Editorial Note
On March 11, 1949, the Counselor of Embassy in Denmark, Edward J. Sparks, informed the Department of State in his airgram A–100, not printed, that the last group of German refugees in Denmark had departed on February 15 for the French occupation zone of Germany [Page 625] (859.00/3–1449). On May 19 and again on June 27, the Danish Ambassador in the United States, Henrik de Kauffman, presented notes at the Department of State reminding the Department of the presence in South Schleswig of more than 280,000 German refugees, and calling attention to the potentially serious effects of this concentration of East Prussians on the cultural balance of the region and on the political stability of Denmark itself. On August 11 the Department acknowledged the Danish note of June 27, reiterating its intention expressed earlier in a note of June 16, to further the adoption of ameliorative measures within the framework of U.S. obligations as an occupying power and subject to the basic tenet of the occupation policy of the Western Powers that the care of German refugees and their integration into German society was essentially a German problem. The notes referred to above, with memoranda of conversations covering the presentation of the notes, and other related documentation are in Department of State files 711.59 and 859.00.