REPARATIONS: U. S. Share

A firm note was despatched from the British Foreign Office to the U. S. Government. The note was not published, but was said to contain objections to letting the U. S. share in the proceeds from the Experts’ Plan*.

The British contention seemingly was that, as the U. S. was not a signatory of the Versailles Treaty, she has no legal right to share in reparations paid by Germany. Even the fact that the Treaty of Berlin (the separate treaty of peace concluded by the U. S. and Germany) expressly reserves to the U. S. those rights which would have been hers had she signed the Versailles instrument in no way altered the circumstances, as it was pointed out that Washington had never .secured the consent of the Allies to the Berlin Treaty. The opinions of France, Belgium and Italy were that the U. S. had no legal claim but had a claim in equity. But Britain could not concede even that point. In Washington, Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes tugged his beard, sat down and wrote a firm rejoinder to the British objections. This note was not published either, but the Secretary of State was understood to have maintained the claim of the U. S. to share in the Experts’ Plan payments. According to The Times of London, however, a compromise was offered. The U. S. Government was understood to be willing to place ex-enemy sequestered property in “the common reparations pool.”

In British semi-official quarters, it was observed that the U. S., unlike the Allies, had never had its claims reviewed by the Reparations Commissions. The U. S. not having been a party to the Treaty of Versailles, it was naturally not possible to submit the claims of her citizens to that body. It was hoped, however, that the U. S. would consent to submit them.

From Austen Chamberlain, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, the next step was awaited.

*The claim of the U. S. against Germany for the cost of maintaining the Army of Occupation was exempted from the British objection.