The corporate device, which has become a necessity of modern economic development, has also been used and in all probability will always be used, to give anonymity to private transactions which may serve as measures of economic warfare, both during belligerent and cold wars. As early as 1916, an English court first recognized the necessity of adopting the "control test" for the determination of the enemy character of a corporation. The purpose of the trading with the enemy legislation, designed to deprive the enemy of access or ownership to assets within the jurisdiction of the enacting state, was not to be thwarted by enemies who hid their hostile interests behind the veil of "friendly" corporations, domestic, allied or neutral.
