840.48 Refugees/11–547
The Under Secretary of the Army ( Draper ) to the Under Secretary of State ( Lovett )
Dear Mr. Lovett: We have given careful consideration to your letter of September 121 with reference to the Danish request that 15,000 additional Germans from Denmark be received by the U.S. Zone.
I have discussed this matter with the Theater Commander2 who advises me that the U.S. Zone is unable to accept additional refugees. It was on this basis that the additional expellees from Czechoslovakia were refused admittance since conditions of both housing and food are such that for humane considerations no other decision could be reached. This decision could not be justified if an exception were now made in favor of Denmark. General Clay also advises me that Mr. Byrnes, when Secretary of State, personally assured him that if the 12,000 in question at that time were accepted by the U.S. Zone, the State Department would not ask that any more be taken. General Clay’s recollection is that Denmark was advised at that time that it would be understood that the 12,000 in question represented the maximum that could be accepted by the U.S. Zone.
One of the considerations at the time the decision to accept the 12,000 Germans from Denmark was made was the desire for U.S. military base rights in Greenland. However, these rights have not been obtained, and there is no assurance, as I understand it, that they would be obtained by acceptance of the 15,000 additional Germans now in question. If definite assurance [were given?] that the base rights would actually be obtained as a result of favorable action on this request, we would be prepared to reconsider the whole question.
The Theater Commander advises me that the American Zone, under the various quadripartite agreements concerned with the acceptance of German refugees and expellees, has already received more than its [Page 684] proportionate share and more in numbers than any other zone. In view of the present deficit in the U.S. Zone which is being made up by American appropriated funds, acceptance of the Danish request would simply mean that the present costs of supporting these people, which is now being borne by Denmark, would be shifted to our shoulders. Actually, it is indigenous Danish food which they now receive; if they were transferred to the U.S. Zone, they would have to be fed by imported food which we would pay for.
The letter3 which you enclosed from the Danish Chargé d’Affaires points out that these refugees should no longer be separated from their relatives in Germany. This is, of course, true, but the American Zone has already received all who originally came from that zone so that acceptance of these people would not return them to their families or homes. Under the quadripartite agreement the Russian and British Zones were to receive the residents of the Polish-administered area which formerly was part of Germany. It is my understanding that the German refugees now in Denmark came from this area and the obligation to receive them would therefore rest on those zones. Certainly, as you say in your letter, there is no contractual or other obligation on the U.S. Zone of Germany to receive them.
General Clay informs me that the German authorities in the U.S. Zone were advised at the time arrangements were made for receiving the 12,000 refugees from Denmark that they would not be asked to accept more than that number, and it is obvious what the effects would be if this understanding were now disregarded in view of the present economic conditions in the Zone, particularly with respect to housing and food. We must take into account the effect of any such action on our democratic objectives in Germany.
Therefore, I regret that the Department of the Army cannot concur in complying with the Danish request.
Since writing the above, your letter of November 14 on the same subject has been received, and I have, therefore, taken the occasion to discuss this matter thoroughly with the Secretary of the Army.5 He has asked me to advise you that he fully agrees with the contents of this letter.
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩
- Gen. Lucius D. Clay, United States Commander in Chief, Europe, and Military Governor for Germany.↩
- Under reference here is a note dated July 28, 1947, from the Danish Chargé, not printed, setting forth Denmark’s urgent desire to be rid of the German refugees brought into Denmark shortly before the German surrender (840.48 Refugees/7–2847).↩
- Not printed.↩
- Kenneth C. Royall.↩