Relating to Committee of Experts’ (Dawes) Plan

Agreements of the London Reparation Conference, July-August 1924

Note to Agreements 8 to 10

A conference of representatives of the governments interested in giving effect to the Report of the First Committee of Experts of April 9, 1924 (120 British and Foreign State Papers, p. 406) convened at London on July 16, 1924. Representatives of the Government of the United States attended “with specifically limited powers,” that is, for “the purpose “of dealing with such matters as affect the interests of the United States and otherwise for purposes of information” ( Foreign Relations, 1924, ii, 35). The closure of the conference was marked by the issuance of a final protocol to which were annexed four agreements then signed or initialed ne varietur.

The first of these was an agreement between the Reparation Commission and the German Government dated August 9, 1924 (120 British and Foreign State Papers, p. 549). As customarily published it is completed by an annex I which is a draft protocol and the indication for an annex II which is stipulated to set forth “such additional arrangements as may hereafter be made between the German Governments and the Allied Governments at the said conference”. In its final form, as binding the Reparation Commission and the German Government, annex I was the protocol duly executed and signed, while annex II a was the agreement between the Allied Governments and the German Government concerning the agreement under notice and annex II b was the other agreement between the Allied Governments and Germany, both of which were signed on August 30, 1924.

The second of the series, dated August 30, 1924, was the agreement between the Allied Governments and the German Government concerning the aforementioned agreement of August 9, 1924 between the German Government and the Reparation Commission, to which it ultimately became annex II a for the execution of the Experts’ (Dawes) Plan.

The third of the series, dated August 30, 1924, was the agreement between the Allied Governments and Germany for the purpose of bringing the Experts’ (Dawes) Plan “into being as soon as possible”. It was transitional and was made annex II b of the Reparation Commission-German Agreement. Its text is at 30 League of Nations Treaty Series, p. 75, and 119 British and Foreign State Papers, p. 490.

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The fourth of the series, dated August 30, 1924, was the inter-Allied agreement “for the complete fulfilment, so far as they are concerned, of the plan”. This agreement between the reparation creditors in the first of its six articles set forth amendments to part VIII, annex II, adopted by the governments represented on the Reparation Commission. A further agreement, dated August 30, 1924, embodied the first article as a decision which “shall be notified to the powers signatory to the Treaty of Versailles and to the Reparation Commission”. This separate agreement is at 30 League of Nations Treaty Series, p. 97, and 119 British and Foreign State Papers, p. 500.

None of these agreements was subject to ratification and all entered into force by virtue of the operation of the Experts’ (Dawes) Plan beginning September 1, 1924.


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