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

740.00119 Council/9–2045

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

London, September 20, 1945.
[Received September 20—9:30 a.m.]

9698. Delsec⁴⁷ 35. Following is text of letter from Sir David Waley to Dunn dated September 17 regarding Soviet proposal on German reparations:⁴⁸

“I enclose a note giving you our first reactions on the Soviet Government’s note about German reparations. These are only personal views on which we are consulting our colleagues in Berlin, and we have not as yet submitted them to our Ministers. But I thought that you might be interested to have them, as our first reactions, in a personal way.”

Text of note attached is as follows:

“1. We should agree to the Allied Commission on Reparation being transferred from Moscow to Berlin on the understanding that the function of the Commission will be to determine policies and principles whenever asked to do so by the Control Council, and to approve the determination made by the Control Council when it has been made. We should wish to make it clear that the determination of the character and amount would be made by the Control Council and that the percentage of industrial equipment to be removed from various industries will be dealt with in the first instance by the Economic Directorate and the committees which it has appointed, and that the Russians will cooperate fully in this work. In other words, we shall want to make it quite clear that the function of the Allied Commission is to settle principles and not to determine or take any part in determining the percentage of industrial equipment to be removed from various industries.

2. We shall refuse to agree to the proposed date of 1st December 1945⁴⁹ and insist on maintaining a period of 6 months laid down at Potsdam, which makes the date 5th [1st] February 1946. The Control Council will determine what equipment is available for removal and the Allied Commission will decide what part of this is to go to Russia and Poland.

3. We shall refuse the proposed date of 15th October;⁵⁰ the Potsdam protocol says ‘As soon as possible’, and we shall refuse to depart from this phrase. The Control Council will decide what industrial equipment is available for advance deliveries, presumably by selecting items from the Russian list and adding other items such as available machine tools. We feel that in advance of a general determination, the amount which can be decided to be available for advance deliveries should be very restricted indeed. We shall have to consult the other powers entitled to reparation as a preliminary to the Allied Commission settling which of the items available for advance deliveries are to go to Russia and Poland.

4. We shall support the view that mixed commissions of specialists cannot be sent to the Western Zones unless they are simultaneously sent to the Russian Zone with the same freedom of access as may be granted in the Western Zones.”⁵¹

The foregoing refers to my numbers 9582⁵² and 9269 [9629].⁵³

Winant

47. Designation for telegrams from the United States Delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers in London.
48. Reference is to a memorandum presented by the Soviet delegation at the Third Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, September 14, 11 a.m.; for text, see C.F.M. (45) 15, vol. ii, p. 158.
49. The date specified in the Soviet proposal of September 14 as that by which the character and amount of reparations to be sent from the Western Zones of Germany to the Soviet Union were to be determined.
50. The date by which, in the Soviet proposal of September 14, the Allied Control Council would be asked to approve lists of enterprises from which equipment could be delivered as advance reparations.
51. For text of a memorandum along the lines of this note submitted by the United Kingdom Delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers, September 22, see C.F.M. (45) 45, vol. ii, p. 325.
52. Not printed; this telegram contained a report from Secretary Byrnes on a private meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov at which the Secretary said that he did not wish to discuss German reparations at the current sessions of the Council of Foreign Ministers, but agreed that determination of equipment to be removed from the Western Zones for reparations purposes should be expedited (740.00119 Council/9–1845).
53. Dated September 18, not printed; it transmitted the text of the Soviet proposal of September 14 to the Council of Foreign Ministers. See C.F.M. (45) 15, vol. ii, p. 158.