C.F.M. Files:
Lot M–88: Box 2079: CFM Documents
The President of the Inter-Allied Reparations
Agency (Rueff) to the Secretary General of
the Council of Foreign Ministers (Kelchner)8
New
York, December 13, 1946.
Mr. Secretary General: Referring to the
conversation which we had this morning and to the decision reached during
yesterday’s meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, I have the honor to
transmit to you herewith:
- 1.
- —A copy of a letter of which I addressed in October, in my
capacity as President of the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency, to the
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the United States of America, of
France, of the United Kingdom and of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics;
- 2.
- —A copy of the Resolution for which the letter in question was to
serve as a covering letter.
Please accept [etc.]
[Enclosure 1]
Copy of a Letter From the President of the
Inter-Allied Reparations Agency (Rueff) to the
Members of the Council of Foreign
Ministers
[Paris,] October 8, 1946.
Mr. Minister: In behalf of the Assembly of the
Inter-Allied Reparations Agency, I have the honor to transmit to you the
enclosed Resolution.
The Assembly has instructed me to request you to be good enough to place
this Resolution on the Agenda of the next meeting of the Council of
Foreign Ministers.
I am sending an identical letter to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of
the Government of. . . . .
Please accept, etc.
[Page 1563]
[Enclosure 2]
Resolution
The Assembly of the Interallied
Reparations,
Refers to the objectives assigned to it by the
Paris Agreement of January 14, 1946:
Deeply Regrets the slowness with which German
industrial equipment is being made available for distribution among the
Member Governments of the Agency and is of the opinion that the
situation resulting therefrom is incompatible with the reparations
policy as defined in the Yalta Communiqué and the Potsdam Declaration of
August 2, 1945;
Notes that the value of the industrial
equipment assigned to Reparations exactly corresponds to the speed with
which the equipment can be disassembled, removed and incorporated in the
economy of the receiving countries;
Notes that the Potsdam Declaration emphasized
the urgent character of the transfer of industrial equipment, (a) by providing that the transfer in question was
to be effected as soon as possible and, (b) by
stipulating in a special clause that it was to begin as an advance
against Reparations until such time as the total amount of the equipment
to be levied in Germany has been determined;
Notes that, fourteen months after the Potsdam
Declaration, an insignificant number of factories has been declared
available for distribution among the Member Governments of the Agency
and that the Agency has received no official explanation of the reasons
for the delays which have occurred nor any information as to the outlook
for the future allocation of industrial equipment;
Therefore Is of the Opinion that the
regrettable situation described above should be called to the attention
of the Council of Foreign Ministers as soon as possible with a view to
its prompt correction, and
Therefore Decides to instruct its President
- (i)
- to invite the Delegates of the United States, of France and of the
United Kingdom, in their capacity as representatives of the
Governments of the three Occupying Powers which signed the Paris
Agreement of January 14, 1946, as well as the Ambassador of the
U.S.S.R. in Belgium, to submit without delay the present Resolution
to the attention of their respective Governments and to inform them
that the Assembly is desirous of having the question placed as soon
as possible on the Agenda of the Council of Foreign
Ministers;
- (ii)
- to inform the President of the Allied Control Council in Berlin of
the action taken by the Assembly.
