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

740.5/8–2552

No. 91
Memorandum by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Bonbright) to the Under Secretary of State (Bruce)¹

confidential

Washington, August 25, 1952.

Mr. Tomlinson telephoned this morning from Paris with regard to our Topol 111 August 22.² He said that he had been holding up a reply to this owing to Mr. Draper’s absence but that he wanted us to know that he had already talked to M. Monnet regarding our plans for representation to the Schuman Plan High Authority. The talk took place a week ago when Tomlinson was in Luxembourg. He said that he had informed Monnet that we contemplated the following arrangements which he understood were fully in line with decisions reached in Washington as set forth in Topol 88 August 15.³ (This was the message which was worked out when Mr. Merchant was here.)

(1) Our representation to the High Authority will be under the direction of Mr. Draper.

(2) We plan to have a permanent delegation in Luxembourg, or wherever the seat of the High Authority is finally fixed.

(3) We plan to keep our delegation very small at the outset. Later we will appoint a permanent head of the delegation and such additional assistants as experience dictates.

(4) Meanwhile, Tomlinson is our acting representative and will call on Mr. Draper’s staff for such assistance as he needs.

Tomlinson stated that the High Authority was very satisfied with this explanation. On Wednesday or Thursday of this week Monnet plans to meet with Draper in Paris in order to reach a “definite agreement” on these arrangements (it is not entirely clear to me what kind of an agreement is required). Tomlinson indicated further that at that time they considered it important to issue a press communiqué. In this connection he said that there had been considerable publicity on the subject of Monnet’s conversations with the British (which Monnet indicated were highly satisfactory) and there is a certain amount of speculation regarding what the US will do. Some of this speculation has been drawing unfortunate comparisons between what we and the British plan to do, the implication being that the US regards its representation to the High Authority as only a part-time job. Actually our setup, once we appoint a permanent head of delegation, will be almost identical to that of the UK. Tomlinson feels that unless we get out a press release setting the record straight, the US public and members of Congress may get the idea that we are lukewarm towards the Schuman plan and thereby increase the pressure on us to appoint someone of Ambassadorial rank before we are ready for such a step.

In conclusion, Tomlinson said that they would try to get off a message to us tomorrow, when Draper is due back in Paris and will also send us a draft of a proposed release for our comment.

1. Copies were also sent to Parsons, Knight, and Pollack.
2. Not printed; it requested information concerning the scheduling of talks with Monnet. (740.5/8–2052)
3. Document 85.