Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Western Europe and Canada, Volume VI, Part 1

740.00/7–1152

No. 61
Memorandum by the Finance and Economic Adviser at the Embassy in France (Tomlinson) to the Ambassador in France (Dunn)¹

secret

Paris, July 8, 1952.

Subject:

• Status of EDC, Schuman Plan and Political Authority

1. Designation of the Schuman Plan Assembly to work on the creation of a common political authority.

A. The initial British reaction to the French proposal to use the Schuman Plan Assembly in connection with the creation of a European political authority has been rather reluctant. It would appear that the British Foreign Office favors postponing this step and might propose blanketing the political authority under the Council of Europe in a way which could have undesirable consequences.

This reported British attitude is already creating differences with France and her Continental partners over how to proceed. If the confusion becomes public, it may have the following unfortunate consequences:

(1) The British will once again be presented as preventing European Federation and perhaps as sabotaging the EDC. The Schuman Plan and the EDC have always been put forward by the French as steps leading to and requiring the creation of a common political authority.

(2) If on the other hand the British reiterate their support for EDC while discouraging the notion of a political authority, they will be accused of favoring EDC only as a device to obtain German rearmament; in this case the US would have to take sides openly against the British on the federation issue to avoid being placed in the same position.

(3) If the Council of Europe Assembly rather than the Schuman Plan Assembly is used to study the creation of a political authority, the possibility will result in an approach for membership different from the Schuman Plan and EDC. In this case a convincing argument can be made for postponement of EDC ratification until the political authority is completed. As an example of this problem, the Italian Embassy has informed me that the Greeks and Turks have made informal approaches to become full members of the political authority.

An even more serious problem may be a setback to the general acceptance of the idea of British association with, rather than membership in, Continental institutions. Prospects of British participation in the activities of the Council of Europe on the political authority might well renew insistence by various groups that the British become members of EDC.

(4) The Saar issue might be raised in connection with the membership of the Council of Europe Assembly.

Monnet has been conducting the conversations on this subject with the British on behalf of the French Government. He has been in Germany this weekend, so I have not been able to check French reactions to the developing British position. I have appointments to see him and Hayter tomorrow.

B. The situation may be further confused by the resolutions adopted last weekend by the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe, at the instigation of the Council of Europe Secretariat. Although the Council of Europe resolution left the Ministers free to choose which Assembly was to draft the statute for the common political authority, the Standing Committee apparently insists that the Council of Europe Assembly should be used, and that all the members should have the right of full participation with only the right to vote limited to the representatives of the six countries. Although the purpose and effect of these resolutions is to face the Ministers with a fait accompli, the Ministers can probably override them if left to themselves; if the British Government takes the same position, however, the results may be unfortunate.

2. Schuman Plan Developments.

A. Deconcentration of Ruhr industry. The French Government now accepts the final settlement reached late last week between the American and French representatives on the High Commission and the German Government concerning Ruhr deconcentration. The German Government is also expected to confirm this agreement. This removes the last obstacle to the deposit of ratifications and the entry into force of the Schuman Plan.

B. The final meeting of the Schuman Plan Interim Committee took place in Brussels at the end of last week, in preparation for the forthcoming Ministers Meeting. It now appears that the Ministers will meet not on the 11th but around July 18. Present plans are for ratifications to be deposited prior to or during the Ministers meeting, which will bring the Treaty into force at that time. The plan is for the appointments of the members of the High Authority and the Court to be made effective as of approximately September 1, to give the appointees a chance to wind up their personal affairs; the various time limits in the Treaty (for creation of the single market, etc.) will begin to run from that date.

C. The seat of the institutions was also discussed in Brussels. Four cities have presented their candidacies: Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Liege and The Hague.

D. The French members of the Schuman Plan Assembly will be elected by the French Parliament this Friday. There will be ten members from the National Assembly and five from the Council of the Republic—two Deputies and one Senator less than in the Council of Europe Assembly. We understand that the Senator and one of the Deputies to be dropped are from the overseas territories; the other Deputy is to be a Gaullist, on account of the reduced size of the RPF delegation in the National Assembly.

3. Buildup program for EDC forces of German Origin.²

A. Arrangements for drawing up an illustrative end-item program for German EDC contingents. On the question of working up a rough end-item program for German EDC contingents, we held a number of conversations last week with representatives of SRE, JAMAG, and SHAPE. With their agreement, we have now proposed to Washington that the Joint Chiefs of Staff instruct JAMAG to draw up such a program. In accordance with your talk with Ambassador Draper, we have stated that the necessary information and estimates which form the basis of such a program can best be obtained through us from the EDC Interim Commission. JAMAG officers could, as military members of the Embassy observer group, make contact with the German officers on the staff of the EDC Interim Commission as required.

Everyone seemed to appreciate fully that a program for the buildup of German EDC contingents could at best consist only of a very rough planning estimate, which in no way could prejudice EDC decisions after ratification, and all seemed quite satisfied with the prospect of obtaining only the broad and preliminary information which will be available in the next month or so. There was no more pressure to set up a separate MAAG in the Federal Republic to deal with the Germans on this type of programming.

In our conversations it became clear that the Congressional cuts in end-items will require cuts in the programs of the various receiving countries. This development could involve us in very serious political problems if the coincidence of the priority granted in the present SHAPE program to the buildup of German EDC units and the cuts in end-item deliveries make necessary cutbacks in the force goals of France and other NATO countries. Given such a development, there would be little chance of EDC ratification unless the force goals for Germany were correspondingly reduced. SHAPE is aware of this problem and is bringing it to the attention of the Defense Department.

B. Information on the Federal Republic for the NATO Annual Review. No final decision has yet been reached on the proposal of the NATO Secretariat and the French under which the EDC Interim Commission would be the channel by which NATO would obtain the necessary information on all questions affecting the German defense contribution for its Annual Review of Western defense.

The British are still holding up agreement on the grounds that HICOM should be the channel between NATO and the Federal Republic on this question. The British are afraid that the Germans will prejudice any possibility of their receiving support costs from the Federal Republic after the middle of next year if they are permitted to deal more or less directly with NATO through the Interim Commission. The French have supported our position that the EDC Interim Commission can be the only practical channel for such information although HICOM, because it still retains political authority in Germany, should be kept completely informed and could intervene with the German Government whenever it considered it necessary to do so.

Last week the French suddenly decided that NATO should obtain information only about Germany’s financial contribution but should not concern itself about the details of the German contribution in men and production. We have pressed Alphand to change this position, pointing out that NATO accepted responsibilities in this field when German EDC contingents, finance and production became a part of the defense goals agreed at Lisbon by the North Atlantic Council. We stated that the other NATO countries must inevitably insist that this gap in the estimates for all of Western defense be filled to the extent possible and that if this were not done through the Interim Commission it would be done via other channels. Alphand apparently has now succeeded in obtaining the agreement of the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry to accept just the opposite position of providing the maximum amount of information possible.

C. Information on the German Utilization Plan. In a brief conversation we had with Blank, he informed us that the Germans would soon be submitting to the EDC Interim Commission their first estimates on the requirements and costing for German EDC contingents, and as soon as possible on the defense production which could be initiated by EDC in the Federal Republic. I believe, however, that we are all being a little optimistic about how soon this information can be assembled and processed to permit a useful presentation either for the NATO planning inherent in the Annual Review or for U.S. planning for the end-item program.

Throughout his conversation, Blank made continued reference to the “interminable” delays in completing the necessary political arrangement to permit the beginning of German buildup. I hope this attitude will not lead him to make further ill-advised statements which will add to the difficulties of ratification in France.

4. Developments in the EDC Interim Commission.

A. The organization of the Interim Commission has now been virtually completed. An integrated General Secretariat has been established, and the conference committees and their staffs as well as the national delegations have moved into the Palais de Chaillot.

The conference is now organized into a Directing Committee; five major technical committees—Military, Financial, Armament, Status and Juridical; and two ad hoc committees—a mixed military and financial committee to discuss military pay and a mixed military and status committee to discuss discipline and military justice. Most of these committees will have subcommittees working under them; the Status Committee in particular has at least three permanent subcommittees on various subjects. The most highly organized group is the Military Committee, which has under its orders over 100 officers working in seven integrated staff sections, and constituting in effect a nucleus for the future European general staff.

Now that the work of organization has been virtually completed, the Interim Commission will be able to get to work on substantive problems

B. The deployment of European Forces, especially those of German origin, was discussed last week at the Military Committee. SHAPE has promised to supply information to the Conference on its deployment plans. The Chairman of the Committee on behalf of the Committee as a whole insisted that these plans should be made available soon and in detail and that the Interim Commission should have the right to discuss them with SHAPE if any problems arose.

This is a subject of particular importance to the French, as ratification of the EDC Treaty will certainly depend in part on the ability of the French Government to give cast-iron assurances to its Parliament that in no case will German groupements (divisions) be placed together in all-Germany army corps.

C. The European Code of Military Justice has also been the subject of considerable discussion. It is essential that at least the main lines of such a code be worked out and agreed to before the entry into force of the Treaty, so that they may be applied immediately to the German contingents, for which at the moment no such code exists. The French and German delegates in both the Military Committee and the special Military Justice Committee have been insisting on the importance of speed. The Italian and Dutch delegates in particular have tended to drag their feet on this subject—the Italians apparently for constitutional reasons, the Dutch because their military representatives have from the beginning strongly opposed any developments which might detract from total national control over the national contingents. The speed and method of work on this subject will probably have to be settled by the Directing Committee.

1. Transmitted to the Department of State as enclosure 2 to despatch 104 from Paris, July 11.
2. For documentation concerning the U.S. attitude toward the establishment of a European Defense Community, see vol. v, Part 1, pp. 571 ff.