Office of the Historian

740.5/9–854

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of German Affairs (Lyon)

secret
[Washington,] September 8, 1954.

Subject:

  • Discussion between British High Commissioner and Dr. Hallstein

Participants:

  • Mr. F. J. Leishman, British Embassy
  • Mr. Cecil B. Lyon, GER

Mr. Leishman called this morning and after having handed me the copies of Mr. Eden’s two messages to the Secretary in Manila,1 which form the subject of a memorandum from Mr. Merchant to the Under Secretary, gave me some information concerning a talk between the British High Commissioner at Bonn and Dr. Hallstein.

Dr. Hallstein indicated that the Chancellor and the German officials were now coming around to the idea of German entry into NATO. However, it would be a fortified NATO with certain agreements which while not discriminatory towards Germany made it clear that Germany would not be able to embark on an unrestricted rearmament. A committee of experts should be appointed to work out the details of what the restrictions would be. As to the procedure to be followed to attain [Page 1157] this, Dr. Hallstein indicated that this would have to await the Chancellor’s views.

The British High Commissioner asked what the Chancellor and Hallstein thought with regard to the restoration of German sovereignty. Dr. Hallstein indicated that the Chancellor, he and the legal authorities were of the opinion that Germany as an independent state possesses sovereignty but that the Occupying Powers enjoyed a special control over that sovereignty, to a certain extent, a sort of mortgage. The three Occupying Powers could restore sovereignty by merely making a unilateral declaration cancelling, so-to-speak, the mortgage. The British High Commissioner indicated that it would be unlikely that the Occupying Powers could make such a declaration unless they were granted certain controls and privileges which the Bonn Conventions embraced. Dr. Hallstein said that Germany would be willing to extend these controls and privileges through a series of fresh instruments to replace the Bonn Conventions and largely based on the Bonn Conventions. However, a group of experts would also have to be appointed to draw up these instruments. It would be sufficient if the Occupying Powers would make a declaration of their intent to restore Germany’s sovereignty upon completion of these new instruments.

The British High Commissioner sees the course according to Dr. Hallstein’s views somewhat as follows:

(1)
The NATO Council would agree to admit Germany as soon as the safeguards drawn up by the experts had been agreed to. A declaration of this intent would be issued shortly.
(2)
The three Occupying Powers would issue a declaration of their intent to restore German sovereignty as soon as the experts had agreed to the new instruments to replace the Bonn Conventions.
(3)
As soon as the safeguards agreed upon by the experts were approved, Germany would be admitted into NATO, and as soon as the new instruments were agreed to, the three Occupying Powers would issue a declaration restoring Germany’s sovereignty.

  1. Not attached to the source text. Presumably this is a reference to Eden’s letters of Sept. 7 and 8; for the text of the former, see telegram Dulte 11, Sept. 7, p. 1151, and for the letter of Sept. 8, supra.↩