Payments. The American share of the expenses has been paid from funds appropriated by Congress to the National Military Establishment for "government and relief in occupied areas."

Agencies Chiefly Concerned. The Department of the Army has been the agency chiefly concerned, the Department of State providing overall political advice for the conduct of the occupation, including the activities of these boards and committees. Upon the establishment of the Allied High Commission, the Department of State will assume full responsibility for occupation policies in Germany.

Joint Export-Import Agency. The Joint Export-Import Agency (JEIA) was originally established as a bipartite organization in accordance with the agreement of December 2, 1946. The agreement placed initial responsibility for foreign trade in the Joint Export-Import Agency (United States United Kingdom), this responsibility to be transferred to the German administrative agency for foreign trade (under joint supervision) to the maximum extent permitted by the restrictions existing in foreign countries at any given period. The headquarters of the agency are in Frankfort. A Joint Foreign Exchange Agency, created at the same time as the Joint Export-Import Agency, became the Foreign Trade Division of the latter (while the latter was still bipartite), and its accounts were later taken over by the Bank Deutscher Länder.18

As a step toward the economic merger of the French Zone with the Bizonal Area, an agreement was announced on August 5, 1948, which established common export-import policies and agencies for the United States, British, and French Zones. This agreement provided that two French representatives should become members of the board of directors of the JEIA. On October 18, 1948, the JEIA assumed responsibility for the foreign trade operations of the Office de Commerce Extérieur of the French Zone.18

Allied Tripartite Customs Committee. This Committee (originally called the Allied Tripartite Committee on Customs Reorganization) was created at Frankfort on November 30, 1948, by virtue of a decision of the Military Governors of the American, British, and French Zones. It is charged with maintaining liaison between the customs administrations in the French Zone and the Bizonal Area. A German Working Party was created in December 1948 to make recommendations to the Allied Tripartite Customs Committee particularly in regard to improving the system of documentation of goods entering or leaving the country.18 The establishment of "a counterpart German Committee, to be known as the 'German Trizonal Customs Committee' " was announced on February 16, 1949.18

18 See Basic Texts and Publications, p. 176.

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Combined Travel Board. The Combined Travel Board was set issue permits for entry into, transit across, and exit from the three Western zones of Germany. The members of its tripartite secretariat (located in Bad Rothenfelde until July 1949, when it was transferred to Herford), are paid by their respective governments.

The Board maintains about 11 military permit offices in various capitals, including Washington. These offices are each staffed by American, British, and/or French representatives (responsible to the respective commanders of the three Western zones), and additional personnel.

Apart from the salaries of the tripartite representatives, the expenses of the military permit offices are paid from fees charged for the issuance of travel permits. Any deficit in a particular office is made up by the power managing that office. Any surplus in a particular office is (a) divided among the three representatives at that office and (b) returned by them to the Budget and Fiscal Officers of their respective zones and not to the headquarters of the Combined Travel Board. In the case of the United States, this surplus money does not go into the Occupation fund but is deposited in the United States Treasury.19

Allied Bank Commission. The Allied Bank Commission, consisting of the representatives of the American and British Military Governors, was created on February 15, 1948, to supervise the Bank Deutscher Länder (Bank of the German States), created by the same legislation to serve as the Central Bank and the fiscal agent for the German bizonal organization." This Commission as of June 30, 1949, was located in Frankfort.

An agreement effective April 1, 1948, provided for the membership of the French Military Government in the Allied Bank Commission. To implement the decision, the three Land (State) Central Banks within the French zone were affiliated with the Bank Deutscher Länder, 19

Combined Steel and Coal Control Groups. A bipartite Combined Coal Control Group was established at Essen soon after the fusion of the American and British Zones of Occupation. Its functions were to be exercised through the German Coal Administration, established in July 1947, which was given responsibility throughout the Bizone for production, mine safety, distribution and sale of coal mine products; mining supplies, labor, mine financing, and statistics.

A bipartite Combined Steel Control Group was established on November 10, 1948, with functions similar to those of the Coal Control Group. At this time, both were given responsibility in their respec

tive fields for properties seized under military-government laws designed to break up excessive concentrations of economic power. The French Government has been represented in these two Groups since December 1948.

Food and Agriculture Committees. A Joint Program and Coordination Committee, a Joint Allocation Committee, and a Joint Statistics Committee, each consisting of American, British, and French representatives and performing functions indicated by its name, were established at Frankfort in December 1948 by the Chief of the Bipartite Food, Agriculture, and Forestry Group and the Chief of the Food and Agriculture Branch of the French Zone.20

Military Security Board. The American, British, and French Military Governors, by a directive of December 16, 1948, established a Military Security Board for the Western zones of Germany,20 which held its first meeting in Berlin on December 21. This action was taken pursuant to an agreement reached at the Six-Power London Conference Regarding Germany, February-June 1948.20 The Board is composed of a commission (three officers of general or equivalent rank, or their deputies); a committee of deputies, charged with coordinating the work of the divisions; a secretariat, headed by three chief secretaries, one for each national element; a military division, an industrial division, and a scientific research division, each being tripartite; and tripartite inspection groups.

The purpose of the Board is to insure the maintenance of disarmament and demilitarization in the Western zones in the interests of security. It is empowered to formulate measures for preventing the revival of military and para-military organizations, activities, and material potentials. Its specific functions include the making of inspections, the preparation of reports and studies, and the submission of recommendations to the military governors for needed laws and regulations.

BASIC TEXTS AND PUBLICATIONS

U.S. Department of State. Protocol of the Proceedings of the Berlin Conference. Press release 238, March 24, 1947. 16 pp.

20

Germany: Economic Fusion of American and British Zones of Occupation. Memorandum of Agreement Between the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Signed December 2, 1946. Treaties and Other International Acts Series 1575. Pub. 2740. (61 Stat. 2475). Washington, Government Printing Office, 1947.

Germany: Economic Fusion of American and British Zones of Occupation. Agreement Between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Amending the Agreement of December 2, 1946. Signed at Washington December 17, 1947. Entered

See Basic Texts and Publications, below.

into force December 17, 1947. Treaties and Other International Acts Series 1689. Pub. 3059. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1948.

Germany: Economic Fusion of American and British Zones of Occupation. Agreement Between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Extending the Agreement of December 2, 1946, As Amended. Effected by Exchange of Notes Signed at Washington December 31, 1948. Treaties and Other International Acts Series 1883. Pub. 3456. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1949. Department of State Bulletin. June 20, 1948, pp. 807-8. "London Conference Recommendations on Germany." Communiqué of London Conference released June 7, 1948; March 13, 1949, p. 326. "Procedures of Allied Tripartite Customs Committee in Germany." Tripartite communiqué released by Omgus on February 16, 1949; July 11, 1949. p. 25. "Charter of the Allied High Commission for Germany."

Office of Military Government for Germany (U. S.). Ownership and Control of the Ruhr Industries: Special Report of the Military Governor, November 1948, pp. 26-32. Contains U.S. Military Government Law 75, "Reorganization of German Coal and Iron and Steel Industries", November 10, 1948.

Monthly Report of the Military Governor. Contains data on: The Military Security Board (August 1948, pp. 96-99); the JEIA (ibid., p. 38 and November 1948, p. 4); Allied Tripartite Customs Committee (December 1948, p. 36); Combined Travel Board (ibid., p. 84); Allied Bank Commission (February 1948, pp. 14, 37, and April 1948, p. 15); Combined Steel and Coal Control Groups (December 1948, p. 53); Food and Agriculture Committees (December 1948, p. 81).

Information concerning the activities of the other tripartite agencies may be found in various issues of the Monthly Report of the Military Governor, published by OMGUS in Berlin since 1945.

Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold

24 A Boulevard du Regent, Brussels, Belgium

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

The Commission was established on September 27, 1946, by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States under terms of reference approved by the three signatory governments, in order to implement part III of the Agreement on Reparation opened for signature at Paris on January 14, 1946, which part provided for the restitution of monetary gold.

The Agreement on Reparation was signed by the Governments of the United States, Albania, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Luxembourg, Norway, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Pakistan (by virtue of a protocol

signed at Brussels March 15, 1948)," the Union of South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia. Participation by Austria, Italy, and Poland, with respect to part III, was provided for in protocols signed at London, November 4, 1947.21 Part III provided that all the monetary gold found in Germany by the Allied Forces, and any monetary gold recovered from a third country to which it was transferred from Germany, should be pooled for distribution as restitution among the countries participating in the pool, in proportion to their respective losses of gold through looting or by wrongful removal to Germany. It further provided that the various countries participating in the pool should supply to the Governments of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as the occupying Powers concerned, detailed and verifiable data regarding the gold losses suffered through looting by, or removal to, Germany, and that the three Governments should take appropriate steps within the zones of Germany occupied by them respectively to implement distribution as provided.

MEMBERSHIP

The Commission is composed of three members representing the Governments of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.

PURPOSES, POWERS, AND FUNCTIONS

The purpose of the Commission is to recover and distribute as restitution, monetary gold looted or wrongfully removed by Germany. Functions and powers of the Commission specified by the terms of reference are (a) to request and receive claims for restitution, supported by detailed and verifiable data regarding losses; (b) to scrutinize claims and determine shares of each claimant in the pool for distribution; (c) in due course to announce the total value of the pool available for distribution; (d) after adjudication of all claims, to announce the share of each participating country; (e) to assist in the distribution in such other ways as decided by the three member Governments of the Commission; and, (f) to perform necessary administrative acts.

STRUCTURE

The United States, France, and the United Kingdom each appointed as from September 27, 1946, a commissioner as its representative. Russell H. Dorr, the United States Representative, is Chairman of the Commission.

The terms of reference provided that the Commission should normally sit in Brussels but should be independent of the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency already located there.

21 See Basic Texts and Publications, p. 179.