462.00 R 29/553
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Memorandum
In view of the failure of the German Government to accept the Paris decisions respecting Reparation or to make a satisfactory counter offer, the Inter-Allied Conference sitting at London has decided to apply the following sanctions to Germany.
- 1.
- To occupy the towns of Duisburg, Ruhrort and Dusseldorf on the right bank of the Rhine.
- 2.
- To obtain powers from their respective Parliaments requiring their nationals to pay a certain proportion of all payments due to Germany on German goods to their several Governments, such proportion to be retained on account of reparations.
- 3.
- (a) The amount of the duties collected by the German Customs on the external frontiers of the occupied territories to be paid to the Reparation Commission.
- (b) These duties to continue to be levied in accordance with the German tariff.
- (c) A line of custom-houses to be temporarily established on the Rhine and at the boundary of the Têtes de Ponts occupied by Allied troops; the tariff to be levied on this line both on entry and export of goods to be determined by Allied High Commission of the Rhine territory in conformity with the instructions of the Allied governments.
The Conference also agreed:
- 1.
- To communicate these sanctions to the Allied and Associated Powers not represented at the Conference drawing attention to sanctions 2 and 3 and as regards sanction 2 inviting those powers entitled to a share in reparation payments, to take similar action with as little delay as possible.
- 2.
- To send an official notification to all neutral Powers of the imposition of the three sanctions.
In communicating the above to the United States Government, His Majesty’s Ambassador is instructed to say that, since they were not represented at the London Conference, the Allied Powers are anxious that they, as one of the principal Allied and Associated Powers, should have early and full information of the measures which it has been decided to take.