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

740.00119 EW/8–645: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

Paris, August 6, 1945—6 p.m.
[Received 7:31 p.m.]

4731. 1. Following is translation of memorandum dated Aug 2 received from FonOff on subject of restitution of French property:

• 2. “General Koeltz, Chief of the French Military Mission for German Affairs,⁴⁸ received a letter from General Clay, his American colleague on the Control Commission, in which it was stated that the procedure proposed by the French Govt for the problem of immediate restitution was considered inopportune. The American general stated to Gen. Koeltz that instead of the Tripartite Commission contemplated by France, his subordinates would be glad to consider the question informally with French representatives.
• 3. The French Govt through its Ambassadors in Wash, and London has on several occasions already called the attention of the American and British Govts to the great interest which France attaches during the present period of reconstruction to the immediate recovery of French material and other looted French goods which are in grievously short supply in France. Because of the opposition shown by the Russian Delegation on the European Advisory Commission toward the creation of an international restitution commission the French Govt recently proposed to Washington and to London the adoption of a practical and expeditious procedure which would consist either in the establishment of direct contacts among the French, British and American representatives on the Control Commission or in the assignment of an official especially charged with recoveries who would be accredited to the British and American military missions within their respective zones. The replies which have come so far from Washington and London indicated that the competent authorities ‘are currently studying the French suggestion’.
• 4. In bringing the foregoing to the attention of the American Ambassador the Minister of Foreign Affairs has the honor to emphasize again the urgency involved in a favorable solution of this question of restitutions. The French Govt will not, in fact, accept in so far as it concerns France, the theses supported by the Soviet Govt (and repeated albeit with certain mitigations by the American and British communications referred to) according to which the problem of restitution would constitute merely an aspect of the vaster problem of reparations.
• 5. In practice such a conception which has no legal foundation will by the delays it will inevitably entail result in rendering almost impossible the identification and recovery of the stolen goods. Delays in this matter have been too long protracted in the opinion of the competent French authorities, authorities who have been met with objections all the more incomprehensible since they request in the last analysis only the opportunity to search out and bring back truly French goods in the zones occupied by Allied and friendly armies.
• 6. The French Govt believes it to be its duty to take this opportunity of drawing the American Embassy’s attention to the risk that is run of serious repercussions on French opinion in the long-run when delays and obstacles of all sorts are placed at this time by the Allies in the way of satisfying the Govt of the Republic’s most essential and legitimate requests. Information recently published by the American press on the reparations agreement, according to which the French portion was fixed without consultation with France at less than one per-cent of the real damage suffered by the country, has produced the effect of a scandal. The Embassy will easily understand that under these conditions France can less than ever afford to renounce the right to take back immediately while there is yet time all that belongs to her in the Allied Zones of occupation.
• 7. The Minister of Foreign Affairs would be grateful if the American Embassy would bring the attention of the American Govt to the matter set forth in the foregoing.”

[The final paragraph of this telegram consisted of references to previous documents (not printed) dealing with French proposals on reparation and restitution, as well as requests for captured German material.]

Caffery

48. Lt. Gen. Louis Koeltz was also Deputy Military Governor of the French Zone of Occupation in Germany and French member of the Co-ordinating Committee of the Allied Control Council for Germany.