Claims Commission, United States and Germany, in favor of the Mechanics Securities Corporation and the Equitable Trust Company, respectively.

It appears that each of these companies held matured notes of the face value of $500,000. of the Imperial German Government. They, together with fifteen other American nationals holding such notes aggregating a total face value of $2,476,000. instituted proceedings against the Alien Property Custodian and the Treasurer of the United States under the Trading with the Enemy Act, (Act of October 6, 1917, c. 106, Sec. 9, 40 Stat. 411, 419, as amended by the Acts of June 5, 1920, c. 241, 41 Stat. 977, and March 4, 1923, c. 285, 42 Stat. 1511), and obtained decrees which directed payment of the notes out of German Government funds seized and held by the defendants. (White v. Mechanics Securities Corporation, 269 U. S. 283.) The fund upon which the decrees operated was insufficient for their discharge in full, and by agreement of the seventeen claimants bearing date January 6, 1926, a pro rata distribution was made, which did not, however, exhaust the fund, and it was understood that additional payments would be made.

Eight of the seventeen holders of these notes who had recovered decrees against the Alien Property Custodian likewise filed claims against the Government of Germany with the Mixed Claims Commission, created pursuant to the agreement between the United States and Germany of August 10, 1922, 42 Stat. 2200.

On January 19, 1928, the Commission entered separate awards in favor of these claimants for the principal amounts still due on the notes which they held, together with interest from January 14, 1926, to date of payment. Such awards were made to the Mechanics Securities Corporation in the principal amount of $160,492.48 and to the Equitable Trust Company in the principal amount of $160,492.45. When these awards were made the Commission knew that additional payments would be made in the near future upon the judgments recovered by the claimants and payable by the Alien Property Custodian, and in anticipation of such payments it provided in each award:

"Should any further amounts be recovered on said notes in litigation or otherwise, under the provisions of the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, and amendments thereto, said amounts shall be credited to the amount awarded herein."

This provision was drawn in anticipation of legislation then pending in Congress, which ultimately resulted in the enactment of the Settlement of War Claims Act of 1928, and particularly section 4 (g) thereof, which provided:

"(g) There shall be deducted from the amounts first payable under this section to any American national in respect of any debt the amount, if any, paid by the Alien Property Custodian in respect of such debt which was not credited by the Mixed Claims Commission in making its award."

On May 1 and May 4, 1928, additional payments were made to the noteholders by the Alien Property Custodian sufficient in amount to reduce the claims of the Mechanics Securities Corporation and the Equitable Trust Company to $91,578.66 and $91,578.63, respectively.

Nine of the seventeen claimants who had recovered judgments were late in filing claims under the agreement of August 10, 1922, and were unable to file their claims with the Commission until after the agreement between the United States and Germany of December 31, 1928, 45 Stat. 2698, had provided for the consideration of late claims. These late claimants were granted awards by the Mixed Claims Commission under date of January 19, 1929. At the time these awards were made payments of all moneys available to satisfy the judgments had been received, and accordingly the awards in these nine cases took account of the payments previously made by the Alien Property Custodian in May, 1928.

Thus it appears that of the seventeen claimants who reduced their claims to judgment against the Alien Property Custodian, eight awards were made in January 1928, in each of which it was provided that future payments on the judgment should be credited upon the award, and nine were made in January 1929, upon which the payments which had all been made in May, 1928, were credited.

The late claimants, whose indebtedness after crediting the amounts received from the Alien Property Custodian did not exceed the sum of $100,000 have, I understand, all been paid in full out of the Special Deposit Account created by the Settlement of War Claims Act, c. 167, 45 Stat. 254, and if I understand your inquiry correctly you desire to be advised whether the Mechanics Securities Corporation and the Equitable Trust Company, whose awards were made prior to the receipt of payments from the Alien Property Custodian which have reduced the amounts owing to them below $100,000, may also be paid in full from the Special Deposit Account in view of the provisions of section 4 (g) of the Settlement of War Claims Act.

It will be noted at once that to hold otherwise would lead to inequitable treatment of creditors whose claims are of equal rank, in that those who delayed the presentation of their claims will as the result of their lack of diligence enjoy a preferred position. In my opinion, a proper interpretation of the statute leads to no such result. The question depends, of course, upon the proper interpretation of section 4 (g) read in connection with the other pertinent sections of the Settlement of War Claims Act, as follows:

"SEC. 2. (a) The Secretary of State shall, from time to time, certify to the Secretary of the Treasury, the awards of the Mixed Claims Commission, United States and Ger. many, established in pursuance of the agreement of August 10, 1922, between the United States and Germany (referred to in this Act as the 'Mixed Claims Commission').

"(b) The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to pay an amount equal to the principal of each award so certified, plus the interest thereon, in accordance with the award, accruing before January 1, 1928.

"(d) The payments authorized by subsection (b) or (c) shall be made in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, but only out of the German special deposit account created by section 4, within the limitations hereinafter prescribed, and in the order of priority provided in subsection (c) of section 4."

"SEC. 4. (a) There is hereby created in the Treasury a German special deposit account, into which shall be deposited all funds hereinafter specified and from which shall be disbursed all payments authorized by section 2 or 3, including the expenses of administration authorized under subsections (c) and (m) of section 3 and subsection (e) of this section.

"(c) The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed, out of the funds in such special deposit account, subject to the provisions of subsection (d), and in the following order of priority

"(1) To make the payments of expenses of administration authorized by subsections (c) and (m) of section 3 or subsection (e) of this section;

"(2) To make so much of each payment authorized by subsection (b) of section 2 (relating to awards of the Mixed Claims Commission), as is attributable to an award on account of death or personal injury, together with interest thereon as provided in subsection (c) of section 2;

"(3) To make each payment authorized by subsection (b) of section 2 (relating to awards of the Mixed Claims Commission), if the amount thereof is not payable under paragraph (2) of this subsection and does not exceed $100,000, and to pay interest thereon as provided in subsection (c) of Section 2;

"(4) To pay the amount of $100,000 in respect of each payments authorized by subsection (b) of section 2 (relating to awards of the Mixed Claims Commission), if the amount of such authorized payment is in excess of $100,000 and is not payable in full under paragraph (2) of this subsection. No person shall be paid under this paragraph and paragraph (3) an amount in excess of $100,000 (exclusive of interest beginning January 1, 1928), irrespective of the number of awards made on behalf of such person;

"(5) To make additional payments authorized by subsection (b) of section 2 (relating to awards of the Mixed Claims Commission), in such amounts as will make the aggregate payments (authorized by such subsection) under this paragraph and paragraphs (2), (3), and (4) of this

subsection equal to 80 per centum of the aggregate amount of all payments authorized by subsection (b) of section 2. Payments under this paragraph shall be prorated on the basis of the amount of the respective payments authorized by subsection (b) of section 2 and remaining unpaid.

"(g) There shall be deducted from the amounts first payable under this section to any American national in respect of any debt the amount, if any, paid by the Alien Property Custodian in respect of such debt which was not credited by the Mixed Claims Commission in making its award."

The purpose of this statute was to create a Special Deposit Account from which payments on account of awards by the Mixed Claims Commission should be made, and to provide priorities as between claimants holding awards entitled to payment out of the fund. The purpose to treat claimants of equal priority upon a basis of equality is entirely clear. Section 4 (g) was intended merely to prevent double payment, as the legislative history clearly shows. Senate Report No. 273, 70th Congress, 1st Session, p. 22; House Report No. 17, 70th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 17-18. This section was not designed or intended in any way to reject the equality of treatment as between claimants enjoying equal priority provided for in the preceding sections, and to give it such an effect would do violence to the plan and purpose of the statute. The language of section 4 (g) compels no such result, for the awards in this case expressly require that there shall be credited upon the award all amounts received from the Alien Property Custodian. Had the Mixed Claims Commission formally recalled these awards after the payments were made, and amended them so as to show that the amounts received had been credited thereon, your authority under the terms of section 4 (g) and the other provisions of this statute to pay the amounts due to these claimants in full out of the fund could not have been questioned. The direction in each award that the credit should be made was clearly intended to operate as a satisfaction pro tanto of the award itself. The letter from the United States Agent to you under date of April 10, 1930, shows that the phraseology of the last sentence in the