Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 February 13

= February 13 =

WW2 reparations by England to France
Hello; I once read an newspaper article regarding France suing England at the end of WW2 (I believe it was) for compensation for the damage caused to their public buildings when pushing the German Army out of France. England agreed to recompense France on the basis of a £1 per head levy (within the fee) on every passenger using the cross-channel ferry. For years this has been running at £50,000,000 to the French.

I have googled this numerous times and have been unable to corroborate this story.

Can anyone tell me if this is true? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Buddhabaker (talk • contribs) 14:18, 13 February 2019 (UTC)


 * I can't find anything on the matter. This article states "The only Allied country who won but paid compensation was the USA, to Japan."  -- Jayron 32 14:58, 13 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Buddhabaker -- that sounds a lot like an urban legend to me. I bet some French would have liked compensation for the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir, but that wasn't going to happen (the attack needn't have happened at all if Marcel-Bruno Gensoul hadn't been such a dithering idiot).  The United States paid compensation to Switzerland for the Bombing of Schaffhausen, of course... AnonMoos (talk) 16:15, 13 February 2019 (UTC)


 * We also made a proper mess of Caen in 1944, probably helping the Germans in the process (but I couldn't find any reference to a ferry tax either). Alansplodge (talk) 19:10, 13 February 2019 (UTC)


 * P.S. At the end of WW1, there were rumors that the French charged the U.S. or British rents on the trenches from which their soldiers fought; see here for an official denial: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/12/16/97052826.pdf ... -- AnonMoos (talk) 20:18, 13 February 2019 (UTC)


 * I wish there was more detail in the article Jayron32 found. The very next sentence says seems to contradict the previous sentence, "In 1988, under the Civil Liberties Act, U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, apologized to the Japanese-Americans interned in camps during World War II and agreed to pay $20,000 to each surviving former detainee.".  A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 20:28, 13 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Although that is the US Government compensating US citizens, rather than another country, see Civil Liberties Act of 1988. 20:07, 14 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Amusingly, the reporter made the same mistake as the American government did, confusing Americans of Japanese origin with the state of Japan. HenryFlower 12:28, 16 February 2019 (UTC)