Personnel: Memoranda re assignments of attorneys, 1942-47

Harry LeRoy Jones gave his papers to the University of Virginia Law Library in May of 1985, and there are no restrictions on their use. The files were moved to the library from the Jones home where they had been stored since his retirement. Much of the collection was in labelled folders, and the original labels, where accurate, were transcribed when folder contents were placed in new folders. Some re-naming of folders was necessary for the sake of consistency, and decisions were made concerning description and location for material found loose or in unlabelled folders. Unannotated printed material was listed and removed from the collection.

The papers are contained in 51 boxes (22.1 linear feet) and span the years 1917- (1934-66) -1975. The bulk of the collection, Series I, concerns Jones' work in the Justice Department from the late thirties to the early fifties, although his entire career there (1934-1959) is documented. Series II contains the record of Jones' work on international judicial assistance, 1950-1966, with some copies of documents dating from the thirties. Jones kept a "Personal Correspondence File" which dates from 1917 through the 1960's, and these files along with newsclippings constitute Series III.

This collection will be useful to scholars interested in U.S. treatment of enemy property during the two world wars, and efforts after the second world war to establish better judicial cooperation among nations. Jones' papers thoroughly document the internal workings of the Justice Department's Alien Property Division over a 25-year period, as well as the struggle between Franklin Roosevelt's Justice and Treasury Departments over control of enemy property. There is no indication that Jones had to leave any of his files behind when he left the Justice Department. Since he had a pivotal position in his division, his records provide an exceptionally detailed and unrestricted view of his time and place in government service.