740.00119 EW/2–2048

Resolution by the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency 1

The Assembly of the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency,

recalling

that in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration the reparation claims of countries entitled to reparation shall be met in part from the Western Zones of Germany and that removals of industrial capital equipment from the Western Zones of Germany shall be completed by the end of 1947;

recalling

that Part IV paragraph 4 sub-paragraph (a) of the Potsdam Declaration states that the USSR shall furnish an equivalent value of food, coal, potash, zinc, timber, Clay products, petroleum products and such other commodities as may be agreed upon in exchange for 15% of surplus German industrial capital equipment of the Western Zones;

recalling

that it was decided at the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Moscow during April 1947 that the final disposal of German war plants should be completed at the latest by June 1948;

recalling

that including war plants, only 249 plants or part plants have so far been made available to the Agency for distribution among its Member Governments as reparation;

recalling

that the allocation by the Agency of these plants to its Member Governments will be virtually completed by March 1948;

recalling

that although in October 1947 the Commanders-in-Chief of the United States and the United Kingdom Zones in Germany publicly announced that 682 plants in their Zones were not required for a self-sustaining German economy and would be available as reparation, and the Commander-in-Chief of the French Zone at the same time issued a provisional list of 176 plants in his Zone that would be made [Page 735] available as reparation, no information has been forthcoming as to when all these plants will be made available to this Agency for distribution;

noting

that such industrial capital equipment so far made available, despite the inadequacy of its amount, is making a substantial contribution to the rehabilitation of the economies of Member countries which suffered from German aggression, that experience has shown that such equipment when removed from Germany can quickly be established as a part of the productive equipment of these countries and that such equipment which is vital to the recovery of Europe can be secured, within a reasonable time and without the expenditure of dollars, only by the removal of surplus capital equipment in Germany;

resolves

to charge the President to bring the above facts to the attention of the Governments of the powers occupying Germany and to request the Governments concerned to state in the very near future when the Agency can expect (1) further allocation of surplus German industrial capital equipment for distribution among its members and (2) further reciprocal deliveries from the USSR in exchange for the industrial capital equipment which it has already received from the Western Zones of Germany.

  1. The source text and a brief covering note from Jacques Rueff, President of the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency, dated February 20, 1948, were transmitted to the Department as enclosures to despatch 294, February 20, 1948, from the United States Delegation to the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency at Brussels. The despatch explained that copies of this resolution, which was adopted by the IARA on February 18 by a vote of 18 to 0 (the United States abstained), were also being transmitted to the British, French, and Soviet Governments.