Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1931, Volume II

462.00R296/4924: Telegram

The Chargé in France ( Marriner ) to the Acting Secretary of State

Paris , August 12, 1931—7 p.m.
[Received August 12—4:15 p.m.]

505. The following is the text of the note from the Foreign Office setting forth the reasons for not agreeing to the non-postponement of the payments of the German-American Mixed Claims Commission awards:

“In your note number 1216 of the 8th instant you asked me to confirm that the French Government has no objection to the continuance of payments to be made by Germany on account of the mixed claims during the period 1931–1932 in spite of the proposal of President Hoover.

After examination of the question by the competent services it appears to the French Government that it is necessary to establish a distinction between the annuity due from the German Government to the American Government on account of the mixed claims on the one hand and on the other hand indemnities paid by the American Government to German nationals on account of restitution of sequestered property, indemnification for liquidated property, damages suffered, etc., in conformity with the sentences of the special jurisdiction competent in the premises.

In fact the annuity which the German Government pays to the American Government on account of mixed claims is incontestably an intergovernmental obligation; it is a fraction of the Young annuity,¹⁰ a fraction quite distinct it is true from the Hague agreements¹¹ to which the United States is not a party and sanctioned by a special Germano-American agreement but that agreement is as intergovernmental as the Hague agreements themselves.

Furthermore, by an exchange of letters dated January 20, 1930,¹² officially confirmed [confirming] the said Hague agreements the German Government engaged itself with respect to all the powers whose credits are included in the annuities under the Young Plan “in the future not to give any special advantage to any of those powers in connection with postponement”. That exchange of letters was required precisely to maintain strict equality of treatment between the Hague agreements on the one hand and the Germano-American agreement on the other. The present request of the American Government is directly inconsistent with that parity. It appears also as a derogation in favor of the United States of the very recent Franco-American agreement relative to the application of the Hoover Plan.¹³

Finally, I am not aware that the French representatives on the Experts Committee expressed the opinion that their Government would have no objection to the payments relative to mixed claims being continued. The Experts Committee referred the question to the Governments as soon as it was presented by the American representative. The French experts immediately reported to their Government which approved their position, namely, that they had no jurisdiction in the matter.

Under these conditions the French Government regrets it is unable to accede to the request presented to it. (signed) Berthelot.”

Marriner

10. See Great Britain, Cmd. 3343 (1929): Report of the Committee of Experts on Reparations.
11. Great Britain, Cmd. 3484, Miscellaneous No. 4 (1930): Agreements Concluded at the Hague Conference, January 1930.
12. See ibid., p. 134.
13. For text of this agreement, dated July 6, 1931, see vol. i, p. 162.