Office of the Historian

740.00119 PW/4–2346: Telegram

The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Smith) to the Secretary of State

restricted
Moscow, April 23, 1946—6 p.m.
[Received 8:04 p.m.]

1306. ReEmbtel 737, March 9.6 In letter dated April 21, Vyshinski7 wrote as follows:

1.
In reply to Mr. Kennan’s letter of March 9 on the question of the establishment of an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission on Japan, I inform you that the Soviet Government is not opposed in principle to the establishment of such a commission.
2.
The Soviet Government for its part considers that all Japanese property subject to removal from Japan in accordance with the conditions of the Potsdam Declaration of July 25 [26], 1945,8 including arms, vessels, transports, industrial enterprises equipment, strategic raw materials, gold stores, precious metals, currency, securities, etc., should be included in reparations.
3.
Of Japanese property located on former Japanese territories or on territories occupied by Japan only that portion should not be included in reparations which enters into the category of war trophies.
4.
The Soviet Government agrees with the proposal of the Government of the USA that Japanese property on the territories of countries which were in a state of war with Japan but did not actively participate in the war as well as Japanese property on the territories of neutral countries should be subject to distribution by the Reparations Commission among appropriate Allied countries.
5.
As regards Japanese property located on the territory of Korea as well as other questions relating to the collection of reparations from Japan, the Soviet Government considers that these questions may be discussed by the Inter-Allied Reparations Commission on Japan.

Department please repeat to Tokyo for Political Adviser as Moscow’s 25.

Sent Department 1306, repeated Paris for Secy 103, Chungking 59.

Smith
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky, Soviet Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩
  3. Foreign Relations, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, vol. ii, p. 1474.↩