INTERAGENCY CONFERENCE ON CAPTURED ENEMY DOCUMENTATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00706R000200020009-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 30
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2004
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: January 25, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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INTERAGENCY CO EREM ON CAPE Etd;M!! DOCtR'ENTATIUN
January 25, 1930
Department of the Navy
Department of the Army
Department of Commerce
Departmemt of Justice
National Archives
Department of te
Admiral Heffernan
Ilia j or SeeleJ, Major Dempsy,
Lt. Col. James,. Mr. East, gr., Flake
Mr. Crean
Mr. Gilbert
W. Oampboll
W. Ropebaw (OR)
Mr. Furman, Miss Brown (L)
Mr. Noble, Mr. Humphrey (RE)
DEPART911ENT OF STATE (RE) - Mr. Humphrey explained that the bulk of State's
holdings were originals of German documents, chiefly Foreign Ministry, now
located in England and being used in connection with the tripartite program
of the American, British, and French Governments. It is intended to restore
these documents to a responsible German Government in due course when the
needs of the project have been satisfied. Additiccally. State's small film
holdings of Italian documents have been transferred to the National Arahiwos
and the Department in currently microfilming from the Japanese Foreign
Ministry archives and transferring the films to the Library of Congress for
the use of?researeh scholars. The problem of restitution does not impinge
upon either of the latter two categories of records since they are film
holdings only.
Mr. Humphrey requested the representatives of the other agencies to
make a comparable statement with regard to their problems in connection
with captured war documents.
DEPARTtEENT !' STATE (GER) - Mr. Ropshaw - The question of restitution has
many political implications. The captured German documents will undoubtedly
be demanded. It would be politically inadvisable for military records to
be returned to Germ ny, in view of our stated policy against any rearmament
in Germany.
DEPARTMENT ' SITE (L) m Mr. Furman - In Germany at least, in view of
our position under the June 5, 1945 declaration regarding the defeat, the
test contained in the Hague Convention is not necessarily binding upon the
United States, although we would in general wish to consider it a general
guide in our behavior in the fields which it cowers.
NAVY review(s) completed.
On-file DOC Release Instructions A pply
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ARMY and DOS review(s) completed.
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DEPA T1LE T - Major Seeley - The primary problem of this
Department is classification.' The Army has in Washington approximately
1900 tons of captured German documents, chiefly military. They are
administered here by the Adjutant General. The Secretary of tho Army
is often approached for use of the files, and the problem of declasei-
fication (for use of those files by universities, war correspondents,
etc.) is very pressing. The American Army made a binding working-level
agreement with the British Army during the war. If the captured docu-
ments are to be released to the public, It is the opinion of the Army
that It should be done simultaneously in London and the United States,
otherwise the British press would object. The Joint Chiefs of Staff
and Combined Staff have been trying for tao years to get together on
this problem. As far as the Army is concerned, the captured Italian
documents do not present much of a problem. The Army has only a small'
collection of Italian military records. In connection with the captured
Japanese military documents, the United States is custodian of these
records. Some of the documents have been shipped from SCAP tq CIA to
be held or disposed of after consultation with the Department.of _1w-hc3
Armyy.~.__'he Department does notE know how many documents are in Japan.
Con-corning the problem of restitution, the Army has. mad, a point to retain
within the Department o the military records. Suoh'documents as records
of German cultural agencies have been turned over to State and other
agencies. The Department does not feel that military documents should bee
restored. This opinion does not apply to Italian documents. Many techni-
cal records have been turned over to Commerce.
DEPARTMENT OF 7'HE AY ` Mr. East - The Department In now in the process
of getting necessary data together in order to make a comprehensive
statement. The major collection of captured documents wan turned over. to
the Adjutant General some two years ago. Arty?s holdings are originals.
Since the Adjutant General assumes custody in Washington, he has conducted
a survey to determine what other holdings are in Washington. The Army is
also planning on sending a circular inquiry to the field offices to de-
termine the extent of their holdings. It is felt that the field holdings
will consist primarily of technical material. Primarily, the Intelligence
interest In gone in connection with the documents, in question. As far as
the Department of the Army and CIA are concerned, theinterest has passed
from Intelligence to Historical. Aria does not know what will happen
after the h e or ens are"finished with the docents, but they are of the
opinion that the records will go to Archives; that is, assuming no resti-
tution.
DEPARTI,ZNT OFF T ..AEdM - Lt. Col. James - The Historical Division can
only estivate as to the length of time it will used the records. No defi-
nite policy has been formulated with respect to disposition. The division
is interested in over-all coordination by the various agencies in con-
nection with an agreement that may be made in the near future. Col. James
has been informed by Joint Security that they bad an interest in the
agreement and, although they do riot fool that it is necesieaary to send a
representative
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representative to these meetings, they will cooperate and accept the
recommendations by this group with reeoect to changing the agreement.
The Army cannot publish without British concurrsacs.
DEPART ENT Cy THE NAVY - Admiral Heffernan a- The problem in general,
an far as the Nagy is aoncernod, is similar to the Army in that the
captured German Naval documents are considered to be jointly owned by
the British and the United States; although the British have actual
custody. The Department of the Navy in Washington has some duplicates
but it is Admiral Heffernan&s understanding that the British hold all
the originals. The Navy has an agreement similar to that of the Army with
respect to use of the files, i.e., that they should use used for official
purposes gnly. However, to Admiral Heffernan&s-knowledge there is nothing
in writing. The Historical Section of the Chiefs of Staff In London was
recently approached on the subject of use of the files. General Ward. and
Admiral Heffernan agree that they have had no-difficulty with the British
up.to this time with respect to the existing ag sement, and .Admiral
Heffernan does not see any advantage of another agreement that may plague
then in the future. The British have complete access to the files at
present, and no question has arisen as to the British using them. The
Office of Navy Intelligence. passes on all questions of access to the filen
here. The entire holdings of the German Naval Library are in England and
it is felt that the Germans will ask for the return of these holdings at
some Y ture date..
Japanese documents were brought to the Document Center and the naval
portion was sent to the National Arabives. Officials in Japan recently
raised the question about the return of these documents from this country.
Sooner or later the Department of the Navy is going to have to face this
problem. Admiral Heffernan expressed an opinion that, after a reasonable
length of time, these documents should be returned to than. To his
knowledge he has never heard of any captured Italian-documents being sent
to Washington.
DEPART PlT OF C0l?CE m Mr. Green - This Department has an oral agreement
with the British. All of the German documents hold by Commerce are u&-
classified, and Ir. Green is of the opinion that, although some of the
material may appear unimportant today, it may appear vital ten years from
now. Everything of an original nature has been transferred to Wright Field
in Dayton, Ohio.
There was a net of Japanese patents transferred to the United States
Patent Office. In connection with Italian documents, Mr. Green does not
know whether Commerce is holding any.
The basic purpose for acquiring captured technology was to make it
available to United States science and industry, hence the Department of
Commerce has actively promoted free access to these materials both by in-
spection of the files and by the furnishing of photo copies of the documents.
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Somme American firms have been reluctant to.use captured technology
because of a fear that German industrial interests would successfully
charge them with infringement at some future date. Any steps toward
restitution of technology would sees to be a step in this direction.
Commerce has always.proceeded on the assumption that there never would
be restitution.
DEPARTMENT Crf JUSTICE m Mr. Gilbert - This Department has felt for some
time the need of coordinating with other agencies as to how to function
in connection with the captured war documents. Justice has very few
German documents. Approximately one and one-half years ago this Department
wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Army, which was also sent to the
Department of State, on the question of jurisdiction of material subject
to copyright. Shortly thereafter, a committee worked out a policy re-
garding German material. As far as the Department of -Justine is concerned
the Office of Alien Property would be the most concerned with the problem
of enemy documents. That office functions under the authority of the
Trading with the Enemy Act and has the power to vest enemy property in the
United States.
Generally, documents have not been vested except. in isolated cases,
unless motion?.picture films are considered documents. The office has
vested a substantial amount of notion picture films previously owned by
Germany or German nationals. In most instances the rights to use the
material in the United States have been vested for the purpose of licensing
publication and cutting off any claims by the former enemy owner. This
has been done in order to make technical material available generally to
industry and also to make it available for the purpose of realizing money
on such property. Under the statutory and common laws such. nights are
considered property and have been vested irrespective of where the mane
scripts have been located, since the intangible rights are considered
separable from the physical document. In order to aid other Government
agencies, material which has been vested has been made available and licensee
to make use of the material have also been issued. Such vesting and licensing
has made it possible to protect the Government or individuals from being
subject to later claims by the former enemy-owners for unauthorised use of
the material.
As far as Mr. Gilbert knows, it has not been clearly defined whether
the rights in such material as official or semi-official documents may be
considered as being property under the protection of the common law or
statutes of the United States. Therefore, he is not in a position to state
whether use of such material will give rise to future claims. It would
appear necessary for such agencies as hold or use the material-to determine
whether they have good title to the physical documents and whether they are
making unauthorised use of the material and meeting possible claims. As
far as the commercial exploitation of such mmmaterial.is concerned, the
Office of Alien Property appears to have exclusive jurisdiction to authorise
publication if property rights exist under the common law or statutes in
the materials so used.
Rights
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Rights and documents which have been vested under the Trading
with The Enemy Act cannot be returned to the former German or Japanese
owners, according to Station 39 of that Act. Therefore, no restitution
of such property would be possible.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES - W. Campbell ? The National Archives holds German
papers from State, Army,, and Navy. Japanese-records which have been
screened by CIA have been sent to the Archives by Army and Navy?
One of the major problems facing Archives is the question of resti-
tution of non government records as well as government records. A request
has been received from the Air Force to dispose of some of the documents
at Wright Field. Hour, no authorisation has been given to dispose of
any captured documents. Another problem in which Archives is concerned
is the age factor (if any) in connection with restitution.
MISCELLANEOUS
It was agreed that representatives from the Joint Chiefs of Staffs
Air Fares, and Central Intelligence should be Invited to attond future
conferences concerning the captured documents.
It was suggested that each agency make a statement as to its actual
holdings; its considered judgments on restitution; and submit (for the
opinions of its Legal Division and the Department of Justtco) a not of
categories of its material. It was agreed that this should be done within
the next ten days or two weeks.
The next meeting Is to be held the latter part of February.
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C 0 P Y
February 1950
REPORT ON HOLDINGS OF CAPTURED ENEMY DOCUMENTATION
CENTRAL AIR DOCUMENTS OFFICE
Arm h1Ayt-Air Force
1. Nature of Prespjzt HldinEs
a. Approximately 55,000 German air-technical documents. These docu-
ments have been screened out of an estimated 1500 tons of documentary
material which had been collected in Germany by air-technical intelligence
tears of the then army Air Forces and the Navy. Pre-screening in the field
reduced this bulk to some 250 tons, which were turned over to the Air
Documents Research Center of A-2, United States Strategic Air Forces in
Europa, in London, '^.:nglaand. Late in 1945 this office was transferred to
Wright Field, with its personnel and holdings, and reestablished as the
Air Documents Division of the Intelligence Department, Headquarters Air
Material Command. The Air Documents Division is the direct predecessor of
the present Central Air Documents Office of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.)
The Air Documents Division thoroughly screened the captured material
and selected for processing all documents considered to be of primary air-
technical interest. Processing included microfilming, cataloging, ab