File No. 763.72114A/74
The Minister in Switzerland ( Stovall) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 4, 9.34 p.m.]
4187. Department’s 1728, April 5. Pay of officer prisoners of war. I have received following reply from German Government through Spanish Embassy:
The German Government agrees to the proposals of the Government of the United States of America relative to the pay of officers who have fallen into captivity on either side. The pay to be as follows:
- (1)
- 350 marks or $83.35 monthly—
- (a)
- First lieutenants, lieutenants and feldwebelleutnants of the German Army; first lieutenants, lieutenants, halboberleutnants and halbleutnants of the German Navy.
- (b)
- First and second lieutenants of the American Army and the lieutenants (junior grade) of the American Navy.
- (2)
- 400 marks or $95.25 monthly—
- (a)
- Captains, rittmeister and higher grades of officers of the German Army; kapitänleutnants and captains, also the higher grades of officers of the German Navy and the marine troops.
- (b)
- Captains and higher grades of officers of the American Army; the officers of the American Navy with the rank of lieutenant (senior grade) and higher, as well as officers of the American Marine Corps of corresponding rank.
As regards the other grades referred to by the American Government as class three, for which the German Government had proposed two-thirds of the lower rate of pay for officers, while the American Government wishes to pay these grades on an equal footing with lieutenants, a definite decision is reserved which will shortly be made public. It is proposed that these grades be given in the meantime two-thirds of the pay of the lower grade and that the regular pay of officers be put in force immediately independent of this question.
These rates of pay apply to all officer prisoners of war, regardless of whether they are active officers, officers of the reserve grade, officers of disposition or retired, or whether they are retired officers of disposition, and it applies to the same class of officers who are interned as civilian prisoners and whose rank is certified by the government of the home state.
The German Government agrees that the pay to the amount now agreed upon shall be paid for the time already passed in imprisonment in so far as the payment has not taken place at all during this time or not to the amount of the rates now agreed upon. In paying these sums, however, such sums are to be subtracted which were paid temporarily by the protecting power to the officers in place of the pay they had not received, as well as the surplus amounts which were paid by the American Government to German officers beyond the rates now fixed. The German Government undertakes that these excess payments will be refunded after the conclusion of peace.
These payments now agreed upon will be ordered as soon as telegraphic information has arrived from the American Government that the regulations in question in the sense of the foregoing remarks have been made for the German officers in America.