462.00R296/5122: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12:20 p.m.]
119. Consulate’s telegram 110, September 8, 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon90a the rapporteur having announced that although some slight progress had been made toward a settlement the parties had not yet come to a definite agreement, the Council adopted the following resolution:
“Having noted the points of view stated by the representatives of Bulgaria and Greece;
[Page 196]Considering that the Bulgarian Government has raised the question whether the Greek Government was entitled to establish a connection between, and set off one against the other, its debt to the Bulgarian refugees under the Caphandaris-Molloff agreement and the Bulgarian Government’s reparation debt;
Considering that the Bulgarian Government maintain that these two debts are totally different in nature;
Considering that in the Greek Government’s opinion no dispute as to the interpretation of the Caphandaris-Molloff Agreement is involved;
Noting that the respective financial obligations of the two Governments, in regard to which the difficulties thus submitted to the Council have arisen, were incurred in virtue of international instruments which are equally binding on both Governments and the execution of which can in no case be suspended except by agreement between all the signatory parties;
Being convinced that such an agreement must be sought with extreme urgency on a practical basis in respect of the payments of the current year, all questions of law being reserved,
Invites the two Governments to confer together in order to attain this result as soon as possible, the service of their reciprocal debts being carried on in the interval;
Subject to the foregoing, deciding to request the Permanent Court of International Justice to consider from the legal point of view whether there is in fact a dispute between Greece and Bulgaria under article 8 of the Caphandaris-Molloff agreement, and if so, to give an advisory opinion on the nature of the obligations arising out of the said agreement;
Notes with great satisfaction the declarations of the two Governments with regard to their mutual desire to effect a general settlement of the other difficulties subsisting between them;
Makes an urgent appeal to their spirit of conciliation and invites them to open negotiations as soon as possible with a view to achieving this result.”
The Council then passed a second resolution requesting the Permanent Court for an advisory opinion on the points mentioned above in that connection.
- September 19.↩