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

462.00R/8–2845

The Secretary of State to the Australian Minister (Eggleston)⁹⁹

Washington, August 28, 1945.

Sir: With a view to implementing the reparations provisions of the Berlin Protocol of August 1, 1945, the Government of the United States in conjunction with the British Government and the Provisional Government of the Republic of France, is today extending to your Government an invitation to submit its claim to reparation from Germany. This invitation takes the form of a memorandum by the Allied Commission on Reparations, with annexes, a copy of which is herewith enclosed. An additional copy of this invitation is being transmitted to your Government by the Missions of the inviting Powers accredited to it.

Accept [etc.]

James F. Byrnes

[Enclosure]

Allied Commission on Reparation Draft Memorandum to Various United Nations

1. On August 1, 1945, the heads of government of the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics signed a Protocol on German Reparations, a copy of which is enclosed.¹ Particular attention is called to Paragraph 3 of the Protocol which reads as follows:—

“The reparations claims of the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries entitled to reparations shall be met from the Western Zones and from appropriate German external assets.”

2. The Provisional Government of France and the Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America, being the three powers with zones of occupation in Western Germany, invite the Government of Australia to supply by October 1, 1945, data relating to the reparation claim of the Government of Australia against Germany and the value of pre-war German assets situated in its territory. Suggestions as to the nature of the data to be included and the form in which they are to be presented are set forth in the Annexes A and B to this memorandum.

3. The data under reference may be supplied through regular diplomatic channels. It is suggested that 2 copies of the data requested be supplied to the diplomatic representatives of France, U.K. and U.S. respectively.

4. It is contemplated that a conference will be arranged for the conclusion of a general agreement on the allocation of reparation deliveries from the Western Zones of Germany among the countries entitled thereto.

[Subenclosure 1]

Annex A

Suggestions With Regard to Presentation of Data Concerning Separation Claims

Without prejudice to the factors which will be taken into consideration for the determination of reparation claims, the data submitted by each nation should be such as to reflect losses of and damage to property and persons as well as the contribution of each country towards organising the victory and its war burdens. For the sake of uniformity, damage and loss should as far as practicable be stated in quantitative units and in 1938 replacement values, expressed both in terms of the monetary unit of the claimant country and in terms of 1938 U.S. dollars. So far as possible data should be reported on an annual basis.

In all cases the data should relate to the war against the European Axis Powers and exclude those relating to the war against Japan.

I.

Damage to and loss of property other than military equipment and installations (in the strict sense of the term) in the course of hostilities against Germany, including damage and loss resulting from scorched earth policies; in so far as they are not included in the figures given under Paragraph IV below.

1. Industry and Commerce (including mining and power): Structures; installations; equipment; stocks of raw materials and goods and goods in process.

2. Ocean Shipping and Coastwise Shipping

3. Harbor and Port Works and Installation

4. Railway and Inland Water Transport, Civil Aeronautic and Automotive Transport: Structures; installations; equipment.

5. Roads and Highways: including Bridges.

6. Agriculture: Productive structures; equipment; livestock, grain stocks, damage to arable lands and forests. (Indicate how long each area damaged, mined or flooded, has been or will remain nonproductive)

7. Public Institutions and Municipal Enterprises.

8. Household Articles and Personal Effects.

9. Gold, silver coins and bars, national banknotes, foreign currency, securities, jewelry and valuables, works of art, or works of historical, scientific, educational and religious interest.

10. Houses and buildings not otherwise included. (Give as many details of the nature and extent of the damage as possible.)

11. Other Material Damage and Loss not included in the foregoing categories.

II.

Budgetary expenditures allocatable to the war against Germany exclusive of those reported in I above or IV and V below.

III.

1. Man-years allocatable to the war effort against Germany.

2. Man-years lost to the national economy by the deportation of labor to Germany and forced labor at the order of Germany on national territory.

3. Loss of life or health and injuries sustained by civil and military victims of the war and occupation.

IV.

Costs of German occupation (exclusive of items, reported in II above or V below):

1. Forced payments and extensions of credit to the German State or to German agencies such as (a) the Reichskreditkassen² and (b) the Deutsche Verrechnungskasse.³

2. Other costs (specify).

V.

All other claims of a governmental or private nature against Germany arising out of or during the war with Germany.

VI.

Any other statistical data which the claimant Government desires to put forward for consideration.

(For each category of property, lost or damaged, there should be indicated, for information, not only the quantity and value of each category of properties lost or damaged, but also the total amount existing before the war for the purpose of furnishing a basis for a comparison between the various countries of the damage sustained in relation to their resources.)

[Subenclosure 2]

Annex B

Suggestions With Regard to Presentation of Data Concerning German Assets or Holdings Abroad in the Country Concerned Immediately Before the Date of the Entry of That Country Into the War or its Occupation by the Enemy

The following information^* is desired:

I. List of firms in which Germans have interest.

1. Total value of assets locally owned by such firms.

2. Total value of foreign holdings of such firms.

3. Total value of German interest in such firms.

This list should classify these firms as follows: Industrial, banks, insurance, finance or holding companies, merchandising establishments, retail or wholesale, transport companies, travel and other service establishments.

II. German Bank Balances, Securities Holdings, etc.

A. Bank balances.

1. Of German State, in clearings, or official funds of any sort.

2. Of German State-controlled institutions or companies.

3. Of German nationals (or on behalf of same).

B. Securities accounts, safe deposits held in name of or on behalf of Germans.

C. Gold on deposit, other types of holdings.

III.4 Patents, Trade-marks, Copyrights (Give such details as are possible with respect to ownership of such industrial property, licensing arrangements, royalty arrangements or agreements, actual users of such property rights, and relation to foreign patents, trade-marks or copyrights)

IV. Real Estate Holdings, Participation in Trusts and Estates, Holdings of Works of Art.

(List total values in each category of property)

V. Merchandise held for German account

VI. Other assets

VII. Pre-war claims against and debts due from and to Germany and Germans.

Notes:

1. The word “German” as used above means any person of whatever nationality who has lived in Germany during the course of the war and whose property is regarded as enemy property, as well as any German national resident anywhere whose property is so regarded. Please state whether in applying this definition, Germany is deemed to include Austria.

2. In connection with this questionnaire, please also give a brief summary of the status of German property and of the local governmental controls exercised over it. Please list German property under the control of an enemy property custodian or similar official (whether vested, sequestered, etc.), property already liquidated (with statement of proceeds), properties being operated under governmental control, balances or other types of liquid assets which are blocked or frozen, and other information which would be of value in forming a clear picture of the amount and status of German properties or interests therein.

99. The same, mutatis mutandis, on the same date to the diplomatic representatives of the Governments of Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Eypt, Greece, India, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Union of South Africa, and Yugoslavia.
1. The enclosure consisted of section IV of the Report on the Tripartite Conference of Berlin, issued on August 2. For text Conference of Berlin (Potsdam), vol. ii, p. 1505; for the corresponding portion of the Protocol, signed August 1, see ibid., p. 1485.
2. Reich credit institutions established in occupied territories; affiliated with the Reichsbank.
3. German Clearing Institute, the central office for handling the accounts of export-import transactions with occupied territories in conjunction with clearing institutes established in the various occupied areas.
4. If full information is not available by October 1, please supply such information as is available by that date and the rest later. [Footnote in the original.]
4. The subsequent portions of Annex B were inadvertently omitted from these notes, as well as from their texts as transmitted in Department’s circular telegram of August 27, 10 a.m., to the diplomatic missions in the respective countries. According to telegram 1105, August 31, 7 p.m., from Brussels, the identic notes from the British and French Governments presumably contained the full text (462.00 R/8–3145). The remaining portion of Annex B, as here printed, was sent out by the Department in a circular telegram dated September 18, with instructions that the omitted material be presented unless the Government in question already had the complete text (740.00119 EW/9–1845).