740.00119 Control (Germany)/9–2345: Telegram
The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9 p.m.]
597. The ninth meeting of the Coordinating Committee was held Sept. 22 with General Robertson presiding.
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The British proposal to set up a central German statistical agency to serve the control authority and such central administrations as are created, was approved in principle and sent to the Economics Directorate for study and recommendation. General Koeltz stressed the [Page 872] danger of such an organization as a possible means of mobilizing and asked that it be strictly controlled, and that a military adviser be attached.
As to the Transport Directorate’s plan for a central transport department,10 as provided under the Potsdam Agreement, the French delegation expressed dissent as follows: (a) general objection to central administration of transport; (b) objection to central administration of railways in particular as a crucial war potential; (c) if such an organization be created, it should have no directing authority; (d) French position had been expressed through diplomatic channels, and General Koeltz and not [had no?] authority to change it, however, he hoped General Koenig11 might have new instructions by the time of the next Council meeting on October 1. General Sokolovsky stated that this had all been thoroughly studied at Potsdam and did not need more consideration. General Clay made a strong reply to General Koeltz to effect that if Control Commission can not establish central machinery, it cannot govern Germany and had better consider itself as merely a means of negotiations.12 The Potsdam decision is already two months old and should be acted upon, and, lacking unanimous consent matter would be handled on basis of interzonal agreements. Accordingly, it was decided that the question of policy would be presented to the Council in a short document,13 stating the French position. Meanwhile the Transport Directorate will be requested to go ahead with the work, draw plans, choose personnel, provide space, etc. so as to avoid further waste of time.
On the related question of the IA and C13a Directorate’s plan for a central organ of communications and posts, the French reservation was less strong. General Koeltz asked that matter be sent to Council, saying that France does not consider this, as compared to railways, a war potential question. He hoped that agreement would be reached in the Council. The Directorate’s plan will be sent to the Council with a request for its authority to proceed with its execution.
As to the British proposal that free circulation be permitted between all the four zones of Germany to nationals of the four powers, General Robertson explained that this meant that normal restrictions [Page 873] would be applied, such as requiring legitimate business reasons, orders, etc. General Clay said he favored the ending of all restrictions and would permit vacation travel in all zones. He wanted the same freedom given to German officials of the proposed central administrations and to Germans with inter-zonal business. General Sokolovsky repeated the Soviet position that this proposal is premature. Accordingly, the matter was postponed to a somewhat later date, but General Clay’s principle that German officials must travel was accepted and the US will submit a separate paper on this.
The British proposal that each power submit for the information of the other three powers information regarding any German zonal administrations or agencies which they may have set up and which may be of value in setting up central administrations, was approved without discussion.
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- Infra.↩
- Lt. Gen. Marie-Pierre Koenig, Commander in Chief French Forces of Occupation in Germany.↩
- Cf. Lucius D. Clay, Decision in Germany (Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday and Co., 1950), pp. 109–110.↩
- The official minutes of this meeting (CORC/M(45)9), transmitted to the Department as enclosure No. 14 to despatch 1013, October 2, from Berlin, record also that General Clay “recommended that a majority report embodying the opinion of the British, U.S., and Soviet members of the Committee be submitted to the Control Council and that the French member should submit a minority report if he so desired.” (740.00119 Control (Germany)/10–245) The paper finally submitted to the Control Council on October 1 is printed on p. 841.↩
- Internal Affairs and Communications.↩