023.1/9–1454
No. 843
Proposal by the Soviet
Delegation
P. (Terminal) 46.
Removal of Allied Industrial Equipment Especially in Roumania
Memorandum by the Soviet Delegation
In its memorandum of the 24th July (P. (Terminal) 40)1 the British Delegation once more raises the question of the legitimacy of the removal by the Soviet Command from Roumania of oil equipment by way of war booty.
The Soviet Government has repeatedly explained its point of view on this question and referred to definite facts proving that the oil equipment under discussion, consisting mainly of pipes, is German military equipment and war booty for the Red Army.2
It should be recalled that beginning as long ago as the summer of 1940, the British Oil Companies and enterprises in Roumania were seized by the Germans and used by them up to the 23rd August, 1944, for supplying the German Army with oil products. In aide-mémoires [Page 746] from the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the U. S. S. R.3 dated the 30th November, 1944, and the 4th January, 1945, full details were already quoted to confirm the above statement nor [not] leaving any doubt that the Allied Control Commission in Roumania had in this matter acted in full accord with Article 7 of the Agreement on the Armistice with Roumania and with Article 2 [B] of the Protocol [Annex] to this Agreement. There is, therefore, at the present time, no need to expound the Soviet point of view on this question.
As to the suggestion contained in the British Memorandum of the 24th July to instruct a committee, consisting of three persons who are citizens of Allied countries, to investigate the problem as to whether these pipes were British or German property, the Soviet Delegation considers the reference of this problem to a joint examination by Soviet representatives and British representatives in respect of oil equipment and pipes removed from the territory of the enterprises with the participation of British capital to be more useful. The Soviet representatives, together with the British representatives, could examine the facts and documents which could be presented to the British party.