462.11W892/1953: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Edge) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received September 4—9:18 a.m.]
562. Your 431, September 3, 6 p.m.17 I have this morning sent by hand to Prime Minister Laval the following note:
“After our conversation Wednesday afternoon I submitted to my Government the suggestion which you and Monsieur Flandin had worked out with respect to the arrangement for the continuation of the payments under the German-American Mixed Claims awards due private citizens of both countries. You will recall that during our talk, without any effort to pass upon the proposal from a legal standpoint, it was my opinion that such a plan would not prove practical. This morning I have received word from my Government that your suggestion is unsatisfactory to the American Treasury.
I am sure you share with me the feeling that unpleasant repercussions of this situation should be avoided and I am convinced that France does not wish to remain the only country in the world that fails to consider this transaction outside the year’s debt suspension or to prevent German economy from receiving the much needed balance of these payments.”
- Not printed.↩