462.00 R 29/711: Telegram
The Commissioner at Berlin (Dresel) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:45 p.m.]
464. Memorandum from Foreign Office corrects English translation of clause number 1 of memorandum of April 24,40 relative to reparations, to read as follows:
“Germany expresses her readiness to acknowledge for reparation purposes a total liability of 50 billions gold marks (capital).
Alternatively Germany is also prepared to pay the equivalent of this sum in annuities, [adapted] to her economic capacity, totaling 200 billions gold marks.”
Memorandum continues in translation,
“The German proposal thus offers two possibilities, either the acceptance of a capital debt or the payment of annuities. Numbers 2 to 6 are worked out literally for the first proposal. In regard to the second, the figures would have to be revised appropriately in accordance with an understanding to be reached in regard to annuities. Furthermore, the clause in regard to arbitration in the next to the last paragraph of the note applies to both cases.”
Note insertion of word “alternatively”.