462.11L5232/766: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Germany (Dodd)
134. Your 307, October 20, 4 p.m.88 No individual has been authorized to make any statements of any character to the German Government in behalf of this Government regarding the sabotage claims or the Munich agreement in respect thereto. Any intimation that this Government has endeavored or is endeavoring to block a settlement of these claims is false. This Government has at no time expressed any opinion as to the official status of the German representative who signed the agreement or as to the obligatory effect of the agreement on the German Government. It is hardly to be supposed that any weight should be given to statements by a private individual representing private interests as to the attitude of this Government when its attitude could be ascertained through official channels overnight.
You have full authority to bring the foregoing to the attention of the German Government since we are anxious that our attitude should not be misunderstood.
We have no communication from the German Government. If and when it is prepared to go forward with the Munich agreement, the action to be taken thereon will be completely and exclusively within the jurisdiction and for the decision of the Mixed Claims Commission. For these reasons the Department has scrupulously refrained from commenting upon the agreement. Our attitude with respect to early settlement of the sabotage claims remains unchanged. We assume that you can readily ascertain from the German Government its attitude with respect to submission of the agreement to the Commission.
- Not printed.↩