Office of the Historian

840.4016/10–2545

The French Embassy to the Department of State

[Translation]62

Aide-Mémoire

The French Government has been requested by the Prague Government to allow the immigration of 500,000 Sudetenland Germans (men, women, and children), former nationals of the Czechoslovak Republic, into the French zone of occupation in Germany.

The French Government considers it essential, before replying to the Czechoslovak request, for the four great Powers to establish a joint policy in this regard.

Such a policy might, it appears, be guided by the following principles:

1.
The Sudetenland immigrants who would be authorized to enter each zone should be numerically limited to fixed quotas for each zone, taking into account available housing, food, and employment. It would be the responsibility of the Control Council to determine these quotas, which might be established for fixed periods spaced at intervals. If the conditions attending the absorption of the first quota proved satisfactory, the admission of the ensuing quotas might be authorized at the proper time.
2.
The Sudetenland immigrants admitted to each zone would constitute a labor pool from which each of the governments concerned would be authorized to draw on the basis of its individual needs, after thorough investigation of the technical qualifications of the immigrants, their health, political conduct, etc. . . . . It seems difficult to authorize the employment in France of free German labor concurrently with that of prisoners. The possibility of admitting Sudetenland Germans from the French zone to France therefore does not appear feasible until some later date.
3.
The arrival of Sudetenland Germans in the French zone of occupation, whose resources are limited, threatens to increase imports, [Page 1300] which will have to be made from other parts of Germany or from abroad, principally the United States. In as much as these last are payable in dollars, the French Government, whose available dollar assets are limited, could not undertake to pay for this additional category of imports.
In these circumstances, the expenditures necessitated by the East-West shift and maintenance of the Sudetenland immigrants in Germany should be assumed by an international organization possessed of sufficient resources. Although assistance from UNRRA should, in principle, be given only to members of the United Nations, it appears that this organization, which has very extensive resources at its disposal, might, jointly with the Intergovernmental Refugee Committee, defray the costs in question.
4.
By reason of the service that the United States, France, the USSR, and Great Britain would render Czechoslovakia in agreeing to place Sudetenland Germans in their occupation zones and possibly in their national territory, it would be advisable to obtain in return from the Prague government its agreement:
(a)
To keep the persons concerned in its territory for the time being, pending their placement in Germany, and to take no action in the matter without the consent of the four Powers administering the former Reich;
(b)
Not to cause the return of Czechoslovaks living abroad to their country of origin except by agreement with the governments of the countries in which they are presently residing and in accordance with procedures to be formulated, taking into due consideration the freedom of choice of the persons concerned and transportation facilities.
5.
The shift of the Sudetenland peoples is but one aspect of the general problem of population shifts in Europe, which is of vital importance to the political and demographic future of this continent. The question is therefore eminently within the competence of the four principal Allied Powers.

The Embassy of France would be happy to learn the views of the American authorities in this matter.

Washington, October 25, 1945.
  1. Translation supplied by the editors.↩