740.00119 Potsdam/7–3145

No. 1425
Proposal by the Soviet Delegation1

[Translation2]

Reparations From Germany

1.
Reparations shall be taken by each Government in its own zone of occupation. They shall assume two forms: simultaneous removals from the national property of Germany (equipment, matériel), which shall be completed within two years after surrender, and yearly delivery of products out of current production, which shall be completed within ten years after surrender.
2.
Reparations shall have the purpose of aiding the quickest possible restoration of the economies of countries which suffered from German occupation, taking into account the necessity of eliminating the war potential of Germany in all ways.
3.
In addition to the reparations to be taken from its own zone, the USSR shall receive additionally from the Western Zones:
(a)
15% of such usable and complete industrial capital equipment, in the first place from the metallurgical, chemical and machine manufacturing industries, which on determination of the Control Council in Germany on the basis of the report of the Commission on Reparations shall be subject to removal on reparations account from the Western Zones: this equipment shall be transferred to the Soviet Union in exchange for an equivalent value of food, coal, potash, timber, clay products, and petroleum products over a period of 5 years.
(b)
10% of the basic industrial capital equipment shall be taken out of the Western Zones on reparations account without payment or exchange of any kind in return.
Establishment of the amount of equipment and matériel to be removed from the Western Zones on reparations account must be determined within three months at the latest.
4.
In addition to this, the USSR shall receive on reparations account:
(a)
500 million dollars worth of the shares of industrial and transport enterprises in the Western Zones;
(b)
30% of the external investments of Germany;
(c)
30% of the German gold which has come into the hands of the Allies.
5.
The USSR itself shall assume the settlement of the reparations claims of Poland from its own share of reparations. The USA and Great Britain shall do the same in regard to France, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Holland, and Norway.
  1. Circulated at the Eleventh Plenary Meeting, July 31. See ante, pp. 512, 514.
  2. Prepared for this volume by the Division of Language Services, Department of State.