Dispatch 10/46 (extracts) BERLIN, 13 December 1946
RESTRICTED
REPARATIONS
The arrangements made by the four Powers to implement the agreement made at Potsdam concerning German reparations were set out in A.M.M. report No.3 of 7th February (part G). As was explained there reparations allocations are made by the Allied Control Council (as between the U.S.S.R. on the one hand and the Western Allies on the other), and by the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency, which was established at the Reparations Conference held in Paris in November and December 1945 to distribute the reparations among the fifteen Western Allies according to proportions laid down at that Conference.
2. Of the first schedule of plants brought before the Allied Control Council the following had been allocated up to 30th November 1946: From the British Zone, 49 1/4 to the Western Nations and 8 3/4 to the U.S.S.R.; from the French Zone, 14 to the Western Nations and one to the U.S.S.R.; from the U.S. Zone, 55 1/2 to the Western Nations and 17 1/2 to the U.S.S.R.
3. The valuations and percentages of allocations made to the Western Nations are as follows:-
Allocation Value in R.M. % Albania 361,230 1.1 Australia 1,836,599 5.4 Belgium 246,303 .7 Denmark 120,139 .4 France 8,217,902 24.3 United Kingdom 2,445,522 7.2 Greece 2,402,727 7.1 India 1,853,900 5.5 Norway 209,673 .6 Netherlands 2,739,755 8.1 Czechoslovakia 5,747,388 17.0 Yugoslavia 7,634,798 22.6 4. The above allocations represent only a small part of the schedule of plants so far submitted to the Allied Control Council.
No allocations have yet been made of the balance although a number have been approved for valuation, and this is at present going forward.
5. January 1ST 1947 was originally set down as the date by which complete lists of all the plants to be available for reparations were to be submitted to the Allied Control Council, but the investigation and recording of these plants is still by no means complete. There is, therefore, no prospect of this date being adhered to.
6. Some confusion seems to have been caused by the American zonal authorities’ announcement that they were discontinuing the dismantling of reparations plant in their zone until further agreement on the economic organisation of Germany had been achieved by the Four Occupying Powers. It was also reported that the British authorities were in sympathy with this decision.
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Additional Reparations Allocations 14. In addition to the above categories the British Government has decided to make available from the British zone plant and equipment to the value of 50,000,000 R.Ms., to be distributed between the U.S.S.R. and the I.A.R.A. countries on the basis of 25% to the former and the remainder divided among the latter according to the proportions to which they are entitled under the general reparations scheme. This is a unilateral decision on the part of the British authorities and is designed to fill the gap caused by the delay in allocations of plants being made by the Allied Control Council. The deliveries made under this scheme will of course be taken into account as part of the total amount of reparations that will be required from the British zone.
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T. W. WHITE Brigadier Chief, Australian Military Mission
MALCOLM BOOKER for Political Adviser Australian Military Mission
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[AA:A4231/2 AUSTRALIAN MILITARY MISSION DISPATCHES BERLIN 1946 1-11]