Office of the Historian

462.00 R 294/155: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Herrick) to the Secretary of State

Paris, March 29, 1923—noon.
[Received 5:25 p.m.]

156. W–15. Allies submitted modifications to their proposed agreement which I report as follows to give you complete text under consideration.

  • Section 3, next to last paragraph, after words “such modifications” insert “of the present article which may seem necessary to insure the complete execution of the payments within the prescribed period of 12 years, and in such a way that the loss suffered by the American Government on account of the fact that no interest is credited to its account does not exceed what it would have been if the payment of the balance remaining due at the end of 1926 was effected in 8 equal yearly installments beginning in 1927.”
  • Section 4, paragraph 1, “the Allied Governments will deliver to the American Government on account of the payments for the expenses of the American army of occupation, and in the amount of the sums still due under this heading, 20 percent of the amount affected to reparations from the total of the loans floated in the United States or from the share of an international loan subscribed in the United States.”
  • Section 4, after last paragraph, insert “if as a consequence of a loan floated either in America or elsewhere a moratorium was granted to Germany, the Allied Governments would put themselves into communication with the American Government for the purpose of reaching an agreement which would not cause any prejudice to the American Government.”
  • Section 6 should read as follows:

    “In case the American Government should arrange in agreement with the Reparation Commission for the furnishing of certain deliveries in kind to be made by Germany, the American Government would take the necessary measures so that the value of these deliveries should be deducted from the payment to be made to the Government of the United States in the course of the year, when the deliveries have been effected.

    In case the Government of the United States should establish a reparation recovery act or any similar measures, the proceeds resulting therefrom would likewise be deducted from the payment to be made to the Government of the United States in the course of the year in which these proceeds were collected.

    If in the course of a determined year the value of the deliveries in kind furnished to America by virtue of the present paragraph or the proceeds of the American reparation recovery act, or both together, exceeds the yearly installment due to the American Government, the excess shall be considered as an anticipatory payment of the yearly installments fixed as stated in paragraph 3 of the present agreement, account being taken of the clause affecting the payments due for the years 1923 to 1926 inclusive.

    No discount shall be charged for such anticipatory payments.”

  • Wadsworth
  • [Herrick]