter of November 20, 1940, you request my opinion whether you have authority to exclude from the mails under section 343, title 18, U. S. C., matter of the character described in your letter if it be first ascertained from the State Department that the foreign mailers of such matter have not complied with the provisions of section 233, title 22, U. S. C., and the Foreign Agent Registration Act of 1938, sections 223a-233g, title 22, U. S. C.

You state in part:

"The matter in question is coming into this country in large quantities principally 'Via Siberia.' Recently one Japanese ship bore some 3,000 pounds of 'prints' mailed by individuals and concerns in Germany to persons in the United States. The matter is open to postal inspection. In general, it purports to give 'news and views' to influence American readers in behalf of Germany and the Axis powers against the British and the democracies. In the pursuit of this aim it perverts and distorts the facts. It is of such a character as would subject the mailers, who have not registered as foreign agents with the State Department, to the penalties imposed by the provisions of 22 U. S. Code 233 and 233e and 18 U. S. Code 98."

Section 343, title 18, U. S. C., is taken from section 1 of title XII of the act of June 15, 1917, 40 Stat. 230, which reads in pertinent part:

"Every letter, writing, circular, postal card, picture, print, engraving, photograph, newspaper, pamphlet, book, or other publication, matter, or thing, of any kind, in violation of any of the provisions of this act is hereby declared to be non

mailable matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to authorize any person other than an employee of the Dead Letter Office, duly authorized thereto, or other person upon a search warrant authorized by law, to open any letter not addressed to himself."

Section 98, title 18, U. S. C., is also taken from the said act of June 15, 1917, having embodied in it the following provision of section 22 of title XI of that act :

"Whoever, in aid of any foreign government, shall knowingly and willfully have possession of or control over any property or papers designed or intended for use or which is used as the means of violating any penal statute, or any of the rights or obligations of the United States under any treaty or the law of nations, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

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Sections 233a to 233g of title 22. U. S. C., are taken from the act of June 8, 1938, 52 Stat. 631, as amended by the act of August 7, 1939, 53 Stat. 1244 (known as the Foreign Agent Registration Act of 1938). Section 2 of that act, as amended, requires "every person who is * an agent of a foreign principal" to file with the Secretary of State "a registration statement, under oath, on a form prescribed by the Secretary which shall set forth" certain specified information. Section 4 requires the Secretary to retain in permanent form all statements filed under the act and provides that such statements shall be public records and open to public examination and inspection. Section 5 subjects a person who violates the provisions of the act to a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than two years, or both. Section 1, among other things, gives the following definitions of the terms "foreign principal" and "agent of a foreign principal," as used in the act:

"(c) The term 'foreign principal' includes the government of a foreign country, a political party of a foreign country, a person domiciled abroad, any foreign business, partnership, association, corporation, or political organization, or a domestic organization subsidized, directly or

indirectly, in whole or in part by any of the entities described herein;

"(d) The term 'agent of a foreign principal' means any person who acts or engages or agrees to act as a publicrelations counsel, publicity agent, or as agent, servant, representative, or attorney for a foreign principal, and shall include any person who receives compensation from or is under the direction of a foreign principal: Provided, however, That such term shall not include

"(1) a duly accredited diplomatic or consular officer of a foreign government who is so recognized by the Department of State of the United States; nor

"(2) any official of a foreign government recognized by the United States as a government other than a publicrelations counsel or publicity agent or a citizen of the United States, whose status and the character of whose duties as such official are of record in the Department of State of the United States; nor

"(3) any member of the staff of or person employed by a duly accredited diplomatic or consular officer of a foreign government who is so recognized by the Department of State of the United States, other than a public-relations counsel or publicity agent, whose status and the character of whose duties as such member or employee are of record in the Department of State of the United States; nor

"(4) any person performing only private, nonpolitical, financial, mercantile, or other activities in furtherance of the bona fide trade or commerce of such foreign principal; nor "(5) any person engaged only in activities in furtherance of bona fide religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or of the fine arts."

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The purpose of the act of June 8, 1938, as shown by its language and its legislative history, "is to make available to the American public the sources that promote and pay for the spreading of * foreign propaganda" in the United States. The Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate in reporting on the bill which became the statute said in part (S. Rept. 1783, 75th Cong., 3d sess.):