462.00 R 294/217: Telegram

The Chargé in Belgium ( Thaw ) to the Secretary of State

49. Note today from Foreign Office states that after having examined the draft of the agreement prepared by the experts of the Belgian, French, British and Italian Governments, to settle the expense of the American army of occupation, the Belgian Government has decided to consent to the suppression of paragraph 2 of article 6 of that draft. The Belgian Government declares however that if it consents to sign the draft thus modified it is because it interprets article 248 of the Treaty of Versailles, the scope of which it has no intention of limiting in signing the said agreement, as permitting the Reparations Commission, should the case arise, to protect in their entirety the rights of the Belgian Government.

Repeated to Paris and London.

Thaw