462.00 R 296/783: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Bancroft) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 24—6:45 a.m.]
342. Referring to your telegram 209, December 14, 4 p.m. In a conversation with Foreign Minister last evening he said their representatives at Paris had been instructed to approve in principle the American claim if all the other powers agree; that since my former conversation he had heard from London that British were willing to consent to our claim for occupation expenses and were willing to discuss our claim for damages on three conditions: (1) amount of our claim should be stated, (2) our claim should be reduced in the proportion in which the signatories of Versailles Treaty reduced their claims, (3) the value of German property in our custody should be credited on our claim. I answered that the question related only to our claims for damages and that your position as originally stated was that the alien property fund was to be deducted from that claim. That the British proposal was hardly reasonable, that we should give to the other powers the benefit of our alien property fund as a condition to our sharing in the reparations and our Government certainly would not consider it. If, however, our claim for the balance left after crediting the alien property fund were allowed by all the other powers our Government would be willing to stand any fair reduction proportionately to reductions made by the other powers on their similar claims. I said further that I understood Japan agreed with all the other powers except Great Britain, that on equitable [Page 113] grounds there was no reason to question our claim. The Minister answered: “Yes, I am only desirous of considering the legal basis of your claim and when I receive the lawyers opinion I will let you know.”