462.11 E.W. International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation/8–2245: Telegram

The Ambassador in Czechoslovakia ( Steinhardt ) to the Secretary of State

244. Notwithstanding the assurances the Embassy received from Zecho Minister of Foreign Affairs64 that plant of C. Lorenz, A. G. located at Vrchlabi Zecho had been removed from official list of war booty plants, we are now reliably informed that Russians are preparing to remove 75 percent of equipment for shipment to Russia,65 This [Page 532] plant is property of International Tel and Tel Co. We have made further representations to Zecho Government on subject but suggest Department bring matter to attention Russian Government before equipment is removed.

Sent Dept as 244, repeated Moscow as 29.

Steinhardt
  1. Jan Masaryk.
  2. Telegram 103, September 11, 6 p.m. to Vienna, reported that Col. Sosthenes Behn, President of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, had been in Prague recently where he heard unofficially that the Soviet Government had put the Vrchlabi vacuum tube factory back on the war booty list and proposed that 75 percent of plant’s machinery and material would be moved to the Soviet Union (360F.115 International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation/9–1145).