462.00 R 29/687: Telegram
The Commissioner at Berlin (Dresel) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:32 p.m.]
445. Section 2.39
- [“] 6. Apart from any reconstruction work Germany is prepared to supply for the same purpose to the states concerned any other materials and to render them any other services as far as possible on a purely commercial basis.
- 7. To prove the sincerity of her intention to make reparation at once and in an unmistakable way Germany is prepared to place immediately at the disposal of the Separation Commission the amount of one billion gold marks in the following manner: first, 150 millions gold marks in gold, silver, and foreign bills; second, 850 millions gold marks in Treasury bills to be redeemed within a period not exceeding three months by foreign bills and other foreign values.
- 8. Germany is further prepared if the United States and the Allies should so desire to assume part of the indebtedness of the Allies to the United States as far as her economic capacity will allow her.
- 9. In respect of the way the German expenditures for reparation purposes should be credited against her total liability, Germany proposes that prices and values should be fixed by a commission of experts.
- 10. Germany is prepared to secure the subscribers of the loan in every possible way by assigning to them public properties or public income in a way to be arranged for.
- 11. By the acceptance of these proposals all other German liabilities on reparation account are canceled and the German private property abroad released.
- 12. Germany considers that her proposals can only be realized if the system of sanctions is done away with at once; the present basis of the German production is not further diminished; and if the German nation is again admitted to the world’s commerce and freed of all unproductive expenditure.
These proposals shall testify German firm will to make good the damage caused by the war up to the limit of her economic capacity. The amounts offered as well as the mode of payment depend on this capacity. As far as differences of opinion as to this capacity exist, the German Government recommend to have them examined by a commission of recognized experts agreeable to all parties concerned, the decision of which they hereby declare to accept as should the Government of the United States consider that the negotiations could be facilitated by giving the proposals another form, the German Government would be thankful if their attention were drawn to the points in which the American Government consider an alteration desirable. The German Government would also readily receive any other proposals the American Government might feel inclined to make.
The German Government is too firmly convinced that the peace and welfare of the world depends on the prompt, just and fair solution of the reparation problem as not to do everything in their power to put the United States in a position which enables them to bring the matter to the attention of the Allied Governments. Berlin, April the 24, 1921.”
- Section 1, which contains the first part of the German memorandum here completed, is telegram no. 443, supra.↩