London Embassy Files: 800 Germany: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Douglas) to the United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy), at Berlin
u.s. urgent
644. For Murphy from Douglas. Re your 923 to London, December 10.1 It was Hoffman’s view and mine, concurred in by [Page 849] Humphrey and Saltzman, that the Military Governors should proceed promptly to reach an agreement in regard to prohibited industries, and that any plants in this prohibited category, if they are not destroyed, should be placed on the reparations list and should not be subject to review by the Humphrey Committee.
It was our further view that, as regards restricted industries, all plant capacity in excess of the amount necessary to produce up to the permissible limit be placed on the reparations list without further review by the Humphrey Committee.
Plants in both of the above two categories are essentially, if not exclusively, matters of military security and should therefore be the subject of negotiations by the Military Governors without review by the Humphrey Committee.
If, however, there should be deletions of industries from any present prohibited or limited and restricted list, and plants in these categories should be placed on the reparations list, then such plants should be subject to review by the Humphrey Committee. Any such plants or industries would, by reason of the fact that they have been stricken from a prohibited or restricted list, no longer, in the judgment of the Military Governors, be matters of military security. They would, therefore, be related exclusively to European recovery.
Obviously, steel is at least one exception to para 2(b) of Embtel 5157, December 9 [8], but in respect of steel, the present survey of the Humphrey Committee and the report which it makes should cover the plants in this category.
If you have any further questions as to the intent of para 2, and particularly para 2(c), please let me know.