763.72113 Au 7/26

The Austrian Minister (Prochnik) to the Secretary of State

No. 104/R

Excellency: Section (7), subsection (b) of the “Settlement of War Claims Act of 1928” makes the release of Austrian property dependent upon two conditions:

(1)
that the amounts deposited in the Austrian special deposit account are sufficient to make the payments in respect of awards against Austria and that the Commissioner certifies this fact to the Secretary of the Treasury.
(2)
that the Commissioner fix the rate of exchange at which interlocutory judgments shall be converted into money of the United States, and the rate of interest applicable to such judgments.

The second condition has been fulfilled by the Act of the Commissioner of April 9th, 1928.

In order to make the release of Austrian property possible I have by order of my Government the honor to solicit Your Excellency’s kind intermediary to obtain a statement by the competent authorities, what conditions they would consider appropriate to issue the certificate provided for by the War Claims Settlement act.

The Austrian Agent has prepared an opinion on the maximum amounts to be paid by Austria on judgments and interlocutory judgments of the Tripartite Claims Commission, of which I beg to enclose a copy.19 His estimate which seems to me to take into consideration a basis of calculation that will in a high degree exceed the actual payments, totals $1,257,485.77.

On the other side, the Undersecretary of the Treasury, Mr. Ogden S. Mills, has informed me, by letter of December 2nd, 1927, that the seized property, belonging to the Austrian Federal Government and held under Trust No. 6392 and 2056 amounted to $195,000.– and $1, 194,000.– or a total sum of $1,389,000.

The Austrian Government are therefore of the opinion that the aforementioned trusts should seem sufficient to cover the maximum possible awards against Austria and that the release of Austrian property could be entered in a short time.

I should be highly obliged to Your Excellency to cause that this question be taken into earliest possible examination and I avail [etc.]

Edgar Prochnik
  1. Not printed.