763.72113 Au 7/32
The Secretary of State to the Austrian Minister ( Prochnik )
Sir: The Department refers to your note of May 12, 1928, in relation to your desire to obtain a statement from the proper authorities regarding the fulfillment of conditions necessary to the certification by the Commissioner, Tripartite Claims Commission, of the amounts deposited in the Austrian Special Deposit Account as a precedent to the payment of awards made by the Commission in respect of claims filed with the Commission, and is pleased to furnish you with the following statement, dated June 5, 1928, of the Commissioner, the Honorable Edwin B. Parker, in reply to a letter addressed to him by the American Agent, Tripartite Claims Commission:
“Replying to your letter of this date and returning herewith the note dated May 12, 1928, addressed by the Austrian Minister at Washington to the Honorable Frank B. Kellogg, Secretary of State, with copy of the memorandum of the Austrian Agent before this Commission dated May 10, 1928, which accompanied same, I beg to advise:
- “(1) Practically all of the cases against Austria submitted to the Commissioner have been decided by him.
- “(2) Memorials against Austria have been filed in 119 cases not yet submitted to the Commissioner (throughout this letter treats each separate part of a docket number as a case).
- “(3) Claims against Austria have been filed in 104 cases in which no memorial or agreed statement of facts has yet been filed.
- “(4) As the Austrian Minister points out, the return to Austrian nationals of property in the hands of the Alien Property Custodian of the United States is conditioned upon the Commissioner first certifying to the Secretary of the Treasury that the amount deposited in the Treasury of the United States in the Austrian Special Deposit Account is sufficient to pay the judgments of this Commission and also its interlocutory judgments converted at the rate of exchange with interest prescribed by the act of the Commissioner of April 9, 1928.
- “(5) It is manifestly impossible for the Commissioner to make the certificate mentioned in the foregoing paragraph numbered 4 without accurate knowledge of the maximum of the judgments or interlocutory judgments which can be rendered against Austria in the claims mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs numbered 2 and 3.
- “(6) The Austrian Agent has stated to me this afternoon that he is convinced that all save a small percentage of the cases mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs numbered 2 and 3 can be submitted to the Commissioner on either (a) an agreed statement of facts by the two Agents or (b) a statement of facts by the American Agent. If this is correct, then it is hoped that such submissions can be made prior to or shortly after July 1st next, and that memorials will be promptly filed in the few remaining cases.
- “(7) With a view to facilitating this work on the part of the respective Agents and their staffs, the Commissioner is having prepared a list of all docketed cases not yet submitted and will call this docket at a meeting of the Commission to be held at 10 o’clock a.m. on next Friday, June 8, at which time the respective Agents and their counsel should be prepared to give the status of each case and when and in what form it will be ready for submission to the Commission.
“The Commissioner is doing everything within his power to complete the work of the Commission at the earliest possible moment. He is anxious to facilitate and hasten the payment both of the amounts claimed by Austrian nationals held by the Alien Property Custodian and the amounts to be paid to the American nationals in pursuance of the provisions of the Settlement of War Claims Act of 1928. To that end the Commissioner bespeaks the wholehearted cooperation of both Governments and their respective Agents.”
The Commissioner adds:
“The foregoing statement does not include cases pending before this Commission against Hungary only. A separate docket of such cases will be prepared and called at the meeting mentioned in paragraph 7 hereof, to be held Friday morning next.”
Accept [etc.]