740.00113 European War 1939/1205: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant ) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 15—7:10 a.m.]
8705. The Embassy wrote to the Foreign Office on November 3rd, following receipt of the Department’s 6889 November 2.92 A letter has been received from the Foreign Office which, after making suitable apologies for delay in replying regarding this matter, continues as follows:
“His Majesty’s Government recognize that it is desirable on grounds of general policy that speedy relief should be afforded to the victims of discriminatory measures imposed by the enemy. They doubt, however, whether the present case is an appropriate one in which to attempt to influence the decision of the French authorities as to the particular measures to be adopted since the compensation which the latter may decide to afford to the victims of such discrimination is a matter not of international obligation but of domestic law and policy. The locus standi of the British and United States Governments in this matter seems to be further weakened by the fact that it is agreed that the Inter-Allied Declaration of the 5th January 1943 concerning acts of dispossession committed by the enemy in occupied territory is not sufficiently relevant to the present question to be used as a basis of representation.
His Majesty’s Government are the more reluctant to intervene in this question as it appears to them that the attitude adopted by the United States Government would logically involve pressing each United Nations Government, on its return from exile, to make good [Page 299] without prior assurance of reparation by the enemy all losses due to discriminatory measures imposed by the latter. His Majesty’s Government would not wish to commit themselves to pressing this course upon Allied Governments and in the [apparent omission] they do not feel able to urge the French authorities to take any action at this stage which might tie their hands when the whole question of compensation is considered after the liberation of metropolitan France.
For the above reasons His Majesty’s Government while feeling that the matter is one for the French authorities to decide alone are inclined on general grounds to support a proposal which they understand to be favoured by those authorities and which corresponds to that in sub-paragraph 2a of your letter of the 3rd November, namely that temporary relief should be granted by way of loans to the victims of both discriminatory fines and war damage, the whole matter being subject to final post-war settlement in accordance with such measures as are eventually adopted in metropolitan France. In view of the interest taken by the United States Government in this matter His Majesty’s Embassy at Washington were instructed on the 3rd September last, to convey to them His Majesty’s Government’s approval of this proposal.”
The Embassy has been pressing the Foreign Office for this answer and regrets the delay.
Repeated to Algiers.