462.00 R 296/717: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Kellogg) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:22 p.m.]
483. Logan’s telegram L–255 to Department, November 17. In general I agree with Mr. Logan’s first proposition in regard to use [Page 78] of words “Associated Powers.” Besides statement made by Owen Young and very evident purpose [of section 11?], it is fact that London Conference by the protocol accepted it without change and with full knowledge not only of our assertion of right to participate in conference but of our assertion of right to obtain share of payments for satisfaction of both classes of our claims, and the plenary conference recognized it by adoption of first committee’s report.
I think that our legal position should be fully stated. The Dawes Plan was not only supplemental to and in application of Treaty of Versailles for collection of reparations, but superseded that treaty in many respects, such as extension of period for delivery of dye-stuffs, the activities of the transfer committee, arbitration in regard to decision of Reparation Commission on default, etc. The Dawes Plan provided for means of payment of reparations not only under Treaty of Versailles but under our treaty of 1921 with Germany which was made and ratified before Dawes report and was fully known both to Dawes committee and London Conference. Only hesitancy I have in calling it an amendment to Treaty of Versailles is feeling it might affect attitude of the French whose representatives in the London Conference were very insistent that they neither would nor could amend that treaty. They did not assert, however, that Dawes report and London protocol were not additional remedies and to some extent changed the powers existing under Treaty of Versailles.
- (2)
- I do not believe that I would concede or even suggest that United States has second mortgage on Germany’s assets, as I am quite convinced of soundness of our legal position that our claims rank pari passu with those of Allies.
- (3)
- I agree with Logan that we should not only press our equitable rights but also our legal rights, which I think are incontrovertible.
I have mailed to Department and to Logan copies of a memorandum which I shall leave today with Chamberlain.74
Telegram repeated to Logan.
- See memorandum dated Nov. 15, p. 85. It appears from the Ambassador’s telegram no. 484, infra, and from Mr. Chamberlain’s memorandum quoted in the Ambassador’s telegram no. 509, Dec. 4, 10 a.m., p. 96, that the memorandum referred to here was presented on Nov. 19, at the conference between the Ambassador, Mr. Chamberlain, and Sir Eyre Crowe. The present telegram, no 483, may have been drafted Nov. 19 before the conference and not sent until Nov. 20.↩