740.00119 Control (Japan)/10–146
Memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Division of Japanese Affairs (Borton) to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Vincent)
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On September 26 General Hilldring presented a note to the Soviet representative,10 the contents of which had been approved by the Secretary, in general as follows: [Page 571]
- (1)
- The United States welcomes Soviet agreement to participate in a special reparations conference to consider the broad question of reparations from Japan including the question of Japanese external assets.
- (2)
- The United States concurred in the proposals,11 points (3), (4) and (5), of the Soviet Union outlined above.
- (3)
- The United States could not endorse unreservedly the second Soviet point with reference to the exemption of Japanese assets in the southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles from the settlement but believed that exploratory discussions could advantageously be continued on this point.
- (4)
- The United States did not consider that it would be fair to other governments whose people had suffered from Japanese aggression to reach a reparations settlement which took no account of Japanese assets in Manchuria.
- (5)
- The United States Government is greatly concerned with the delay in reaching decisions which can lead to the removal of reparations equipment from Japan to the Allied countries, and consequently feels that it must, at the earliest possible date, press for action on the United States recommendation that the FEC call a reparations conference.
The United States further stated that if, within a reasonable period of time, the FEC finds itself unable to call a special conference to determine a Japanese reparations policy which will permit prompt initiation of shipments from Japan, the United States will take the initiative in calling, with the cooperation of whatever other governments now represented on the FEC wish to join with her, a reparations conference outside the framework of FEC to make Inter-Allied decisions which may serve as the basis for the execution of an equitable reparations program.
The Soviet representative, Admiral Ramishvili, requested a period of two weeks for his Government to consider the United States reply. General Hilldring informed him such a time would be given and that he would be informed by this Government a few days in advance of the date we would present our position to FEC in reference to a reparations conference.