Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 61 Part 3.djvu/446

 61 STAT.] UNITED KINDOM-CLAIMS Feb. 29, 1944 2731 Mar. 28,1944 ernment whose duty it will be to deal with the large number of claims against personnel of the United States Forces under the proposed arrangements. 9. I note with satisfaction that the United States Government are willing to transfer to the British authorities all property damage claims against third parties, and they agree for their part that any sums recovered in this manner should be credited as offset receipts against reciprocal aid. The views of His Majesty's Government on this matter are elaborated in paragraph 7 of the Annex to this Note. POt. P. 273. 10. I am in agreement with your proposal that property losses of the respective Governments arising out of acts in which only personnel and equipment of the two Governments are involved should be borne where they fall, and I suggest that this Mutual Forbearance Agree- ment should be extended so as to cover claims of the respective Gov- ernments arising out of the death of or injury to their personnel and should be retroactive so as to cover any outstanding cases. It is also suggested that in connexion with traffic accident claims arising out of accidents in which both a British and United States vehicle are concerned, an equal proportion of the total cost of settlement of third party claims should be attributed to each Government, irrespective of the question of responsibility as between those Governments. Similar agreements for sharing claims in such circumstances have been made by His Majesty's Government with other Governments with the result that the difficulty of adjudicating upon the degree of responsibility of the respective drivers in individual cases is avoided. 11. Finally, in view of the strong political feeling to which this question may give rise, particularly among those who are involved in these incidents, I trust that the United States authorities will con- tinue to take all possible steps, such as previous instruction as well as firm disciplinary action, to minimise the number of cases to which the procedure now proposed will apply. 12. I now turn to claims arising from incidents occurring before the 20th March, 1944. For the reasons stated in paragraph 2 of this Ae. p.2728. note, His Majesty's Government consider that these claims must con- tinue to be dealt with by the United States Claims Commission. In order to assist the rapid disposal of such claims, His Majesty's Gov- ernment are prepared to agree that any sums paid on or after the 20th March arising out of incidents occurring before that date in set- tlement of any claims unpaid on that date shall be treated as a matter of reciprocal aid. They assume that this proposal will be satisfactory to the United States Government and trust that the United States Government will agree that the objections which the latter felt to the continuation of the Collision and other Agreements, which were nego- tiated on their behalf and the operation of which was suspended at their request in the summer of 1943, no longer apply. In this event these Collision and other Agreements can so far as possible forthwith be reinstated and this step would immediately and substantially reduce the number of outstanding claims. Claimants, with whom no settle- ment by other means is possible, shall have recourse in the Courts of

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