Office of the Historian

462.00 R 294/335: Telegram

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

Paris, May 14, 1924—noon.
[Received 12:24 p.m.]

261. [From Logan.]

1.
Supplementing my L–86, February 1. By an agreement signed March 28th, 1924, between the Bulgarian Government and the representatives of Great Britain, Italy and France, subject to ratification of all four Governments, it has been stipulated that the cost of the Armies of Occupation in, Bulgaria shall be fixed at an all inclusive sum of 25 million gold francs and that payment therefor shall be spread over a period of 10 years commencing on September 30, 1924, with a payment of 1,250,000 gold francs. The Bulgarian Government assigns the revenues of the customs to discharge of these costs.
2.
The agreement has been submitted to the Reparation Commission for its information by the inter-Allied commission at Sofia and the inter-Allied commission expresses the view that the agreement will satisfy the proviso of that part of [Reparation] Commission’s decision number 249366 which preserves the priority in favor of army costs upon the semiannual payments which are being made by Bulgaria in adjustment of her reparation obligations “unless and until claims of the creditor powers are otherwise provided for.”
3.
If the agreement is ratified, it seems almost certain that Bulgaria’s other payments will be wholly free for application to reparations and consequently, as hitherto outlined, this will involve a credit on Germany’s reparation account by reduction of C bonds. Finance Service of commission is now working on question of proper [Page 155] distribution amongst powers. Probable that some powers which were not signatories to or adherents of Army Costs Agreement will be allocated part of this money. Seems likely that United States can only claim participation in sums received by those countries who were signatories to or adherents of Costs Agreement.
4.
When the subject of distribution comes before commission, I shall take necessary action to carry out instructions of the Department in Department’s L–47, February 9th [7 th], concerning our claiming participation Bulgarian payments. Logan.

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Herrick
  1. Not printed.↩