Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Germany and Austria, Volume VII, Part 1

662.001/9–252: Telegram

No. 130
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Gifford) to the Department of State¹

secret priority

London, September 2, 1952—10 a.m.

1207. At first meeting yesterday tripartite working group on reply to Soviet note re Germany, both British and French submitted drafts.² French draft, which was obviously hastily done, was by tacit agreement dropped as basis of discussion. Altho it was agreed to work from United States draft³ as being the most comprehensive, British clearly preferred their version of approximately same length as United States. It includes résumé previous exchanges re free elections, and deals more fully and explicitly with new Soviet proposals. General tone less vigorous and plain-spoken than United States draft except for passages dealing with new Soviet proposals. British in particular objected to United States para five as extraneous to argument upholding Western position, as largely propaganda, and, since it is tied to paras three and four referring to charges against Western Powers in first half Soviet note, as giving undue emphasis to such charges, contrary to understanding that they would be dismissed as briefly as possible. British also considered United States note inadequate in treatment of Soviet proposal for Four-power talks.

Drafting group now preparing so-called short draft with minimum reference to Soviet accusation, and longer draft retaining United States para five, for next meeting tripartite group which scheduled for Wednesday morning Sept 3.⁴

Gifford

1. Repeated to Paris, Moscow, Bonn, and Berlin.
2. No copy of the British draft has been found in Department of State files. A copy of the French draft was left at the Department of State on Sept. 3 by an official from the French Embassy and is in file 662A.00/9–452.
3. Transmitted in telegram 1470, supra.
4. At the meeting on Sept. 3 the drafting group was unable to agree upon a text for the reply, but scheduled another meeting for Sept. 5 after which a new draft would be sent to the three capitals for consideration. (Telegram 1249 from London, Sept. 3, 662.001/9–352)