362.113/2020
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
The German Chargé d’Affaires called to see me this morning by instruction of his Government.
Dr. Thomsen reminded me of a conversation which I had had with Ambassador Dieckhoff shortly before the latter’s departure45 in which I had taken up with the Ambassador in considerable detail the question of the manner in which American citizens residing in Germany were not receiving treatment equal to that received by German citizens residing in the United States. Among the matters taken up by me in that conversation was the way in which American citizens because of German exchange restrictions were unable to receive in full legacies from the estates of persons deceased in Germany.
[Page 480]Dr. Thomsen handed me an aide-mémoire,46 which reads as follows:
“In reply to your communication to Ambassador Dieckhoff47 concerning the treatment of inheritance claims of American citizens to the estates of persons deceased in Germany, I am in a position to state that all inheritance credits of this kind, reciprocity provided, will be transferred to the beneficiaries in full extent.”
I stated to the German Chargé d’Affaires that I assumed and gathered from the text of the communication he had given me that the assurances so provided related to all American citizens without distinction. The Chargé d’Affaires replied that my understanding was correct.
The Chargé d’Affaires concluded the interview by stating that he believed Ambassador Dieckhoff’s conversations in Germany would be useful. He stated that he believed his Government was beginning to understand that the Government of the United States would not agree to any discrimination between American citizens in Germany. He stated that he thought it was useful for this Government to continue “to affirm that position”.
I thanked the Chargé d’Affaires for the communication he had made to me and for the interest which Ambassador Dieckhoff and he had taken in this question. I said I hoped the assurances given would prove to be the forerunners of other more general assurances to the effect that the rights of all American citizens in Germany without distinction would be scrupulously observed.
- There has been found in the Department files only one memorandum of a conversation between Mr. Welles and the German Ambassador just prior to the latter’s departure from the United States. See memorandum of November 1, p. 446.↩
- Dated December 16, 1938.↩
- No such communication has been found in the Department files. This may have been an oral representation.↩