Christian Science Monitor, Nov.
7,000 Claims
Stand Unpaid
By Germany
Awards involve millions
due Americans as war
indemnity granted by
Mixed Claims Court.
By Mary Hornaday
Staff Correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1—
Twenty-one years after the end
of the last war, the United States
is just finishing up its "settlement"
of more than 20,000 war damage
claims filed by civilians, though no
new payments have been forth-
coming from Germany since 1931.
Last big block of claims arising
out of the Black Tom and Kings-
land, N. J., fires and Explosions, an>
1916 and 1917 was decided this
week in favor of the American
claimants. Whether full payment
will ever be made is doubtful, in
view of the fact that the Hitler
Government is now using its funds
for another war.
Since its establishment in 1922,
the Mixed Claims Commission,
presided over by a* succession of
American- umpires of whom Jus-
lice Owen J. Roberts of the U. S.
Supreme Court is the latest,, has
ruled that Germany owes Ameri-
can citizens almost $350,000,000,
including interest, for more than
7,000 individual cases of loss of
one kind or another suffered on
account of the last war.
Germany has only paid $136,-
736,070 of this huge bill. Officials
are frank to say that with another
war sweeping Europe it looks as
unlikely that the United States
Government will be able to collect
for its citizens as it does that it
will ever get back the billions it
lent to the Allies for war purposes
No Payments Since 1931
To satisfy its obligations Ger-
many deposited in the U. S. Treas- |
liry bonds valued at 5505,000,000
on which it intended to pay semi-
annual installments until 1981, but
since 1931, it hasn't paid a cent
Officials of the Mixed Claims Com-
mission estimate that not more than
$24,000,000 can be raised on these
bonds and other German property
held by the United States. All the
time, the claims are mounting up,
as they carry a 5 per cent in-
terest charge
The irk felt by Americans on the
Commission accounts largely for
the-final settlement, of the Black
Tom case in the absence of the
German Commissioner, Victor L.
F. H. Huecking, who had with-
drawn from the case.
The United States has long since
paid back what it owed Germany
on property seized when it entered
the war. Ten years ago, it paid off
$86,730,000 judged by a war claims
arbiter to be "just compensation
for ships, patents and a radio sta-
tion seized and turned over to the
Alien Property Custodian for the
duration of the war. . . .
The Mixed Claims Coininisswn
was set up by the Treaty of Ber-
lin in 1922 after the German Gov-
ernment had been forced by the
Treaty of Versailles to assume the
obligations for all nations that
fought on her side.
20,000 Claims Filed
The 20,000 claims filed With the
Commission before the 1928 dead-
line ranged all the way from 3,450
requests for War Risk Insurance
collections to loss of Ufa arising
out of the sinking of the Lusitania.
Most interesting and most time-
| consuming group of claims were
the sabotage cases, involving al-
leged destruction of war materials
in the United States in a period
of neutrality by specific authority
of the German Imperial Govern-
ment The Black Tom and Kings-
land cases were the biggest of
these, with 153 claims filed
amounting to- over $23,000,000.
Awards that have not yet been
paid and are most likely to be
largely defaulted are those in ex-
cess of $100,000.
There is indication that those
who have not been paid may fight
over the remaining 524,000,000 in
the courts. The first suit of this
kind was filed yesterday in the
District of Columbia Courts by
Zimmerman & Foshay Assets Re-
alization Corporation of New York.
The Corporation seeks to enjoin
payment of the Black Tom claim-
ants on the ground that money
owing on its own unsettled claims
and those of other holders should
be paid first The Zimmerman &
Foshay Company reports that it
has been paid only $864,048 of the
$1,175,918 awarded it by,the Com-
mission.