462.00R294/682: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Schurman) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 26—10:47 a.m.]
201. [Paraphrase.] Following is translation of Foreign Office aide-mémoire received yesterday: [End paraphrase.]
“The German Government is of the opinion that, through the exchange of views up to the present and the aide-mémoire of the American Ambassador of October 24, 1929,63 the basis for entering upon material negotiations regarding a German-American debt agreement has been created. It has noted with satisfaction that the American Government will hand to the German Government a written draft of the agreement and that an American expert will shortly arrive in Berlin for the purpose of further discussion of the matter in question. The German Government is prepared to take up these negotiations immediately. Ministerial Direktor Ritter of the Foreign Office has been commissioned to conduct the negotiations. In these negotiations the German Government would again discuss the question dealt with in paragraph 2 of the aide-mémoire of October 24 regarding the extent to which some regulations corresponding to the Young Plan are to be made the subject of the agreement itself or of a subsequent supplementary German-American accord.
The German Government emphasizes particularly the urgency of the matter. A consequence of the conclusion of the German-American agreement is that the American annuities must be taken out of the Young Plan. As the Committee of Jurists which was appointed [Page 1086] by The Hague Conference64 and [by whom the question will also be taken up] will probably meet about November 10, it would be most desirable if a German-American accord could be reached by that date.
In view of the fact that, contrary to the wish of the two Governments, the German-American negotiations have already been made public, the German Government deems it necessary to acquaint the other creditor Governments, without delay, with the fact of the negotiations. The German Government attaches particular importance to having this done by the German and the American Governments jointly and suggests for this reason that their respective Ministers in Brussels be instructed immediately by telegraph to notify M. Jaspar,65 president of The Hague Conference, accordingly. The German Government will instruct its Minister in Brussels to get into touch with his American colleague prior to this step. The various interested Governments themselves could then be advised when an accord has been reached regarding the text of the agreement.”