462.00 R 296/212: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Herrick)
91. L–58, for Logan. Your L–105, March 12. The Department hardly needs emphasize earnest desire that work of the expert committees should be successful and that no disposition exists here to cause slightest embarrassment. The point of Department’s L–50, February 23, and L–56, March 7, was, on the contrary, to avoid embarrassment and difficulties which would arise were report of the committees to contain provisions or to proceed upon understanding which would jeopard the just claims of this Government and of its nationals. There is no lack of appreciation of importance of European recuperation or of our own interest therein, and we are fully sensible of difficulties of work of the committees and skill and resourcefulness which have been shown by American experts. The Department does not perceive that appropriate recognition of the relatively small American claims would jeopard their work. The President expects our claims to be properly safeguarded and if the event proved to the contrary there would be an unfortunate reaction in American opinion which would undoubtedly find effective expression in Congress.
[Page 9]When the nature of our claims is considered, this position becomes clearer:
- (1)
- The Army costs claim, in relation to the Allies, is a debt of honor. At their request we maintained our Army in Europe, and did so under the distinct agreement that the claim for Army costs was to be paid on a parity with their own and ahead of reparations. They should have distributed equitably the money received for Army costs; instead of doing so they kept these moneys and left us out. We have had no desire to take advantage of their necessities, but we do wish to have an honorable obligation recognized and to this end we made an equitable agreement for the payment of our accumulated Army costs over a period of years. To render our Army Costs Agreement abortive and virtually to push aside our claim would be regarded here as most unjustifiable. It is not the point whether we would be technically or legally bound by an arrangement to which we were not a party. We wish to avoid the necessity of making representations on technical or legal grounds after the experts have gone through the great trouble of endeavoring to effect an arrangement which would permit economic recovery, and we do not wish to be put in position of seeming to obstruct the result of their efforts. The way to avoid this contingency is not to rely on technical grounds, but to have equitable and practical treatment of situation so as to prevent contingency.
- (2)
- In regard to our other claims, which are now under consideration by Mixed Claims Commission, this Government is not asking for priority or inequitable advantage, nor is it assuming a harsh and inconsiderate position. It simply desires reasonable and equal treatment. This Government’s claims are not large and it has abandoned categories upon which the Allies insist and upon which this Government was equally entitled to insist. Here again we wish to avoid creating difficulties arising from any disregard of our equities. The Department trusts that no occasion will arise which will require it to make any protest against a report for the success of which in the interests of peace and stability we are most anxious.
If the nature of the report, however, or any understandings which accompany it, or the action of the Reparation Commission should be such as to embarrass this Government in the protection of American claims, either its own or those of its nationals, you are instructed to make appropriate reservations before the commission. To advise you on the exact terms of the reservation is almost impossible for us, having in mind a contingency which we hope will be remote and without such a report before us. Any reservation should, however, be comprehensive and appropriate to the two classes of claims; it should set forth the reserve of the Government of the United [Page 10] States in regard to its rights as well as the expression of its confidence that no action is thought of which would ignore our part in the common victory over the enemy, or which would preclude this Government from obtaining equitable treatment as above stated with regard to the payment of the above claims.