463.00 R 29/163: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Herrick) to the Secretary of State
75. Sargent96 has just sent me memorandum which British Embassy has been instructed to send in to the Ambassadors Conference:
“The Reparation Commission recently fixed the contributions towards the cost of liberation referred to in the St. Germain Agreement of the 10th September 1919, modified by the statements of December 18 [8], 1919,97 as follows: Poland 225,495,000, gold; Roumania 235,140,000 gold francs; Serb-Croat-Slovene State 178,035,000 gold francs; Czechoslovakia 750,000,000 gold francs; total 1,388,670,- 000 gold francs. Italy 59,252,000 gold francs.98
This re-partition does not take into account any questions which may subsequently arise in regard to the territory of Fiume.
In deciding to communicate the result of this re-partition and the above observation regarding the Fiume territory to the British, French and Italian Governments the Commission also decided to request these Governments to make known their opinion on the following points: (a) As to whether the United States of America should be consulted; (b) whether a formal request should be made for the issue of the bonds referred to in the agreements of 1919 in respect of the liberation debt; (c) if so to whom these bonds should be delivered.
In the opinion of His Majesty’s Government the most convenient procedure would be for a decision on all these points to be reached by the Ambassadors Conference on behalf of the Governments concerned. If the Conference approves this course the British Embassy would propose that it reply to the inquiries of the Reparation Commission as follows: (a) That the United States [observer] on the Conference should be asked to express his views but that by mutual agreement the decision [on?] question whether the United States Government is being consulted as a matter of courtesy or as a matter of right should be left in abeyance; (b) that the Ambassadors Conference acting in the name of the Governments concerned should make a formal request for the issue of the bonds; (c) that the bonds should be delivered to the Reparation Commission as mandatory of the Governments concerned. It is to be noted that the Reparation [Page 190] Commission decision does not take into account any questions which may subsequently arise with respect to the territory of Fiume.
His Majesty’s Government understood from information received from the British representative on the Reparation Commission that that body has no official cognizance of the annexation of the territory of the Free City by Italy and that it was accordingly thought best to leave the matter open by making a reservation of a general nature about this territory. In these circumstances the British Embassy would propose that when notifying the Reparation Commission in the sense of (a), (b) and (c) the Ambassadors Conference should at the same time inform them officially of the annexation of Fiume to Italy under the provisions of the Italo-Yugoslav agreement of January 27, 1924.”99
In his letter Sargent stated that he wanted us to see this memorandum, which is dated January 8, 1925, before receiving it in the ordinary course from the Secretariat General and added that the procedure proposed is somewhat curious but that he hoped we would see no objection to it. Please instruct.
- Telegram in three sections.↩
- Orme Garton Sargent, first secretary in the British diplomatic service, attached to the British Embassy at Paris for the work of the Conference of Ambassadors.↩
- Malloy, Treaties, 1910–1923, vol. iii, pp. 3299 and 3303.↩
- For agreement with regard to the Italian reparation payments, and declaration modifying that agreement, see ibid., pp. 3301 and 3305.↩
- League of Nations, Treaty Series, vol. xxiv, p. 37.↩