Ministère des Finances. Archives de Carl Requette, liquidateur du Commissariat belge au rapatriement

Ministère des Finances. Archives de Carl Requette, liquidateur du Commissariat belge au rapatriement 

Born on 20 June 1902 in Saint-Servais (Namur), Carl Requette began his career at the Registration and Domains Authority as an approved clerk on 21 August 1919. He then made his way through the ranks to the position of First-Class Inspector. By the Royal Decree of 18 January 1948, he was responsible for the liquidation of the Belgian Repatriation Commission (Commissariat belge au rapatriement or C.B.R.). After this organisation was disbanded, he was appointed to carry out operations following its liquidation (Ministerial Decree of 29 December 1948). His term ended in 1963. At the same time, he continued his career at the Federal Public Service Finance. He took up the post of Chairman of the Brussels Acquisition Committee on 16 April 1957 (Royal Decree 21 March 1957), a position he held until his honourable resignation, which was accepted on 1 July 1967. The liquidator's activity as Ministry of Finance official lasted nearly fifteen years. Part of this activity was related to the aftermath of refugee repatriation, the other part to an operation aiming to provide equipment to hospitals under the aegis of the Ministry of Public Health. These two initiatives were conceived in the immediate post-war emergency but were ceased as soon as their practicality was no longer evident. They had run up a significant debt, part of which consisted of recoverable advances or overpayments to persons and institutions, public and private, Belgian and foreign. The recovery of these sums and the management of the after-effects of the C.B.R.'s activities were entrusted to this experienced official in 1948, who was endowed with extensive powers. He reported directly to the Minister of Finance. The file of claims against the Ministry of Public Health was transmitted to him shortly afterwards and the two aspects of his work as liquidator were not separated afterwards, even after the official end of his mission in 1962. Created by the Decree-Law of 27 June 1944 within the Ministry of Labour and placed under the direction of Paul Van Zeeland, the Belgian Repatriation Commission was responsible for organising the return of Belgians who had been removed from their homes due to the war. The Commission also participated in the repatriation of foreigners within the framework of the international agreements of Atlantic City of 9 November 1943, the U.N.R.R.R.A. agreements. (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), and the bilateral agreements with certain countries. The office was transferred to the Ministry of War Victims by the decree of 27 April 1945 (Official Belgian Gazette, 2 May). The C.B.R. was first disbanded by Royal Decree on 23 August 1945 (Official Belgian Gazette, 25 August) and its liquidation was entrusted to a panel of three liquidators: Norbert Hougardy, an industrialist, Ernest Moulard, Director General of the Ministry of Finance, and René Christophe, Inspector of Registration and Domains. However, it became quickly apparent that the tasks of repatriation and especially the search for missing persons had not been completed by August 1945. About 60,000 people were repatriated after this first disbandment. The panel of liquidators could not start the actual disbandment until the second half of 1947. According to Carl Requette, it was the Decree of 3 November 1947, which transferred certain services from the C.B.R. to the Departments of Justice and Reconstruction as of 1 April 1947, that truly marked the end of management operations. On 31 December 1947, the staff numbered only 41 – as opposed to the nearly 2,000 personnel working for the C.B.R. in 1945 – working under the supervision of the panel of liquidators. On 1 January 1948, this staff was reduced to 16 officers plus a small typing department. It was only then that the"secon" liquidation began in earnest, and this was entrusted to the Registration and Domains Authority by the Royal Decree of 18 January 1948 (Official Belgian Gazette, 29 January). Carl Requette, then First Inspector of the Registration and Domains Authority, was appointed by a Ministerial Decree pronounced on the same day as the only liquidator of the commission with extensive powers, according to his own wishes. In November 1948, this"secon" liquidation was completed: all the civil servants were dismissed, the 80 centres were closed and the remaining properties sold. Carl Requette employed two permanent agents in 1949. However, there was still a number of issues that needed to be addressed. A Ministerial Decree of 29 December 1948 entrusted Carl Requette with this"post-liquidatio" work. With his small team, he then devoted himself to four main tasks: 1) financial settlement related to the repatriation of foreigners, according to international agreements with the U.N.R.R.R.A or other special agreements. 2) the recovery of sums unduly paid to"non-displace" persons for travel at C.B.R.'s expense. 3) the follow-up of administrative and judicial litigation. 4) the follow-up of personnel issues for dismissed staff. There were even a few liquidation files left that could not be closed, such as the Schaerbeek Station repatriation centre or the Soviet Mission in Brussels, which remained in operation until 1 June 1951 at the Belgian State's expense. According to Carl Requette, the"post-liquidatio" phase of the C.B.R. allowed for the recovery, in a little over five years, of more than 200,000,000 francs for the Treasury (1953 figures). However, Carl Requette did not manage to wrap up all the international cases in a short amount of time. In 1962, some 150,000,000 francs remained to be recovered. The Minister requested a report from the Registration and Domains Authority with the intention of transferring pending files to the receivers of the domains, thus normalising an exceptional situation. Carl Requette tried to justify his actions to the Minister, who nevertheless decided to terminate his mandate. A first Royal Decree of 24 December 1962 (Belgian Official Gazette, 26 December) entrusted the"completio" of the liquidation to the Director General of Registration and Domains. The small number of remaining staff was dismissed. The recovery work was entrusted to the receiver of the First Office of the Brussels Domains. Carl Requette, who had meanwhile been appointed Chairman of the Brussels Property Acquisition Committee, was consulted again from time to time. By Royal Decree of 10 November 1967 (Belgian Official Gazette, 14 November), the Office of the Commissioner was legally abolished. Its rights and obligations were transferred to the State. The Minister of Finance was made responsible for"completing the liquidatio". A Royal Decree of 1 December 1967 (Belgian Official Gazette, 14 December) once again entrusted the liquidation to the Director General of Registration, with the possibility of delegation. The extension of the"post-liquidatio" period can be simply explained by the fact that there were still outstanding specific cases, both in the international financial regulations for repatriation and in the international financial regulations for hospital re-equipment, and these would remain outstanding until at least 1979. Along with his mission as the C.B.R.’s liquidator, Carl Requette was also responsible for the liquidation of another post-war legacy: the hospital re-equipment operation. The Belgian government in London had reached an agreement, even before the end of the conflict, with the British and American governments to re-equip Belgian public and private hospitals. The Minister of Public Health accepted delivery of the equipment in 1945 through the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (S.H.A.E.F.) and hurriedly distributed it to approximately 100 establishments, often without invoicing and sometimes without even considering the financial aspects of the operation. The operation was organised by the office of Minister Albert Marteaux (1886–1949) who directly negotiated the delivery of equipment and medicines. An order was placed with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (U.N.R.R.R.A.) on 23 August 1944. The first deliveries took place in January 1945. As early as 1949, the administration claimed to have kept only a handful of documents related to these deliveries. In early 1949, the Ministry of Public Health asked the Ministry of Finance to proceed on its behalf with the collection of receivables for equipment provided to hospitals at the end of the war. As the equipment had largely been sent through the C.B.R., Carl Requette was responsible for settling these receivables for a total amount estimated by him at 101,068,759.48 francs. No less than 182 hospital institutions and public assistance commissions were involved. He met with resistance from a large part of them, for which the delivery of the material had been presented as a gift from the Minister of Public Health. Carl Requette did not open any special accounts for this operation and asked the receiver of the Third Domains Office in Brussels to record the proceeds in a special ledger. The files were classified according to the same principles as those relating to the C.B.R.’s windup. VAN DIJCK W., ‘Studie ener zelfstandige instelling : Dienst voor Onderlinge Hulpverlening (O.M.A.)’. Masters thesis in Political and Administrative Science, University of Leuven, 1961. 1 typed volume. This work was removed from the collection and deposited in the library of the State Archives. 

Ministère des Finances. Archives de Carl Requette, liquidateur du Commissariat belge au rapatriement