811.348 Z 4/68: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Harvey) to the Secretary of
State
London, October 6,
1921—4 p.m.
[Received October 6—3:58
p.m.]
803. Reference German airship for the United States Government. Following
note dated October 4th received from Foreign Office this morning.
- 1.
- I have given the most careful attention to Your
Excellency’s memorandum, no. 203 of September 22nd, in which
you explain the reasons for which the United States
Government desire the issue of instructions to His Majesty’s
Ambassador at Paris to support at the Conference of
Ambassadors the claim of the United States Government to a
military airship of the L–70 type as
their share of the compensation to be made by the German
Government for the destruction of seven Zeppelin airships in
the summer of 1919.
- 2.
- Your Excellency will I know accept my assurance that in
any circumstances—but more especially in those to which Your
Excellency draws attention as arising out of the recent
deplorable loss of the ZR–2 (R–38)—His Majesty’s Government would
not do otherwise than examine in the most sympathetic spirit
a request of this nature addressed to them by the United
States Government. The matter is however affected by certain
weighty considerations to which I, much to my regret, call
attention and which were probably not present to the mind of
the United States Government when their request was
formulated.
- 3.
- The precise manner in which compensation is to be given by
Germany was as Your Excellency points out laid down by the
protocol of June 30, 1921 which was drafted in accordance
with the allocation of the German airships, approved by the
Supreme Council on September 29, 1919. But in considering
the form which under the protocol the American share of that
compensation should take, it is necessary to take into
account, firstly, the rules for distinguishing between civil
and military aircraft, which the Allied Governments, in
order to secure the execution of articles 170 and 198 of the
Treaty of Versailles, are about to submit to the German
Government for acceptance; and, secondly, the effect which
the decision still to be given by the Reparation Commission,
as explained in paragraph 8 below, may have on the
matter.
- 4.
- The Supreme Council decision of September 29, 1919 under
the heading “airships” allocated (1) the two best airships
of the 70 class to France and to Great Britain, each power
to exercise its choice in that order; and (2) the remaining
German airships
[Page 63]
(actually five in number, seven having already been
destroyed by the Germans although this destruction was not
at the time known to the Supreme Council) to the United
States, Italy, Great Britain, France, Japan and Belgium,
each power to exercise one choice in alternate rotation. The
United States not having ratified the Treaty of Versailles
did not participate in this distribution so that the five
vessels were actually disposed of to Italy, Great Britain
and France. The ship allotted to Belgium was destroyed by
the Aeronautical Commission of Control as the Belgian
Government did not wish to exercise their right of choice.
Had the United States Government ratified the treaty at the
time these vessels were distributed they would presumably
have been allocated to the United States, Italy, Great
Britain, France.
- 5.
- The protocol of June 30, 1921 provided for the delivery of
the airships Bodensee and Nordstern to Italy and to France as
compensation for two of the zeppelins destroyed in 1919 and
for payment of monetary compensation for the remaining five
zeppelins (the amount due to be estimated from the plans of
the destroyed vessels by the Aeronautical Commission of
Control). The protocol as Your Excellency points out by
providing that the proportions in which this compensation
should be divided amongst the Allied and Associated Powers
should be decided by themselves, recognized the right of the
United States Government to participate therein. It at the
same time provided that by direct arrangement between
Germany and any Allied and Associated Power one or more
civil airships might be delivered to that power in
substitution for that power’s share of the monetary
compensation.
- 6.
- The fact that airships of a civil type alone were under
the provision of law to be substituted for the monetary
compensation was as Your Excellency is aware due to the
provisions of articles 170 and 198 of the Treaty of
Versailles in respect of subscribing to which the Allied
Military Committee at Versailles included amongst the rules
for distinguishing between civil and military aircraft a
rule defining a military airship as an airship having a
greater capacity than 30,000 cubic meters.
- 7.
- In these circumstances His Majesty’s Government hope that
the United States Government will not persist in their claim
for a military airship which does not appear to be supported
either by the circumstances in which the Supreme Council
decision of September 29, 1919 was executed or by the terms
of the protocol [of] June 30, 1921. Effect cannot in
practice be given to the desire of the United States
Government without untoward results among which I may
mention an inevitable increase in the difficulties
experienced by the Allied Governments in obtaining the
execution of articles 170 and 198 of the Treaty of
Versailles. Moreover, the construction of a large military
dirigible in Germany for the United States Government must
inevitably postpone the early termination of the work of the
Aeronautical Commission of Control—a measure for which in
the face of no little opposition His Majesty’s Government
have consistently pressed and which is desirable in the
interests of both economy and of the relations between the
Allied Governments and the German Government. These are
consequences which I am confident that the United States
Government will be anxious to avoid.
- 8.
- Finally it should be explained that in the view of His
Majesty’s Government the question whether the value of the
civil airships delivered and the cash paid by Germany as
compensation for the destroyed airships is to be credited to
Germany and debited to the recipient is under the terms of
the Treaty of Versailles determinable by the Reparation
Commission. It is unfortunate that a decision of the
Commission on the matter was not obtained before the
signature of the protocol of June 30th, 1921, but His
Majesty’s Government have now instructed the British
delegate on the Commission to endeavor to obtain a decision
of the Commission thereon at the earliest possible
opportunity. Should the Commission decide that no credit is
to be given to Germany the acts contemplated in the protocol
of 30th June 1921 can be carried out as originally intended.
If however the Reparation Commission shall decide that
Germany is to be credited on account of reparation this will
apparently involve some revision of those arrangements, at
any rate in the case of the United States Government which
has put forward no claim to reparation and which cannot
therefore be debited by an entry on reparation
account.
- I have the honor to be, etc.”
Repeated to Paris.
