862.60/3–2546: Telegram
The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Secretary of State
restricted
Berlin, March 25, 1946—10
p.m.
[Received March 27—4:50 p.m.]
[Received March 27—4:50 p.m.]
873. Ref W–80934 AGWar signed WarCAD and CC–1763.72 The following comments have been prepared by members of my staff.
The record of the last 8 months indicates:
- 1.
- Regarding advance deliveries, the American Zone, on October 18, was the first to present in addition to the original specific request made by the Soviets, a list of plants available.73 The US sponsored the program for a rapid appraisal of such plants in order to obtain valuations to speed progress toward allocations. As the result of this action, the first allocation of plants was made possible in November. The US has participated actively in preparing instructions for dismantling and packing plants. On the other hand, the Soviet has delayed sending delegates to inspect the plants and continues to delay in terms of specifying destination of the plants. In many cases, packing depends on type of transportation to be used—especially whether rail or water—and thus American efforts to crate and ship many of the plants has been further postponed.
- 2.
- With respect to the failure to meet the 6 months’ period requirement, American representatives submitted a plan for the level of German industry in September and a revised plan in January,74 whereas the first comparable Soviet plan was not available until early February. From September, the US participated actively in the quadripartite Level of Industry Committee, presented the first paper on valuation of plants, and conducted a survey of existing plant capacity in its own zone in October—considerably before such action was taken in the Soviet Zone. American delegates have pushed activity in the Level of Industry Committee as well as in the determination of industries to be eliminated or restricted to domestic production. American delegates participated in the establishment of mixed commissions to determine plant capacity. Recent progress in the level of industry work was, to considerable extent, the result of the determined efforts of the American delegate at the Coordinating Committee in forcing through an agreement on level of steel production. Initially, the Soviets delayed one month in appointing their representative on the Level of Industry Committee and no meetings could be held until September 18. During October and early November, [Page 533] when the American representatives were attempting to obtain action on the level of industry work, Soviet delegates often failed to attend meetings, proposed changes in procedure which resulted in delays, failed to reveal productive capacity to remain in the Soviet Zone, and refused permission of US representatives to enter Soviet Zone in this connection, despite almost unlimited permission for Soviet representatives to inspect plants in the American Zone. Soviet representatives refused to expedite advance deliveries by opposing the proposal that such advance deliveries be based upon highest level of industry figure presented to the Committee. In addition, a considerable part of the lengthy debates on specific industries found the Soviet representative opposing figures on which the other occupying powers were able to reach agreement. Only after considerable delays and substantial compromises has it been possible to obtain unanimous agreements.
- 3.
- Thus, quite clearly, the record indicates constant pressure from the American delegation for effective action on both the advance deliveries and the 6-months’ deadline. Serious delays were caused by failure to make progress in the fall of 1945. The Soviet delegation bear an important share of the failure to meet the January 2 deadline.
Murphy