C.P.(Gen)Doc.1.Q.12.
Article 23
Point 3.—After the words “such transfers resulted” insert the words “from the fact of the annexation, occupation or entry into the war of the United Nations”.
After the words “duress exerted” insert the words “or measures taken in virtue of internal legislation”.
Point 8a.—The Czechoslovak Delegation proposes to replace the first section from “United Nations nationals” to “Hungary” by a new paragraph running as follows:
“The term ‘United Nations nationals’ means both physical persons and corporations or associations organised under the laws of any of the United Nations who, at the time of the annexation, occupation or entry into the war of the said country possessed the nationality of this Allied country.”
Argument.
The first addition to point 3 is for Czechoslovakia a necessary result of the removals of property by force and the expulsion of tens of thousands of Czechoslovak subjects, principally Slovaks, from their property; these measures were carried out by the Hungarians immediately after the occupation for the simple reason that the persons concerned were Slovaks. This damage is not covered by point 3 in its original form.
The second addition to point 3 is considered necessary by Czechoslovakia because some of these illegal transfers of property after the occupation were not carried out by force in the strictly legal sense of the words but simply by unfair discrimination on the part of the Hungarian internal legislation under which Slovaks were deliberately deprived of everything on the simple ground of their nationality.
Czechoslovakia bases the amendment to point 8 on the ground that without an extension of the conception “national” as proposed the point would not cover compensation for transferred property of former [Page 733] Czechoslovak subjects of German nationality, whose legal successor is the Czehcoslovak state. The principle that this wider conception of “national” is needed for Czechoslovakia and other occupied countries was accepted by the representatives of 18 states at the Reparations Conference.