Office of the Historian

740.00119 EW/8–3145

The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Secretary of State

Berlin, August 31, 1945—1 p.m.
[Received 2:11 p.m.]

411. My 408, August 30, 9 p.m.9 and 409, August 30, 10 p.m. The Control Council approved and signed on August 30 the following letter to the Allied Reparations Commission:

1. The Control Council has been given the responsibility, under the terms of the Tripartite Agreement of Berlin, to determine the amount and character of the industrial capital equipment unnecessary for the German peace economy and therefore available for reparations, under policies fixed by the Allied Commission on Reparations, with the participation of France, subject to the final approval of the zone commander concerned.

2. The Tripartite Agreement stated in paragraph 11 of the economic principles “productive capacity not needed for permitted production shall be removed in accordance with the reparations plan recommended by the Allied Commission on Reparations and approved by the Governments concerned or if not removed shall be destroyed.”

3. It also stated in section IV under Reparations from Germany “In accordance with the Crimea decision that Germany be compelled to compensate to the greatest possible extent for the loss and suffering that she has caused to the United Nations and for which the German people cannot escape responsibility, the following agreement on reparations was reached”: (the agreement then follows10):

4. Referring to the above, the Control Council therefore would appreciate receiving from the Allied Commission on Reparations any policies in relation to reparations which the Commission has fixed in addition to the agreements on reparations reached at the Tripartite Conference, since the Council is proceeding with the determination referred to in the first paragraph, and to receive from [Page 1275] time to time hereafter any additional reparations policies fixed by the Commission.

(Signed by the American, British and Soviet members.11)

Under the reservations made with regard to the Potsdam Agreement to which the French Government were not a party, the French Commander-in-Chief is in agreement with the basis of the above letter and associates himself with his colleagues.

(Signed by the French member.12)

Please inform Ambassador Pauley.

Sent to Department as 411, repeated to Moscow as 38.

Murphy
  1. Ante, p. 833.↩
  2. Conference of Berlin (Potsdam.), vol. ii, p. 1505.↩
  3. The copy of this letter in Department files is not signed. At the fourth meeting of the Allied Control Council General Eisenhower presided and Marshal Zhukov represented the Soviet Union; Field Marshal Montgomery was absent due to illness, however, and his place was taken by General Sir Brian Robertson; see telegram 408, August 30, 9 p.m., from Berlin, p. 833.↩
  4. General Koeltz represented France at this meeting in the absence of General Koenig.↩