Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1926, Volume I

462.00 R 29/4047: Telegram

The Ambassador in France ( Herrick ) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

Paris , April 22, 1926—3 p.m.
[Received 7:25 p.m.⁹]

155. H–92 from Hill. Department’s telegram No. 90 (H–41), April 10, 2 p.m. In view of Department’s request for comments, I venture to make the following:

(1) If change proposed be made May 31 it would arouse considerable comment and would create unfavorable impression regarding intent and purpose of the United States with the repercussion here that would follow. Such a change could not fail to focus attention upon itself as at the time selected there will be no other overt change in Reparation Commission to distract much attention, but merely the automatic dissolution of the Permanent Managing Committee, whose duties will be reabsorbed by the Reparation Commission, where they rested originally.

Up to September 1, 1926, all assistant delegates who formed the Permanent Managing Committee will remain here in Paris and will continue to sit at meetings which will be meetings of the Commission, instead of the Committee, not, in the eyes of the public, a great distinction. If the delegates are present, the assistants will sit as assistants; if the delegates are absent the assistants will sit in their places. While the reorganization provides that the Reparation Commission meet at least once monthly, it is contemplated that at outset at least it will meet very frequently, possibly as often as the Permanent Managing Committee has met. Expectation is that principal delegates will often be absent and that assistant delegates will take their places. It was in accordance with this expectation that Barthou,¹⁰ who lives in Paris, stated that until September 1 he would not sit if all the principal delegates were absent at any meeting, but that instead he would leave his assistant delegate, Mauclère, to preside.

No overt change will take place until September 1, when certain of the assistant delegates will retire. In case of Mauclère, retirement will be permanent. Mr. Gutt, the Belgian assistant delegate, will cease to reside in Paris but will attend meetings. The secretary of the Belgian delegation will handle current matters but will not sit on the Commission. The British and Italian assistant delegates will remain in Paris, because of distance and inconvenience of traveling to and from their countries; each of these delegations will give up its general secretary instead.

If Department wishes to make the change it contemplates, it would create much less comment, in my opinion, if it were made next September, as attention would then be diverted by Mauclère’s retirement and the other changes; the spotlight would not be directed upon this delegation as it would be if the change were made May 31.

(2) Apart from unfavorable effect such change would have here if made at this time, I have other grounds for thinking it would be premature. Many matters of interest to the United States, it is true, have been adjusted. There remain, however, quite a number of important matters, some of which I doubt could be settled by the end of May. Furthermore, new questions constantly arise which, in greater or less degree, must and will affect the interests of the United States, such as the recent Finnish decisions which attribute certain payments to the Dawes annuities which heretofore had been considered as outside those annuities.

The following list, which is not all inclusive, comprises outstanding matters which need adjustment and regarding which, in my opinion, someone should be here on the ground who has not only a legal appreciation of points involved but who has also fullest possible knowledge of the background:

(1) Arrangement of army costs^10a and costs of Commission for the third annuity;

(2) General adjustments incidental to the third annuity;

(3) Adjustment with Reparation Commission of any arrangement made with Germany for obtaining share of the United States in the Dawes annuities;¹¹

(4) Arrangements for obtaining payments on account of claims of the United States against Austria and Hungary;¹²

(5) Adjustments which have to be made because of arbitral decisions attributing charges, such as Polish social insurance, against annuities;

(6) The D. A. P. G. tankers case.¹³

No date for meeting of tanker tribunal has been fixed and it has not been possible for the other two arbitrators to get the umpire, who is busy on other matters, to fix time when he can come. It is, I think, very important that someone who is familiar with the law and the facts in this case should be on hand to lend assistance when the arbitrators sit.

(3) The Department furnishes no personnel to the Unofficial Observer except two stenographers. They have never been a staff adequate to run the office, and ever since our association with the Reparation Commission it has been the practice for that body to furnish us additional assistants. I doubt that Department would wish to accept assistants from the Commission if the proposed change be made. It would be necessary, therefore, to take over at least one of this personnel, an American who has acted as secretary for both my predecessor (Colonel Logan) and me, and who has been here for many years. He is most competent and thoroughly informed and I do not believe the work of this office could be carried on satisfactorily without him. He more than earns the $300 a month which the Reparation Commission pays out of an allotment running to September 1, 1926. It does not seem probable that the economy would be so great as the Department thinks; at the most the saving would not be more than $400 a month. I doubt that this amount would make up for the disadvantages of a change at this time.

I personally believe it to be advisable to continue the office in its present form but there is no insurmountable difficulty to its being embodied ultimately in the Embassy, providing that the change is delayed as I have already indicated. If the work is entrusted to someone in the Embassy, however, I think it very important that the identity of the American Observer should be maintained at least vis-a-vis the Reparation Commission. Hill.

Herrick

9. Telegram in five sections.
10. Louis Barthou, French delegate and chairman of the Reparation Commission.
11. See vol. ii, pp. 156 ff.
11. See Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. ii, pp. 133 ff.
12. See ibid., 1924, vol. i, pp. 142 ff.
13. See vol. ii, pp. 166 ff.