Claims: Black Tom
2
BRITISH EMBASSY,
WASHINGTON* D. 0»
November 7th# 1039*
Ho. 1236
My Lord,
With reference to correspondence ending
with my despatch No. 758 of the 3rd July 1939
regarding the "Black Ton" sabotage case* I have the
honour to report that on October 80th 1939 Associate
Supreme Court Justice Oven J« Roberts, the Umpire
of the German**American Mixed Claims Commission, gave
a decision awarding some 49 million dollars to the
American claimants*
&? As mentioned In ay despatch under reference
the German Commissioner had withdrawn from the
Commission in March last*   Consequently the present
decision Was given in his absence•
3* On October 3rd Hen* Thomson, the German
Charge* d'Affaires, sent a protest 34 pages In length
to the Secretary of State repeating the charges of
bias on the part of the Umpire which had been made by
the German Commissioner and contending that the
decision was illegal on the ground that a truncated
Commission was not competent to make an award*
4* Mr* Secretary Hull answered this protest
in a letter of October 18th in which he declined to
Interfere with the conduct of the Commission over
which the State Department had no control and in
which he commented on the action of the German
etc.,      etc.,        etc.   /Aifo. VALM:GHSP:PRHM:JGP:CL
Commissioner/
The Right Honourable
The Viscount Halifax, K« G

3
mmm
Commissioner which was, ho declared, deliberately
designed to frustrate the work of the Commission*
5* As the awards given on October 30th far
exceed the available fund of about 26 million
dollars other successful claimants who have obtained
awards with regard to matters not connected with
the sabotage cases, will, I understand, seek to
attack the legality of the present awards and
restrain payment by the Treasury under the Settlement
of ttar Claims Act of 1938.   Already one suit has been
filed to restrain the payment of the present awards on
the grounds that the Commission could not in the
absence of the German Commissioner make a valid award*
The swards which have Just been given will, I under-
stand, mostly rank in priority to the awards made
earlier in cases not connected with the Black Tom
explosions*   The reason is that the Black Tom claims
are mostly by underwriters whose Individual claims
are below #100,000 and which therefore benefit
under S*4 (3) of the above mentioned Act *
6* Arising out of the suggestions contained
In the American Department's letter A 5701/4786/45
of September 9th X arranged for some members of my
staff to have a meeting with the Honourable R# V.'alton
Moore, the Counselor of the State Department, to see
if anything could be done with regard to the claims
of the British underwriters which had never been
formulated to the Commission because the State
Department/
I
i 3 -
Department In 1927 decided that the American Agent
should not espouse non-national claims•   My request
for the meeting was baaed on the promise of the
Secretary of State In 1929 that the decision of
1927 referred to above should be reconsidered*
I enclose herein a copy of my letter asking for auch
meeting*   fhe meeting which took place on October
20th lasted a considerable time and the representatives
of His Majesty1 a Embassy made a point of stressing the
injustice which had resulted to the British insurance
companies by the refusal of the State Department to
accept the argument that the doctrine of subrogation
Should be applied and of urging that the American
Agent should espouse these claims*   In particular
attention was ©ailed to the cynical passage in the
Department of State's letter of June 8th, 1927 in
which the Department admitted it invoked the doctrine
of subrogation "in international arbitrations where
the result is to benefit American nationals", but
"a different situation is presented" where such a
benefit "does not inure to the benefit of American
nationals, and the Department consistently refuses
In such cases to recognise the applicability of the
doctrine"* |||$
7# The representatives of the State Department
seemed to be sympathetic to the English companies
and expressly stated there could be no question as to
the merits of the claims*   *hey pointed out however
that the withdrawal of the German Commissioner had
made/
made it impossible to present any More claims am
If the Department reversed its decision not to
allow the American Agent to adopt these claims.
The procedural difficulties would be insuperable%
for instance there would be no possibility of dis-
agreement between the German and the American
$«mmissloner3 and without such a disagreement the
Umpire could not be called in.
8* The entirely negative attitude of the
State Department's representatives at that meeting
was officially confirmed in a letter of October 26th
1939 from Judge Moore, a copy of which I enclose
herein.   In this letter the absence of the German
Commission is relied on for the assertion that no re-
examination would be of any use*   X may say that the
statement is true that the Department of State have
consistently indicated that they adhere to their
previous decision.
9. In the circumstances I do not see that any
further steps can be taken by me to pre as the claims
of the British companies and in fact the long quies-
cence of their lawyers shows I think that they must
have given up hope of getting their claims presented
before the Commission which would seem now to have
concluded its labours*
XO. I understand informally that the American
companies intend partly to reimburse the English
companies for the expenses incurred by them in
establishing the guilt of the agents of Germany in
the Black Tom explosions.
Ma
I
-fi-
ll. If it 1b thought that I could usefully
take any further steps I would be grateful for
the necessary Instructions as to the line which
I should adopt*
X have the honour to tie,
With the highest aspect.
My &ox*d*
Jour Lordship's most obedient,
humble servant,