740.00119 Control (Germany)/1–3146

The Secretary of War ( Patterson ) to the Secretary of State

Dear Mr. Secretary: Reference is made to letter from your Department dated January 12, 1946, to the Acting Secretary of War relative to the repatriation of German officials, agents, and obnoxious Germans from Neutral Countries pursuant to the Resolution of the Allied Control Council for Germany of September 10, 1945.

I am advised that at a conference of State and War Department representatives, under the chairmanship of Mr. Clattenburg of the State Department, held on January 22, 1946, to discuss the problems outlined in your letter, it was agreed that the repatriation would be greatly facilitated if the State Department were to undertake responsibility for the repatriation movement, and the War Department were to instruct the Office of Military Government for Germany (US) to endeavor to secure Control Council authorization for the reception of the repatriates in Germany. I should be glad to receive your confirmation of the foregoing arrangement.

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I understand that the State Department is to approach the War Shipping Administration for the necessary shipping space and to defray the cost of shipping by use of German diplomatic funds presently available to the Allied diplomatic missions in the neutral countries. The War Department is informing the Commanding General, Office of Military Government for Germany (US)46 of the State Department’s proposed plan for repatriating these Germans from the neutral countries. In addition, the Commanding General, Office of Military Government for Germany (US) is being requested to secure Control Council authorization for the reception of these Germans in Germany and to forward this authorization together with any information or other details which the Control Council would require incidental to this repatriation. When this necessary authorization and other information has been received by the War Department from the Office of Military Government for Germany (US), it will be forwarded to the State Department.

Sincerely yours,

Robert P. Patterson
  1. Lt. Gen. Lucius D. Clay.