Chapter XXII: Part 6

Wiesbaden No. 29 17.9.40 2010 Secret
Teletype
Foreign Berlin
Secret

Del. No. 120.

In your teletype No. 171 of 12 September, concerning occupation expenses, it is stated in number 2 that it is the wish of the Reich Finance Ministry to inform the French delegation explicitly “that the installments did not constitute a settlement by a lump sum, but that they would have to be adapted to the actual necessities arising from the current war situation and the current requirements of the occupation troops”. I hesitate considerably, to communicate this request to the French delegation for the following two reasons:

In my notes of 8 August 1940--Del. W. 280 of 15 August 1940--Del. W. 331--and of 20 August 1940--Del. W. 408, the idea of installments has always been expressed clearly. The idea of a settlement by a lump sum has never been discussed with the French. The French delegation has therefore no reason, up to now, to assume that the installments constituted a settlement by a lump sum. The instruction requested by the Reich Finance Ministry would, on the contrary, only arouse the idea of a settlement by a lump sum in the minds of the French, which I consider as disastrous.

General von Stuelpnagel informed me more officially, that numerous German Divisions have been transferred to the East from France. This fact cannot remain unknown to the French permanently. He draw my attention to that fact because he thought that this decrease of the armed forces in France would certainly influence the amount of the occupation expenses.

The transmission of the communication to the French delegation at present in the wording “as necessitated by the current war situation and the current requirements of the occupation troops” as desired by the Reich Finance Ministry, contains the further danger, that the French delegation would claim a reduction of the installments because of the decrease in the number of troops.

I ask you for your decision.

Signed: HEMMEN

2015 NR 29 Received BO AUSW AMT (Foreign Office) Berlin.

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