740.00119 EW/10–2445
The Secretary of State to the United States Representative on the Allied Commission on Reparations (Angell)
My Dear Mr. Angell: I take pleasure in informing you that the President has approved your designation by the Department of State as the Representative of the United States Government on the Allied Commission on Reparation for Germany, with the rank of Minister. You are succeeding Mr. Edwin W. Pauley, who in letters to the President and me on September 2075 and September 14, 1945, respectively, relinquished his responsibilities in the field of reparations from Germany and turned over his duties to the Department of State. In making this appointment, it was understood that you could not commit yourself at this time for more than six months’ service.
In your capacity as the representative of the United States, you will attend meetings of the Allied Commission on Reparation for Germany and cast the vote of the United States. You will also represent this country on matters relating to reparation from Germany both in reaching such understandings and agreements with the representatives of the U.S.S.R., British and French Governments as may be required, and in ad hoc conferences of countries claiming shares to reparation from Germany, irrespective of whether or not they are represented on the Allied Commission on Reparation.
The representative of the United States on the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency, Mr. D. M. Phelps76 of the Department of State, will be your deputy on the Allied Commission on Reparation. In his contacts with the Allied Control Council he will act solely as your deputy. In his capacity as representative on the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency he will keep you fully informed of all important developments [Page 1358] and activities, and will advise with you on any important matters of policy.
In all these discussions and negotiations, you will of course be responsible to me and will be guided by my instructions. In this matter, you may rest assured, I shall give you full scope for the exercise of judgment and shall not require that you seek guidance on points already covered either by the instructions of the Informal Policy Committee on Germany, or my previous instructions to Ambassador Pauley. You may expect to receive before your departure for Europe a statement of the Department’s views on a number of specific matters which have been raised for the agenda of forthcoming scheduled meetings which you are expected to attend. These will be communicated to you by Mr. Seymour J. Rubin, Acting Director of the Office of Economic Security Policy. Within the limits set by these and earlier instructions, you are free to reach agreement with the representatives of other countries on questions of reparation policy where such agreement reflects the spirit if not the exact letter of United States policy as communicated to you. Where you feel obliged to give way to the wishes of other countries, or significantly to alter the intent of the instructions given you, I shall ask you to refer to the Department.
It will be your responsibility to present the claim of the United States for reparation, both at the preliminary meeting with the French and British at Paris and later at the conference of all claimants to reparation, to be held at Paris on November 9, 1945 and to recommend the reparation shares to be received by the various claimants. You are to keep me fully informed of discussions regarding the relationship of the American claim and share to the claims and shares of other nations. You will receive instructions regarding the extent to which the amount of reparation allocated to the United States may vary qualitatively and quantitatively from the claims presented.
You will be authorized to discuss the distribution among the various Western reparation claimants of the German external assets available for reparations in countries not entitled to retain German external assets under Article III, Section 18 of the Potsdam Protocol.77 Your representatives should maintain appropriate and close liaison with the Allied Control Commission and the Department regarding the steps to be taken by the Allied Control Commission to obtain jurisdiction over German external assets, and with the Department and the American Missions in the various countries not entitled to retain German assets with respect to matters of valuation, transfer and distribution of proceeds.
[Page 1359]An interim directive on restitution has been sent to the Allied Control Council,78 and it is anticipated that further discussions on this subject, under policies to be established, will be held there. The Department will furnish for your guidance a statement of restitution policy to be used in discussions of this topic in the Paris meetings of the Allied Commission on Separation, and policy formulated in this manner, and approved by the Department, will be sent to the Allied Control Council for further negotiation, if necessary, and for adoption as an operating directive.
You are also authorized to present at the meetings of the Allied Commission on Reparation in Paris the United States views concerning reparation and restitution to German victims of Nazi persecution.
It will be your responsibility at the quadripartite meetings in Berlin of the Allied Commission on Reparation to discuss and to present the United States views on such questions of policy or of interpretation of the Berlin Protocol as may arise. Questions of policy or interpretation of this sort may arise, for example, with reference to the amount and character of industrial equipment which shall be permitted to remain in Germany or which shall be removed as reparation, the principles of reparation from current production and stocks, the application of the “first charge” principle to occupation costs of the occupying powers, the principles of valuation to be applied to the industrial capital equipment to be removed from Germany as reparation, the commodity deliveries to be undertaken by the U.S.S.R. to the three western zones in return for 15 percent of the capital equipment to be removed from the three western zones (the principles of their valuation and their source), the compensation of allied owners for property taken for reparations, and other policy matters on which you have been or will be given instructions.
The Allied Commission on Reparation should provide to the Allied Control Council any policies and principles required for a reparations plan. Such policy guidance may be given either at the request of the Allied Control Council or upon the initiative of the Allied Commission on Reparation. It is the United States view, although no international agreement exists on the point, that the plan for removals of industrial equipment formulated by the Allied Control Council should be submitted to the Allied Commission on Reparation in order that it may judge how closely the plan conforms to the policies established by the Allied Commission on Reparation. In order that a consistent United States position may be maintained on the Allied Control Council and the Allied Commission on Reparation, it will be your [Page 1360] responsibility to review from the policy standpoint for the Department of State any American proposals for removals to be made to the Allied Control Council, and to report to me in the event you are in disagreement therewith. The United States member of the Allied Control Council will be requested to work closely with you so as to enable you to fulfill this responsibility.
I hope this explanation, together with previous and forthcoming specific instructions to your predecessor and you respectively, will enable you to get off to a flying start in this complex and difficult field of negotiation in which interests of the United States are so vitally at stake. I wish you and your staff all success.
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩
- Chief of the Division of Foreign Economic Development.↩
- Reference is to the Report on the Tripartite Conference of Berlin; see Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), vol. ii, p. 1505.↩
- Reference is presumably to the directive contained in telegram CC–17920, October 23, from Berlin, p. 1353; see also telegram 767, October 13, 1 p.m., from Berlin, p. 1345.↩