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Records of the Foreign Claims Section (War)

(Record Group 213)
1917-40
40 cu. ft.

Overview of Records Locations

Table of Contents

• 213.1 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
  
• 213.2 RECORDS OF THE FOREIGN CLAIMS SECTION AND ITS PREDECESSORS 1917-40 48 lin. ft.
  

213.1 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY

Established: In the War Department Claims Board (WDCB), Supply Division, War Department General Staff, by Office Order No. 53, Chief of Staff, December 18, 1920.

Predecessor Agencies:

• Special Representative of the Secretary of War (SRSW, 1919-20)
  
• U.S. Liquidation Commission (USLC, 1919-20)
  
• General Sales Agent, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF, 1919), USLC (1919-20)
  
• Renting, Requisition, and Claims Service (RRCS), AEF (1919-20)
  
• External Relations Section (ERS), Current Supply Branch, Supply Division, War Department General Staff (1920)
  

Transfers: To Office of the Assistant Secretary of War (OASW) with WDCB by General Order 12, War Department, March 15, 1921; to immediate OASW, March 1, 1922, upon dissolution of WDCB by General Order 9, War Department, February 28, 1922; to Disposal Branch, OASW, July 1, 1924, by order of the Assistant Secretary of War (ASW), June 16, 1924, published in Bulletin 14, War Department, July 14, 1924; to the Office of the Chief of Finance (OCF), July 1, 1926, by ASW instruction, June 26, 1926, published in General Order 15, War Department, July 15, 1926; and to Services of Supply (SOS) with OCF in general reorganization of War Department, effective March 9, 1942, pursuant to EO 9082, February 28, 1942, and Circular 59, War Department, March 2, 1942.

Functions: Settled foreign claims against the War Department arising from U.S. participation in World War I.

Abolished: Effective February 1, 1943, by Circular 9, SOS, February 10, 1943.

Successor Agencies: Claims Division, Judge Advocate General's Office, War Department.

Finding Aids: Joyce D. Ciarrocchi, comp., "Preliminary Inventory of the Foreign Claims Section, War Department, 1917-1940," NM 28 (1964).

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213.2 RECORDS OF THE FOREIGN CLAIMS SECTION AND ITS PREDECESSORS
1917-40
48 lin. ft.

History: SRSW, appointed January 22, 1919, to terminate War Department domestic purchasing and manufacturing orders and contracts made with Allied governments and to settle resulting claims. USLC established by General Order 24, War Department, February 11, 1919, to settle similar claims based on transactions abroad, and, through the General Sales Agent, established in the AEF, January 1, 1919, and subsequently assigned to the USLC, to dispose of war-related foreign property acquired by the United States. USLC dissolved, effective June 1, 1920, and its functions and records, together with those of the SRSW, transferred to the ERS, Current Supply Branch, Supply Division, War Department General Staff, by General Orders 34 and 51, War Department, June 14 and August 21, 1920. ERS also acquired concurrently the functions and records of the RRCS, AEF, which had been established in 1919 to settle claims arising from the presence of U.S. troops in France and Germany. ERS superseded by Foreign Claims Section, 1920. SEE 213.1.

Textual Records: Correspondence, 1917-40. Cables sent and received, 1917-21, with subject card index. Correspondence and reports on the cost of maintaining the Army of Occupation in Germany, 1918-31. Case files of claims involving German vessels, 1918-30. Issuances, 1918-21. Miscellaneous reports, correspondence, and other records, 1918-32.

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Bibliographic note: Web version based on Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States. Compiled by Robert B. Matchette et al. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1995.
3 volumes, 2428 pages.

Ordering information

This Web version is updated from time to time to include records processed since 1995.

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