462.00R296/4376
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Boal) of a Conversation With the Belgian Ambassador (May)
The Belgian Ambassador called. I gave him the following replies to his confidential memorandum of this morning, which is attached.66
- 1.
- This Government is willing informally to approach the German Government to suggest the opportuneness of conversations between Germany and Belgium for a discussion on the two subjects mentioned in the Belgian note of June 30th in the spirit of the President’s plan. It does not feel that it can add the further words requested by the Belgian Government “take into account the special situation of Belgium”, in as much as a number of other countries advance special situations with regard to the debt questions.
- 2.
- No answer was asked of us. I explained that a number of these questions might find solution at one or both of the London Conferences,67 and that it would seem preferable to await the results of those conferences in the hope that some solutions could be found, that in any event, this Government is not prepared to discuss these two questions with Belgium before the London conferences. I told him that this Government did not share his fears with regard to the unfavorable conditions and opposition which his Government anticipated at London.
- 3.
- I referred to the reply to (1) to show that we are willing to approach Germany if asked to do so by the Belgian Government. With respect to the mark question, I said that our preliminary examination of this question, indicated that it was truly an inter-governmental debt in the sense of the President’s original plan, that it was paid by the German Government to the Belgian Government, and constituted a charge on the German Government’s budget. Therefore I do not see how, if we had to interpret his meaning, we could possibly construe the mark claim in any way as excluded from the President’s plan. The Belgian Ambassador referred to his other note of June 30th containing the acceptance of the Belgian Government [Page 182] conditional upon the preservation of the imprescriptible rights of Belgium, and also referred to our acknowledgment of this note. I told him that nothing was further from the President’s mind when he made the original statement, as would be seen by reading the statement, than to suggest that existing agreements should be cancelled. I did not see how the voluntary postponement of a payment by a creditor under a contract could be in any way held to invalidate the contract, and therefore, I did not see how the mark claim would in any way impair the imprescriptible rights of Belgium.
- 4.
- In view of the above, we did not wish to make a negative declaration to Germany, and therefore, did not now wish to make any statement on this point.
The Belgian Ambassador asked what we would do if his Government simply refused to take any further steps, stating that the acceptance had not been received under the conditions which were stipulated when it was written, and therefore, it would go no further with the plan. I said I had no idea what we would do, but that it would be unfortunate if anything of this kind were said before the London meetings had had an opportunity to seek some solutions.
In regard to Belgium’s special situation, the Belgian Ambassador asked whether I thought that his Government should take this matter up with Germany. I said this was a matter for them to decide. Such action had been suggested first by the Belgian Government. We were willing, if Belgium wished to confer with the German Government on this subject, to assist them to the extent of approaching the German Government informally as in (1).
The Belgian Ambassador expressed his thanks for the courtesy and attention with which the Department had received his representations in this matter.