Editorial Note
On December 18, 1947 the House of Representatives adopted House Resolution 365 of the Eightieth Congress. The Resolution, which was forwarded to the Department of State on December 19, requested the [Page 718] Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense to transmit to the House of Representatives at the earliest practicable moment certain information, specified in eleven questions set out in the text of the Resolution, regarding the removal of industrial plants from Germany by way of reparation. Under cover of a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, dated January 24, 1948, Under Secretary of State Lovett transmitted a paper setting forth the information requested by the Resolution. The paper included both the eleven questions contained in the Resolution and the Department’s answers thereto. Accompanying the Department’s paper were the following attachments: (1) a list of plants declared available for reparation from the American and British zones of occupation of Germany, prepared by the Department of Commerce and dated January 12, 1948; (2) a list of plants available for reparation from the French zone of occupation of Germany; (3) a table defining the character and capacity of non-war plants already removed from the American zone of occupation as of January 1, 1948; (4) a table defining the character and capacity of non-war plants scheduled for removal from the American zone of occupation as of January 1, 1948; (5) the text of the Revised Level of Industry Plan of the American-British zones of occupation of Germany, August 29, 1947; (6) a statement by General Clay regarding the dismantling program. The text of Under Secretary Lovett’s letter of January 24, the paper setting forth the information requested in House Resolution 365, and the six attachments thereto are included in the files under 740.00119 EW/1–2448. The Under Secretary’s letter and attached paper are printed in the Department of State Bulletin, February 8, 1948, page 185, and in Germany 1947–1949, page 413.
On February 4, 1948 Secretary of State Marshall addressed to Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a letter concerning the status of the German reparation and dismantlement program. Enclosed with the Secretary’s letter was a memorandum prepared in the Department of State and dated February 2, 1948, entitled “German Reparation Program”, summarizing certain information previously made available to Congress on the subject of reparation and dismantlement and adding a number of additional points in support of the program which might not have been adequately brought to the attention of Congress. Copies of the Secretary’s letter and enclosed Department memorandum were also sent to the Chairmen of the Appropriations Committee of the Senate and the Foreign Affairs and Appropriations Committees of the House of Representatives. For the texts of the letter and enclosed memorandum, see Department of State Bulletin, February 22, 1948, page 238, and Germany 1947–1949, page 374.