Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, European Advisory Commission, Austria, Germany, Volume III

740.00119 EAC/1–2645: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, January 26, 1945—9 p.m.
[Received 11:04 p.m.]

948. Comea 161. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Bech has addressed letters to the members of the European Advisory Commission concerning the devastation and pillage inflicted by the Germans in the December invasion of his country.⁴¹ The memorandum points out that the German-created ruin has grievously impaired the recuperative powers of Luxembourg. In view of the experience of countries which claimed reparation after the last war, the Luxembourg Government reserves in principle the right of the Luxembourg people to indemnity by the eventual concession to Luxembourg, whether provisional or permanent, of adjoining Prussian territory.

Winant

41. Reference is to the counteroffensive by the German Army against the Allied Armies in the Ardennes region in Luxembourg and southern Belgium during December 1944