740.5/4–1353
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Western European Affairs (Byington)1
Subject:
- European Defense Community
Participants:
- Prime Minister De Gasperi
- Mr. Byington
At the close of our conversation the Prime Minister referred to the extreme difficulty he had had in the Senate in connection with the passage of the electoral law.2 This was a law which was not attractive to his party but which he had supported because it strengthened the smaller parties and made a coalition government possible. Likewise in terms of Europe, he felt that the EDC was the only answer. It was true that within NATO a solution could be found for the use of German troops, but it would not solve the basic problem of French-German relations and for that the EDC was the only answer. He reiterated his determination to do everything he could to help support the EDC in Europe and his certainty that Italy would ratify after the elections. One of the principal difficulties for France in his view was the problem of the Saar. There the fundamental question is economic. He felt that if it could be worked out that France could be assured of purchasing her coal from the Saar with francs then a solution would be practicable. He would use his own influence towards that end but he pointed out that it was going to be more difficult working with Bidault than in the case of Schuman.