C.F.M. Files: Lot M–88: Box 2084: Germany
Memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Division of Northern European Affairs ( Morgan ) to the Acting Secretary of State
In connection with the proposed visit of the Netherlands Ambassador on November 5 to present you with a note concerning Netherlands territorial claims against Germany,20 the Department has recently received pertinent telegrams from The Hague and Brussels.
Our Embassy at The Hague has been informed by Dutch Foreign Office officials that the notes simultaneously delivered to the US, UK, USSR and France will outline Dutch economic desiderata and frontier rectifications and that the Foreign Office considers the economic desiderata far more important than frontier rectifications. As regards the territorial demands, our Embassy was informed that they involve between 600 and 700 square miles inhabited by 100,000 people. The principal indentations into Germany are at Bentheim, Kleve and near Aachen.
Our Embassy at Brussels reports that the Belgian Foreign Office is not overly sympathetic toward the Dutch claims because of the substantial number of Germans which would thereby be incorporated in the Dutch population and because the area sought near Aachen would cut across Belgian communications with the Cologne area.
Although in the past the Department has understood that territorial demands would be made by the Dutch on Germany, the note being presented by the Netherlands Ambassador tomorrow is the first [Page 993] formal communication to specify those claims. Naturally, the Department will give careful study to the Dutch proposals.