in making the transfer. The papers were thereafter in December, 1946 removed intact from the Archives in Washington and transferred to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park where they since have been held in storage for safekeeping pending a judicial determination as to their ownership and ultimate disposition. The accounting of the Executors is now being prepared and will be filed in the Surrogate's Court, Dutchess County,New York just as soon as all legal requirements are fulfilled. As part of the accounting proceeding, the Executors intend to petition the court for a decree determining that the papers of the late President Roosevelt remaining in his possession at the time of his death were effectively given by him as a gift to the United States Government during his lifetime to be placed, maintained and preserved in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York for the purposes of historical study and research for all time. The present status of the Franklin D. Roosevelt papers is as follows: The so-called "Map Room Papers" relating to the prosecution of the war are still in storage at the National Archives Building, Washington, D. C. under the protective custody of the President of the United States. All other papers released to the Executors are now in storage at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York under the protective custody of Fred W. Shipman, Director of the Library. The Executors have never had actual physical possession of any of the papers and the action taken by them has been solely for the purpose of safeguarding the papers and holding them intact -7- |