Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, Germany and Austria, Volume II

740.00119 Control (Germany)/10–448

Memorandum Prepared by the Department of State¹

1. The United States Government approves the recommendations for the provisional readjustment of the western frontier of Germany contained in Part II of the Report of the Six-Power Working Party done in Paris, September 1, 1948.²

2. The United States Government approves the special arrangements recommended by the Working Party in Part III of the Report.

3. The United States Government is obliged to reserve its position with respect to the recommendation of the Working Party in Part VI concerning approval of the delimitation of the Saar territory as established by the ordinance of the French Commander-in-Chief of June 6, 1947. In so far as the Saar territory as thus delimited has been increased in area almost one-third over the original Saar territory with the addition thereby of over sixty thousand inhabitants, the United States Government believes that the decision requires a more detailed study than the Working Party was enabled to carry out within the time allotted to it. It is therefore believed that the decision should be left to the eventual peace settlement pending which the United States Government in accordance with its general policy must reserve its position.

The United States Government does not object, however, to the continuation, pending a peace settlement, of the present administrative boundaries of the Saar territory, with the three minor modifications recommended in the Working Party’s Report.

4. The United States Government approves the recommendations contained in paragraph 1 of Part I of the Working Party’s Report, that a delimitation commission be established to determine the exact line of the provisional frontier according to the indications given in the Report, and taking into account the various local interests at issue. In order to take account properly of the various local interests at issue, it is believed desirable that the delimitation commission or commissions be instructed to permit the local German authorities to express their views with regard to matters at issue in each case.

It is suggested that the delimitation commission or commissions be composed of representatives of the Military Governments of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States together with representatives of the claimant governments concerned in each instance.

With respect to paragraph 2 of Part I, it is believed that the delimitation commission or commissions should be charged with the formulation of more adequate and precise provisions to cover administrative problems in connection with the provisional modification of the frontier and with the resettlement of persons who leave the affected areas to reside in Germany.

Washington, December 31, 1948.

1. Identical copies of this memorandum were transmitted by the Acting Secretary of State to the United Kingdom, French, Belgian, and Netherlands Ambassadors and Luxembourg Minister on December 31, 1948.
2. Ante, p. 682. All the other governments concerned had already formally communicated to the United States their approval of the Report of the Working Party. France (in a note of November 29), the Netherlands (in a note of December 14), and Luxembourg (in a note of December 23) had reserved their positions on territorial claims not satisfied by the recommendations of the Working Party. (740.00119 Control (Germany)/11–2948, 12–1448, and 12–2348, respectively)