462.11 W 892/2321½
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Carr)
The German Ambassador called by appointment this morning to express the views of his Government upon the subject of the German Mixed [Page 500] Claims Commission. The Legal Adviser was with me during the interview. The Ambassador said he was instructed by his Government to say:
- (1)
- The German Government can not participate in any manner in the taking of testimony or in the rehearing by the Commission of the so called sabotage cases. It takes the position that those cases were disposed of by the decision of the Commission in December, 1932 and that to reopen them would be contrary to the agreement under which the Commission is set up, and a proceeding in which the German Government will not participate. He went into some detail to point out that for the German Government to yield upon this point would be to pave the way for the reopening and rehearing of other decisions and that instead of the work of the Commission being brought to an end, as the German Government greatly desired, it would be continued indefinitely.
- (2)
- The German Government requests that the Agent of the United States should withdraw his application for a rehearing of the sabotage cases and bring to an end the proceedings in regard to them.
- (3)
- If the petition for a rehearing of the sabotage cases should be withdrawn and the work of the Commission brought to a close by October, the German Government will agree to the entering of awards in the nine or twelve cases covered by the tentative settlements made between the two agents. These cases comprise the group amounting to approximately $1,000,000. The Ambassador made it clear, however, that he was authorized by his Government to make this proposal only on the condition that it is taken advantage of by October.
We inquired of the Ambassador what the attitude of the German Government is upon the question of the so-called late claims and he said his Government regards these claims as part of the whole claims problem and that, pending the winding up of the affairs of the Claims Commission, his Government would not be prepared to make any arrangement for the disposition of the so-called late claims. He gave us to understand, however, that it was his personal opinion that if the work of the Commission were brought to a close, his Government would not be wholly averse to making some arrangement for the disposition of the late claims. He was very particular to emphasize that this would not be done until the work of the Commission had been wound up.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .