No. 694
Editorial Note
On June 12 the Laniel government was defeated in a vote on Indochina. Five days later Pierre Mendès-France formed a new government devoted to solving three questions: 1) Indochina, 2) Tunisia, [Page 1543] and 3) the EDC. Thus the question of the Saar became a secondary issue for the French and no further progress was made toward settlement. On August 30 the French National Assembly voted to discontinue debate on the EDC, a step which meant that the whole settlement signed May 26 and 27, 1952, at Bonn and Paris would not come into existence. The negotiations that followed during the Nine- and Four-Power Conferences at London and Paris during the end of September and October provided for the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into Europe and for an end to the occupation regime. Among the series of agreements signed at Paris on October 23, 1954, was a Franco-German accord on the Saar and a set of accompanying letters between Chancellor Adenauer and Prime Minister Mendès-France, which called for the Europeanization of the Saar along the lines of the Teitgen–Adenauer agreement reached at Strasbourg and a referendum on a Saar Statute to be held in 1955. For text of the agreement, see Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the French Republic on the Saar Statute, Paris, October 23, 1954, London, 1954, Cmd. 9306, Misc. No. 33, or Documents (R.I.I.A.) for 1954, pages 116–118. The German texts of the agreement and the letters were transmitted as an enclosure to despatch 910 from Bonn, October 27. (762.022/10–2754) For documentation on the discussion of the Saar during the meetings at London and Paris and on the differing interpretations of the agreement that followed signature, see volume V, Part 2, pages 1294 ff.