Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Germany and Austria, Volume VII, Part 2

762.022/9–2453: Telegram

No. 647
The Ambassador in France (Dillon) to the Department of State¹

top secret

Paris, September 24, 1953—8 p.m.

1229. Department limit distribution. In course of interview with Bidault this afternoon during which he gave me copy of French reply to Adenauer letter of 25 June (see Embtel 1228²), he fully outlined his thoughts on Saar.

He feels certain that there must be a debate in French Parliament very promptly on European policy. He has not yet made up his mind as to whether he should meet Adenauer before or after this debate. In any event, he feels he must have meeting with Adenauer before the EPC meeting at The Hague scheduled for October 22. If necessary, The Hague meeting should be put off for a week or ten days to allow him to complete negotiations with Adenauer. These negotiations will cover EPC as well as Saar. Bidault feels whole future of Europe rides on these negotiations and hopes that we will back him up with Adenauer. Key question is customs and monetary union talk that, he says, he must have, and if he gets this he thinks other economic problems will be easy to settle and may even be put off for later settlement. He, of course, assumes Europeanization as the political status of the Saar. He spoke highly of Adenauer and in particular of Adenauer’s sincere wish for Franco-German rapprochement. His only fear is that Adenauer may feel forced to ask too much because of pressure from the right side of his coalition.

Bidault told me his information from Blankenhorn was that Adenauer would not be ready to talk on Saar until his new government was fully formed and operating, i.e., about October 15. This confirms information in Bonn 991 to Department.³

Bidault does not share Laniel’s views on necessity of waiting for Presidential election to ratify EDC in French Parliament. If he gets a Saar settlement and a reasonable agreement at The Hague, he feels that ratification talks could well take place during November. Regarding EPC, Bidault feels that URAS Ministers and Teitgen are both wrong, and he favors a moderate position midway between both views. He was particularly irritated at Teitgen. He said Teitgen had given the text of the instructions of the French delegation at Rome to the Germans and to the Italians.

Dillon

1. Repeated to Bonn eyes only for Conant, and to London eyes only for Aldrich.
2. Telegram 1228 reported that Bidault had handed Dillon a copy of the French reply to Adenauer’s letter of June 25. Dillon commented that “while the final draft covers all the points raised in the original draft, the tone of the document is entirely different” and seemed to be a substantial improvement over the original. (762.022/9–2453) The French text of the note was subsequently transmitted as an enclosure to despatch 874 from Paris, Sept. 25. (762.022/9–2453)
3. Document 642.