Office of the Historian

6. Agreement between the Allied and Associated Powers with regard to the Italian reparation payments, signed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, September 10, 19191

1. File 763.72119/7299.

Signed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, September 10, 1919; accessions by the Serb-Croat-Slovene State December 5, 1919, and by Rumania, December 9, 1919; in force for signatories July 16, 1920, except: Japan, October 14, 1920 (notice of ratification, deposited January 25, 1921); Belgium, July 24, 1920; Cuba, August 16, 1920; Nicaragua, January 29, 1921; Poland, August 22, 1924; Portugal, October 15, 1921; Rumania, September 4, 1920; Panama.

United States: Not submitted to the Senate by the President; Unperfected Treaties R–9.

Applicable to Hungary by operation of article 74, paragraph 2, of the treaty of peace with Hungary signed at Trianon, June 4, 1920 and in force July 26, 1921.

AGREEMENT

BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BELGIUM, THE BRITISH EMPIRE, CHINA, CUBA, FRANCE, GREECE, ITALY, JAPAN, [Page 832] NICARAGUA, PANAMA, POLAND, PORTUGAL, ROUMANIA, THE SERB-CROAT-SLOVENE STATE, SIAM, AND THE CZECHO-SLOVAK STATE, WITH REGARD TO THE ITALIAN REPARATION PAYMENTS.

The Undersigned, duly authorized by their respective Governments, have taken note of the declaration made by Italy in Article 1 of the present Agreement, and have agreed on the subsequent provisions:

Article 1.

Italy declares that she has made the greatest sacrifices and borne the heaviest financial burdens in the war waged for the liberation of Italian territory remaining subject to the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and for the other lofty aims of the Allied and Associated Powers;

That, in addition, the territories ceded to Italy have sacrificed as a result of the Treaty of Peace with Austria a large proportion of their wealth, and that they have already contributed in other ways to the reparation of the damage caused by the war in which they have so cruelly suffered;

That, nevertheless, with the object of facilitating an agreement between the States arising from the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary, or acquiring territories of the former Monarchy, as to the contribution to be made by them towards the cost of liberating the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and of reparation, Italy agrees to contribute to these expenses in the manner provided in the present Agreement.

Article 2.

Italy, as a State acquiring territory formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, agrees, on account of such acquisition, to be debited against her approved claims for reparation under the Treaties of Peace concluded with Germany, Austria, and the Powers which fought upon their side, with a sum in gold francs (the gold franc being taken as of the weight and fineness of gold as enacted by law on January 1, 1914) to be calculated as set out in Article 3 below.

Article 3.

The ratio between the sum to be debited to Italy in accordance with Article 2 and the sum of 1,500,000,000 francs gold (or between such sum and the total amount of the contributions to be made by Poland, Roumania, the Serb-Croat-Slovene State and the Czecho-Slovak [Page 833] State, if this amount is less than 1,500,000,000 francs gold, as provided in the Agreement of even date between the same High Contracting Parties) shall be the same as the ratio between the average revenues for the three financial years 1911, 1912, 1913 of the territory transferred to Italy and the average revenues for the same years of the whole of the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy transferred, whether to Italy or to the other Powers mentioned above, under the Treaties of Peace with Austria and Hungary. It is understood however that the revenues of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be excluded from this calculation.

The revenues serving as the basis of this calculation shall be those accepted by the Reparation Commission, in accordance with the provisions of Article 203, Part IX (Financial Clauses) of the Treaty of Peace with Austria [and Article 186, Part IX (Financial Clauses) of the Treaty of Peace with Hungary], as best representing the financial capacity of the respective territories.

[Article 4.1]

[The sum so calculated, together with the value of the property and possessions of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy transferred to Italy, assessed in accordance with Article 207, Part IX (Financial Clauses) of the Treaty of Peace with Austria [and Article 186, Part IX (Financial Clauses) of the Treaty of Peace with Hungary], shall be set off against the approved claims of Italy for reparation. The total of these two sums shall be reckoned as payments by way of reparation, and no further payments shall be made to Italy on account of reparation until the other States to which reparation is due shall have received payments on account of a like proportion of their approved claims for reparation.]

Done in French, in English and in Italian, of which in case of divergence the French text shall prevail, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the tenth day of September 1919, one thousand nine hundred and nineteen.

  • Frank L. Polk.
  • Henry White.
  • Tasker H. Bliss.
  • Hymans.
  • J. van den Heuvel.
  • E. Vandervelde.
  • Arthur James Balfour.
  • Milner.
  • Geo. N. Barnes.
  • A. E. Kemp.
  • G. F. Pearce.
  • Milner.
  • Thos. Mackenzie.
  • Sinha of Raipur.
  • J. R. Loutsengtsiang.
  • Chengting Thomas Wang.
  • Antonio S. de Bustamante.
  • G. Clemenceau.
  • S. Pichon.
  • L. L. Klotz.
  • André Tardieu.
  • Jules Cambon.
  • N. Politis.
  • A. Romanos.
  • Tom. Tittoni.
  • Vittorio Scialoja.
  • Maggiorino Ferraris.
  • Guglielmo Marconi.
  • S. Chinda.
  • K. Matsui.
  • H. Ijuin.
  • Salvador Chamorro.
  • Antonio Burgos.
  • I. J. Paderewski.
  • Roman Dmowski.
  • Affonso Costa.
  • Charoon.
  • Traidos Prabandhu.
  • D. Karel Kramar.
  • Dr. Eduard Benes.
  1. Superseded by declaration of Dec. 8, 1919, which follows.↩