462.11L5232/880
Memorandum by the Legal Adviser (Hackworth)
Mr. Moore48 and Mr. Hackworth discussed with the German Ambassador49 (who called at the request of Mr. Moore) and Dr. Paulig, the German Agent before the Mixed Claims Commission, the matter of the sabotage claims. Mr. Moore opened the conversation by referring to the recent agreement reached between the sabotage claimants and the awardholders50 under which the latter are to withdraw their opposition to the carrying out of the Munich settlement. He pointed out that the American Agent and his counsel had gone to Germany at the suggestion of German officials and that they had negotiated the agreement which has since been the subject of discussion before the Commission and otherwise; that the Commission had been in operation since 1922 and for the past several years had been prevented from closing its work because of the pendency of these claims; that the awardholders who had objected to the Munich settlement were now ready to withdraw their objection and apparently the only obstacle to having the Munich settlement receive favorable consideration by the Commission is the lack of approval of that settlement by the German Government. He expressed the hope that that approval might be given and the claims now pending before the Commission might be closed. He pointed out that of course the matter would have to be handled independently of any other questions that might be pending between the two Governments.
The Ambassador stated that he knew about the arrangement between the sabotage claimants and the awardholders; that he wanted [Page 354] to preface his remarks by a brief statement of the background, which was to the effect that the claims situation actually had its origin with the Treaty of Peace; that it had been composed of a German Commissioner, an American Commissioner, and a Presiding Commissioner who had all along been an American national; that his Government felt it had been very fair in the whole claims situation, particularly in having the Commission composed of two Americans and one German. He thought that the claims work should have been closed in March 1930, prior to which time there had been a decision against the sabotage claimants, and that the prolongation of the life of the Commission for the past seven years has resulted from the petition of the sabotage claimants for a new hearing; he thought that the weakness of the contentions of the sabotage claimants was reflected in their efforts to effect a compromise settlement; that if they were certain of their ground they would not be interested in making a compromise settlement. He also stated, with the concurrence of Dr. Paulig, that in February and March Dr. Paulig had suggested that the two opposing groups should endeavor to arrive at a satisfactory arrangement, but that since nothing had come of that within a reasonable time the German Government had decided that the cases should proceed before the Commission in the regular way and thereupon the German Ambassador sent to the Department the note of April 5, 1937. Dr. Paulig stated that the Commission was to meet on June 14 to resume consideration of the cases, and that on that date steps would be taken to have certain witnesses appear before the Commission. The Ambassador remarked that the German Foreign Office expected Mr. Bonynge and Mr. Martin to come to Berlin for a discussion of the claims but that they did not see fit to do so. He thought that any compromise settlement of the sabotage claims would be interpreted as an admission on the part of Germany of guilt regardless of the phraseology employed. Finally he stated that while he could not speak for his Government he felt that there would be no chance of giving effect to the Munich settlement unless it were upon a definite understanding that the payments made from the present fund in the German special deposit account would terminate Germany’s liability toward the claimants.
As to the failure of the American Agent to go to Berlin, Mr. Hackworth explained that this was due to no decision on the part of the Agent or his counsel but rather to the fact that the German negotiators had suggested that they should have their discussions in Munich in order to avoid possible publicity that might attend such a meeting in Berlin. The Ambassador stated that they were not making any special point of that. He thought that there should be a definite decision on the question whether Germany’s liability to the claimants [Page 355] would cease with the payments from the funds now in a special deposit account before the matter is taken up with his Government. He thought that this would be an indispensable condition to further consideration of a compromise settlement.
Mr. Moore stated that this would be discussed with the American Agent and the counsel for the claimants and that he would inform him of the results.
- R. Walton Moore, Counselor of the Department of State.↩
- Hans Heinrich Dieckhoff.↩
- Agreement of May 19, 1937; in this agreement the sabotage claimants agreed to set aside from awards entered in their favor by the Commission a certain part to be used for benefit of awardholders. In return the awardholders were to withdraw all opposition to any further proceedings the sabotage claimants might take in prosecution of their claim.↩