I shall not go into the details of these actions. I shall mention the campaign of recuperation of metals. The printing campaign, the lead campaign, the copper campaign. According to the information *---* given by the Belgian Government, Document 146, page sixtyfive of the report.
According to the information given by the Belgian Government in other realms, but without admitting it, the Germans pursued a policy intended to eliminate or to restrict Belgian competition, so that in case of a German victory the Belgians under consideration would have had to limit themselves to the Belgian market, which would then have remained wide open to German business. This attempt at suppression of competition was manifested notably in certain sectors of the founds industry, in the textile industries, the workshops of machine construction, secret factories, and construction of railroads, narrow-gauge railroads, the leather industry, and especially the shoe-manufacturing industry, in which the system of destroyed factories was systematically forbidden. But in addition, in the textile industry, as well as in numerous sectors, especially in metal manufacturing, the economic weakening cannot be measured only by the size of the obligatory furnishings, but as in relation to the policy practiced by the occupant. very considerable losses as a result of directives imposed in view of financing at a better figure the war needs.
I shall pass over the question of prices of coal. The control of the coal industry was assured by the establishment of an administrative chief in matters of coal, and by centralization of all sales outlets into the hands of a single organ, a single seller under Belgian direction but provided with a German commissar. This is the Belgian office or bureau of coal, a wholesale seller in the place of a sole purchaser, Rheinisches Westphaelische Kohlensyndikat, which gave orders for deliveries to be made to the Reich from Alsace-Lorraine to Luxembourg. According to the same German report, in spite of the rise in the price of coals agreed to on the 20th of August 1940, 1st January 1941, and 1st January 1943, the coal industry showed in the course of the occupation years considerable losses. price of coal, the price per ton was higher than that of the German interior market. The German commissar of mining industry forced the Belgian industry to pay the difference on the exchange for exportation to the Reich by means of compensating premiums.
The financial losses are indicated by the figures indicated in Documents 176 and 178. The report of the Military Administrati* gives in its eleventh part details of the metal industry, which suffered as greatly as had the coal industry under the occupation; the Thomas plant especially. The losses come about from the increase in the cost price as in numerous drops in the price granted to certain elements that enter into the manufacturing, and the obligation to export at higher prices. the losses under this heading may be evaluated at three billion Belgian francs. Still according to the same report, out of a total production of 1,400,000 tons, 1,300,000 tons of various products were exported to Germany without including the metal delivered to the Belgian factories working exclusively for Germany. Another aspect of this, according to information furnished by the Belgian Government, the Germans removed on the whole and transported to Germany material of very great value. The total of the industrial spoliation is estimated by the Belgian Government to a sum of two billion Belgian francs at the 1940 rate. These removals constitute a real loss of substance, and according to the fragmentary indications given to the Tribunal this figure of two billion francs is the figure which I ask the Tribunal to make note of. extent of the levies made in industry. It is even more difficult to evaluate in the agricultural sector, of which I shall make a brief development. Page seventy-one. authorities made an effort to obtain a supplement of food levies in Belgium intended to supplant the feeding of the Reich and other territories occupied by the German authorities. After having utilized direct methods of levy, the Germans had recourse to the service of unscrupulous intermediaries in charge of purchasing at any price on the secret markets. The black market in this domain took on such extension that the occupying authorities became concerned and on several occasions, particularly in the course of 1943, had to intervene.
to the woods and forests, which occupy an important place in Belgium. The damage resulting from abnormal cutting in the forests brought about an excess in deforestation reaching a figure of 2,000,000 tons. The injury to capital caused by these premature cuttings can be evaluated at one hundred Belgian francs per ton. The military operations, properly speaking, caused damage to an extent of one hundred million Belgian francs. According to the memorandum of the Belgian Government, the total of the damage caused in the forest realm reaches a figure of 475 million Belgian francs. Taking account of the damage for abnormal cutting in the forest and for the establishment of airfields, the Belgian Government estimates at approximately one billion Belgian francs the losses undergone by all agriculture during the occupation. It must be noted in this domain that these are net losses in capital, constituting a real exhaustion of substance of inevitable reduction and a consumption or an eating up of the nation patrimony. the question of transport. The conduct of war led the Germans to utilize to the fullest the railroad network and the canal and river system of Belgium. The result was that the railroads and river fleet are included in the sectors of Belgian economy which suffered most from the occupation and the hostilities which took place on Belgian soil. operations, and a traffic of merchandise, -- coal, minerals, woods, food products, without forgetting the considerable quantities of construction material demanded by the fortification of the coast of the North Sea.
Railroads. The report of the Belgian Government brings out that the damage undergone by the railroads is expressed at once by losses in capital and by losses in revenue. Losses in capital first of all concerning principally requisitions and removals to which the Germans proceeded in a wholesale fashion on the moment of their entry into Belgium. Thus in particular they immediately made drains on the stock of locomotives on the pretext of recuperating German locomotives given to Belgium after the war of 1914-1918 on the pretext of recuperation.
In addition to seizures of locomotives, the National Society of Railroads became the subject of numerous requisitions of material, sometimes under the form of rental.
Those requisitions are estimated at four and a half billion Belgian francs of the value of 1940.
Now we come to losses in revenue. Revenue losses come principally from the free transportation service demanded by the Wehrmacht. They likewise are due to the policy of prices imposed by the occupying power. These levies of these exceptional costs could be borne by the interested societies only by making large drains on the treasury.
Regarding automobiles, I shall say almost nothing. The losses amount to about three billion Belgain francs, out of which individuals have been reimbursed only to the extent of about one billion.
We come now to river transport. The carrying out of the plan of economic spoliation of Belgium presented the occupying power with grave transportation problems, which I have already called attention to. In this domain the military administration imposed upon the Belgian boat industry very heavy charges. According to the report of the Belgian Government, the losses undergone by the Belgian River Fleets presents itself under three aspects: requisitions and removals by the Germans; partial or total damage through acts of war, abnormal deterioration of material. These three kinds of losses reach a figure of half a billion francs, of which only one hundred million are represented in the clearing exchange. to two billion francs for the figure of 1940, notably by reason of requisitions and removals of public or private port material. Fishing boats were requisitioned or disappeared without leaving any trace. Others were damaged or underwent losses through requisitions or renting contracts or military maneuvers. to mention briefly the question of removal of industrial material, (page 82). professional reorganization of the military administration had as its result, the closing of very numerous enterprises, making it possible for the Germans, as a result, to seize a great number of machines under the pretext that they had become unnecessary.
There are no industrial branches which were not despoiled in this way, The metal industry seems to be one of those that suffered most.
it seems particularly opportune to briefly draw its attention to the very technique which was used in the organization of levies, whose details were decided upon even before the entry of the German troops into the territories of Western Europe; an organization that put into play, put into use military formations; an organization emanating from the Economic Bureau of the General Staff of the Army, particularly of the defendant Keitel, Chief of the OKW. pillaging detachments, is proved by various German documents. Under the name of Economic Detachments, "Wirtschaftstruppen", or Special Commandos, these pillaging crews carried out wicked and illegal activities in all the countries of Western Europe. The secret instructions for the Economic Detachment J, stationed at Anvers are found in the file under Number 183. They constitute a very important document, an irrefutable document of the intentions of the Germans to permit pillaging and they prove, too, the contempt of the National Socialist leaders for the rules of international law. These instructions are dated in the last days of May, 1940. I should like to read a few fragments of these instructions to the Tribunal (Document 183, page 1).
"The economic detachments are set up by the Economic Arrangement Office of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. They are placed at the disposal of the High Command of the Army to exercise their activity in the countries to be occupied."
"Their mission. is to detect rapidly and completely, in their sector, the products most necessary to the war, lacking products or products in limited quantity, raw materials, products that have been worked on, mineral oils, as well as materials most useful to the war production for the different aims and needs of national defense and to note exactly their quantities.
"For machines their requisitions will be carried out by the marking of all goods lacking or limited and will be assured by marking and surveillance by guards.
"The economic detachments have, moreover, the mission of preparing the evacuation of goods lacking limited quantity, mineral oils as well as the most important machines and to execute this order of theArmed Forces, these missions are the exclusive responsibility of the economic detachments.
"The economic detachments must begin their activity in the newly occupied territories as soon as the' battle situation allows."
Machines and raw materials were thus found and identified. New organisms entered into play for their removal and setting up in Germany. on the setting up of the personnel elements of Deplacement J in Anvers. The eight officers are all reserve officers, engineers, wholesale dealers, directors of mines, importers of raw materials, engineering consultants. Their names and their professions are mentioned in the document. These men are, therefore, all specialists in commerce and industry. The choice of these technicians cannot be attributed to mere chance. instructions found under date of May 10, 1940, coming from General Hannecke, Document 184, once the machines or the stocks have been identified, the offices are given their work, the R.O.G.E.S. on one hand, and the Office of Compensation of Machines, which I called attention to in regard to the economic pillage of Holland and Belgium. that the very composition of the economic detachments emanates from the High Command. Quoting from page 6:
"The economic detachments, to which reference is made in paragraph one, are composed by the combination of specialists chosen from industrial fields. Specialists found in occupied territories would seek for and assure the conversion of stocks of raw materials which are important at the present time and of special machines for the manufacture of munitions and of war materials."
THE PRESIDENT: Is that quotation set out in your dossier?
M. DELPECH: The quotation is on page 84, viz.
THE PRESIDENT: Would this be a convenient time to take off?
(Whereupon at 1120 hours a recess was taken until 1130 hours) of the Tribunal, for the removal of machinery and the re-distribution, either to factories working in the country in behalf of Germany or factories in Germany, the direction of the operations was insured by the Bureau of Machine Compensation.
Such bureaux were created in all the occupied territories of Western Europe in the last months of the year 1942, upon the order of the Minister for Armaments, upon the order of the defendant Speer and the Department of the Four Year Plan, especially upon the order of the defendant Goering. created upon the decision of the Executive Chief of the Economic Section in Brussels under date of February 18, 1943. Its activity has already been pointed out to the Tribunal in relation to the despoiling of industries working on non-ferrous metals. Its activity did not stop there. It is found in all branches of industry. Document 185 can give you the figures on each activity. This activity continued the very last days of the occupation. The levies of machinery and industries was not limited to industry. Documents under Nos. 183 and 184 show the extent of the levies, and I shall conclude with the levies of industrial material. billetting and transport. imposed the expenses of the billetting of their troops upon Belgium. Having done this, the occupation authorities justified themselves by a rather liberal interpretation of Article 52 of the Hague Convention, according to the provisions of which the occupying power may require levies in kind and in services. The report is contained in Document 186. Article 49 gives the right of requiring the occupying country to defray the expenses. Belgium had to endure expenses as great as 5,900,000,000 francs for billetting expenses, equipment, supplies of furniture. The payments Belgian treasury relative to the billetting of troops is estimated in the report of the Belgian General Military Service at 5,423,000,000 francs. It is evident that under the pretext of billetting expenses, other expenses were entered to the detrimer of the Belgian economy, notably - as in other occupied countries -- the purchase of furniture which was to be sent to Germany.
Secondly, Transportation and Communication. To insure transportation, the Belgian treasury had to advance a total sum of 8,000,000,000 francs and, as already pointed out to the Tribunal, the seizure by the occupation authorities even extended to the river craft, and the plan for transportation of occupation troops which needed rail transport. According to the Hague Convention, Article 53, the occupying army has the right to seize the means of transportation provided that they give them back and that they pay indemnities. The army does not possess the right to force the occupied country to pay for the means of transportation at its disposal.
Third Point, Labour. The deportation of labour to Germany and compulsory labour in Germany has already been presented to the Tribunal. It seems then unnecessary to stress this point. At the most, we should recall certain unfavorable results -- unfavorable to the Belgian economy. The measures concerning the deportation of labor have occasioned a disorganization and an economic impoverishment without precedent. Secondly, the departure of workers and especially specialists insufficiently replaced by unskilled people -women and adolescents -- brought about a diminution of production. At the same time an increase in cost price which contributed to increase the problem of the financial equilibrium of industrial enterprises. Third remark: the levy of labor was the cause of political and social discontent by reason of the dispersion of families and inequities which appeared in the requisition of workers. Fourth and last remark; the workers were required to furnish levies in domains which were not necessarily their own, with a consequent loss of professional aptitudes. Personnel were divided and reclassified. The closing of the small workshops brought more or less evident modifications in the structure of certain branches of production. The loss thus occasioned is not that which is measured in monetary terms and need not be submitted to your jurisdiction. page 93. From 1940 on according to their general policy in all the occupied countries of Western Europe, the Germans were concerned with acquiring investments in Belgian financial enterprises in foreign countries.
The official German point of view emerges clearly from a letter dated July 29, 1941. It is a letter from the Minister of Finance to the Military Commander in Belgium. I shall submit it under No.187, in the Document Book. the motives admitted by the Hague Convention, in the matter of the right of acquisition. Always showing clearly the will of the Germans to enrich themselves, from May 1940, the Germans sought to exert influence over Belgian holding companies. Not being able to directly oppose the international laws, particularly Article 46 of the Hague Convention, they strove to put pressure on the members of the executive boards through persuasion rather than by force. In the course of the conference, which was held May 3, 1940, at the Ministry of Reich Economy, relating to the parts of Belgian and Dutch capital which it would be possible to acquire, it was decided that the Military Commander in Belgium would take all necessary measures to prevent on the one hand the destruction, the transfer, the sale and the illegal holding of all bonds and stocks of these countries, but on the other hand, to incite Belgian capitalists to hand over their foreign securities. The report of this conference is found in the Document Book under No.187. To prevent any capital from thus escaping, an order of June 17, 1940, was promulgated, controlling any exportation of securities without authorization and any acquisition or disposal of foreign securities. From August 2, 1940, the German leaders and the defendant Goering himself took a definite stand on this point. In the course of the general remarks on economic plundering of the occupied countries of Western Europe I have read to you secret directives issued by the defendant Goering, under the No. 105 in the Document Book, page 97.
Despite the desire of the. occupying power to have some appearance of legality, the German desire to absorb certain investments met with serious resistance. The occupation authorities several times had to use force to conclude sales, rights which they had reserved unto themselves in the previously cited decree of August 27, 1945. This is notably the case in the investments held by the Belgian Metallurgical Trust and the electrical industries of Eastern Silesia, and it is still clearer in the stock shares of the Metallurgical Society of Austria, which had been dissolved by the Hermann Goering Werke.
pillage, showed itself more clearly. In his report December 1, 1942, Document 191, the German Kommissar to the National Bank denounces very clearly this will on the part of the German industry to resist. The balance of clearing capital credited in Belgium's favor for the sum of 1.054 millions of German frances, August 31, 1944, represents a forced borrowing imposed upon Belgium without any juridical or logical relation to occupation expenses, except the will of the German Hegemony.
Such a practice, contrary to the principles of international law and to the rules of the, penal laws of civilized nations, falls under Article 6B of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and constitutes an act of pillage of public or private property such as envisaged in the text of the Charter. legality, there must be pointed out to the Tribunal, the levies made by the German authorities on foreign property, enemy property, and on property held by Jews. In relation to foreign property seized by the Germans, it must be cited that this regulation was applied to French capital in Belgium despite numerous protests by the French Government. In relation to Jewish property, for the years 1943 and 1944, the figures are presented in Document No. 192, and I am going to include them in discussing the economic stripping of Belgium, page 100. The damages caused to the Belgian economy in its principal sectors have largely been submitted to the Tribunal. A part of the statistical data was taken either from German reports or from official reports furnished by the Belgian Government. The evaluations and figures available are not always sufficiently exact to measure exactly the cost of the war, of the occupation and of the economic stripping of Belgium. Certain losses and certain damages can be expressed only in monetary damages. Resulting from the German domination over a great part of food supplies resulting from the special circumstance of billeting and of clothing. This purely material aspect of the question should not lead us to forget the results of the occupation upon public health. For lack of statistical data, it is difficult to be very exact in the final circumstance of the particular situation of public health. One fact, however, must be remembered. recourse to the food service for patients. This number exceeded 2,000 a month in 1941, but went from 2,000 a month in 1941 to 20,000 a month in 1944 - an increase of ten-fold, despite a regulation which became more and more severe in the control of rations.
This increase in the food assistance given to ill persons should merit the attention of the Tribunal, for more than its statistical elements, because it is an indication of the increase of illness in Belgium. This increase is itself the result of the undernourishment of the population during the four years of the occupation. This deplorable state of affairs, however, had not escaped the attention of the occupation authorities, as is clear from the letter already cited of the Military Commander in Belgium, which is found in the Document Book under No. 187. insure either the absolute minimum for existence of the civilian population or the minimum of food for workers who work solely for the needs of the German war economy. This undernourishment of the Belgian population was the inescapable result and the most serious result of the huge levies made by the occupation authorities who willfully failed to recognize the elementary needs of the occupied country to carry out the exclusive Reich war interest. The lowering of the standard of public health and the increase in mortality in Belgium from 1940 to 1945 may then be rightfully considered as the direct result of the spoliations committed by the Germans in Belgium despite all aspects of international law.
I have concluded with the presentation on Belgium. I would like to cake a few brief remarks on the economic pillaging of Luxembourg. present to the Tribunal some information or exact information on the economic pillaging of Luxembourg. accusations which have been lodged with the Tribunal in No. UK-77, and in which an extract covering the role of crimes against property, the economic part -- figures, in the Document Book under the figure One. The Germans shortly after their advance into the Grand Duchy proceeded to annex it in fact. This attitude, which was quite similar to that which they adopted as far as the inhabitants of the Moselle, Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin were concerned, merits a few observations.
of the money of Luxembourg at the rate of ten Luxembourg francs for one mark which was the purpose of the ordinance of August 26, 1945, ordinance found in the Document Book under No. 195. This parity, which does not correspond to the respective purchasing power of the two currencies, constituted a considerable levy on the fortune of the nationals and especially insured the Germans an absolute seizure of monetary specie. reserves of raw materials and manufactured products of the country. The acquisitions were settled in depreciated marks and upon the basis of frozen prices imposed by the Germans. introduced as the only legal money. By the ordinance submitted under Number 196, the Luxembourg francs and the notes from the Reichskreditcasse and even Belgian franks, considered up to a point as money of the French-Luxembourg Monetary Union, became a foreign currency, dating from February 5, 1941. among all the countries occupied by Germany, Luxembourg is, with Alsace and with Lorraine, the only country which was totally deprived of its national money. for the prosecution of the war, the ordinance of August 27, 1940 - Document 197 -- prescribes the forced handing over of gold and foreign currencies. The same regulation prescribed, moreover, that shares and foreign bonds were to be submitted for sale to the Reichsbank at rates and under conditions fixed by the occupying power. stocks. In this respect, the report dated May 21, 1940 on the economic situation in Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg informs one concerning the stocks found in the country: 1,600,000 tons of iron ore; 125,000 tons of manganese ore; 10,000 tons of iron; 10,000 tons of Ferro-manganese; 36,000 tons of laminated products and finished products.
The German seizure extended these stocks in the direction of industrial production. the Luxembourg Government, Document 197, the total sum of damages of an economic nature amounts to 5, 884,000,000 Luxembourg francs. This document is in 1938.
This figure may be broken down as follows: Industry and commerce, 1,904,000,000; railroads, 207,000,000; roads and highways, 100,000,000; agriculture, 1,673,000,000; damage to property in general, 1,999,000,000. 33 per cent of the national fortune of Luxembourg, which was estimated before the war to amount to about 5,000,000,000 of Luxembourg francs. exceeded 6,000,000,000 of Luxembourg francs. and the total sum of forced investments in Germany, 4,800,000,000 Luxembourg francs, as well as a supplementary charge imposed upon those who had to contribute to the Grand Duchy resulting from the introduction of the German fiscal system. benefits that we find in the alleged voluntary gifts of every kind imposed upon Luxembourg. In imitation of what was done in other countries, the ordinance of February 21, 1941, Document Number 199 of the document book concerning Luxembourg, prescribes th at German managers may be appointed in great industrial enterprises, in the steel plants particularly -- and this is the text of the ordinance -- which refused to "militate in favor of Germanism under any circumstances." Their mission was to insure for the Reich, within the scope of the Four Year Plan, the high direction, the high management and control of their exploitation in the exclusive interest of the German war effort. of Enemy Fortunes appointed to the greatest metallurgical group in Luxembourg, Burbach, Eich, Dudelange, three German commissioners who assured a total seisure for the society.
Other great societies who did not escape are found under Document No. 10. insurance domain was complete. With the exception of three Swiss companies and a German company, all activity was forbidden the Luxembourg companies, whose assets were transferred to German insurance companies, in official fashion for the nati onal companies and in secret fashion for the foreign companies. fire insurance balance was concerned by the introduction of forced insurance for fire hazards, for which the monopoly was given to German companies. seized and confiscated all the properties of Jews in the Grand Duchy for the profit of the Verwaltung Fuer Judenvermoegen. Elsewhere, in relation to a certain society, 1500 families were deported. The Germans took possession of their wealth. A German fiduciary company, enfolded in the German office for Colonization and germanization was entrusted with their administration. In fact, they set about their liquidation. Important values were thus transferred to the Reich. Germans were, as has been pointed out elsewhere, installed in the buildings of industrial enterprises, commercial enterprises and work shops of the deportees. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was the victim of an economic pillaging as systematically organized as that in Belgium.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Delpech, the Tribunal is greatful to you for the way in which you have performed the task which they asked you to perform last night, a task which is not altogether easy, of shortening the address which you had intended to make. As far as they are able to judge, no essential parts of your address have been omitted. Charter indicates, in an expeditious way, and it was for this reason that the Tribunal asked you, if you could, to shorten your address.
M. DELPECH: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, M. Gerthofer.
M. GERTHOFER: Mr. President, Your Honors, I approach the sixth part of this statement, which is devoted to the economic looting of France.
They went about seizing it very ingeniously and also very ingeniously enslaved the national productivity. When they failed by means of requisitions to attain their ends, they employed hidden methods, using simultaneously craft and violence, striving to mask their criminal actions under the appearance of legality.
To accomplish this, they took advantage of our armistice. These, in fact, did not contain any economic clause and did not include any secret provisions. They were composed only of regulations which were published. Nevertheless, the Germans utilized two clauses to favor their enterprises. Conventions, and I cite article 18, which is thus expressed:
"The expenses of the maintenance of German occupation troops in the French territory will be charged to the French Government." but Germany imposed payment of enormous sums, surpassing by great measure those which were necessary for the needs of the army charged with the occupation of the territory, which permitted them to dispose, without having furnished any compensating consideration, of almost all of the money, which in fact they transformed cleverly into an instrument of pillage.
Article 17 of the Armistice Conventions was thus expressed:
"The French Government agrees to prevent any transfer of valuables or stocks of an economical nature or of material stocks of the territory occupied by the German troops into the non-occupied territory or into a foreign country. Those valuables and stocks which are found in the occupied territory cannot be disposed of except in agreement with the Reich Government, it being understood that the German Government will take account of what is necessary for the life of the population of the non-occupied territories." to England or any of the colonies of things of any kind which might be utilized against Germany, but the occupying power wanted to derive profit from them, to give unto herself the command of production and the distribution of raw materials in all France; since the non-occupied zone could not live without the products of the occupied zone, and in reciprocal fashion the occupation zone needed the products of the zone which was called Free. by the American Army, Number 1741-PS, which I submit to the Tribunal as Number 204. I do not wish to inflict upon the Tribunal a reading of the document, which is long. I shallgive only a short summary. It is a secret report, dated 5 July 1940.
THE PRESIDENT: This is not a document of which we can take judicial notice, is it? I think you must read anything that you wish to put in evidence.
M. GERTHOFER: I shall content myself with citing to the Tribunal one passage of the document.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
M. GERTHOFER: Article 17 grants to Germany the right to keep the values and economic reserve in occupied territory, and any arrangements of the French Government are subject to the approval of Germany. account also of the vital needs of the population of the non-occupied territory.
Each time that it shall issue a statute regarding the requests formulated by the French Government with the purpose of disposing of values and reserves which are found in the occupied territory. I now come to the following document, which is the reply of the German officials who drew up this document, a document which I submit under Number 205, and which is a document found by the American Army. It is areply to the document from which I just cited one passage.
"The conception of the Fuehrer from this point of view is that all negotiations with France are envisaged, not from the political point of view, but from the economic point of view. The doing away with the line of demarcation is envisaged again. It is quite indifferent to us whether the economic life in France and its resumption should be broken or not. The French lost the war, and from this fact must pay damages.
"If one objects that the result would be to transform France into a focus of troubles, we must reply that we shall be doing our duty purely and simply, or that we shall annex these zones which have not been occupied up to now. All concession that we make to the French, the French must pay dearly for by means of deliveries coming from the non-occupied territory or from the colonies. We must stress the fact that any collaboration in the economic domain in France must not be rejected." of the United States which I submit as document 206, signed by Dr.Gramsch, which gives the following information:
"Within the scope of negotiations for relaxing the line of demarcation, it has been proposed to the French Government to seize in France all gold and foreign securities." Further, within this written document, "Foreign securities in occupied France would represent a strengthening of our war potential. This measure could moreover be used in exerting pressure upon the French Government to force them to adopt a conciliatory attitude in other domains."