No. 163 NAI DFA/6/416/1/Pt1
'Aide-Mémoire' by the Department of External Affairs
concerning German compensation for war damage
to Ireland and other outstanding debts
Dublin, 24 January 1953
- The Irish Government has the honour to refer to previous correspondence (including its Aide-Mémoire of the 30th December, 1952)1 and discussions which the Department of External Affairs has had with the Legation of the Federal Republic of Germany and with Dr. Von Scherpenberg, Leader of the German Trade Delegation which visited Ireland in July, 1951, regarding the claim of the Irish Government for bomb damage suffered during the Second World War.
- As the German authorities will be aware, the Irish claim was partly covered in the Irish-German Agreement of 1st February, 1945. This Agreement, it will be recalled, provided that monies due by Irish debtors to German firms and persons of German nationality on or after 3rd September, 1939, should be collected by the Irish authorities and paid into a special account under the control of the Irish Minister for Finance. This part of the Agreement was put into force by the Irish authorities by means of Emergency Powers Order (No. 335) of 1944. By a subsequent Order, the Irish Government provided that Emergency Powers Order (No. 335) of 1944 should not apply to debts which arose after 13th May, 1947.
- The Agreement of February, 1945, also provided that certain expenditures incurred by the Irish Government and agreed to by the German authorities should be discharged out of the monies lying in the special account mentioned. Among these expenditures were payments made by the Irish Government in respect of compensation for the bombing by German aircraft of an area on the North Strand, Co. Dublin, on Campile, Co. Wexford, and on the s.s. Kerry Head. The Irish claims in respect of the bombing incidents at Campile and on the s.s. Kerry Head were duly discharged out of the special account, the amounts being £12,000 and £551.18.7. respectively.2 Owing to the size of the claim in respect of the North Strand bombing, it was not possible to have it discharged in the same manner. The claim was however accepted in principle by the terms of the Agreement subject to detailed substantiation. The details of the claim were in due course submitted to the authorities of the then German Reich.
- The gross amount of the Irish Government’s claim for the North Strand bombing is £446,820, details of which are furnished herewith in duplicate. This figure does not include a sum of £29,166 representing Red Cross and administrative expenses which the Irish Government does not seek to recover. As against the figure of £446,820, there may be set-off the amount of money remaining in the special account.
-
The amount collected by the Irish Government under the terms of Emergency Powers Order (No. 335) of 1944 was £105,834.17.11d. Out of this sum the following transfers have been made under the subheadings indicated at Paragraph 6 of the 1945 Agreement:
£. s. d. Subheading (a) 5,000. 0. 0. Subheading (b) 36,636. 18. 6. Subheading (c) 551. 18. 7. Subheading (d) 12,000. 0. 0. Subheading (e) Nil Total £54,186. 17. 1. There is thus a balance of £51,646.0.10d. remaining in the special account which, when deducted from the claim in respect of the North Strand bombing, leaves the net claim now presented by the Irish Government at £395,173.19.2d.
- Other war-damage claims which the Irish Government may have against Germany will be presented at a later stage but the Irish Government trust that, in accordance with the understanding reached in the correspondence and discussions already referred to, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany will be able to settle the claim now submitted at the earliest possible date.
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