740.00119 Control (Germany)/11–345: Telegram
Mr. Donald R. Heath, Counselor of Mission, Office of the United States Political Adviser for Germany, to the Secretary of State
[Received November 3—10:47 a.m.]
169. Personal for Ambassador Murphy.41 Memo has been received from General Bedell Smith42 that proposal for the cession of all of Baden to the French and all of Wurttemberg to the US is not favorably considered by USFET (United States Forces European Theater) from a military point of view. Memo points out that main rail, road and inland waterway links are centered in Karlsruhe, Mannheim and Heidelberg and that even if transit rights were negotiated with the French, administrative problems would militate against operating efficiency. At present principal US supply and maintenance installations are concentrated in northern Baden. US forces have gone to great expense to reconstruct port facilities, bridges and warehouses. [Page 998] A French peninsula in the US zone would hamper emergency operations if needed. Release of northern Baden would reduce limited industrial capacity of US zone to the point where latter would be merely an agricultural area. Memo concludes that since French have refused agreement to establishment at Berlin of central German agencies, US attempts to obtain quadripartite agreement would be weakened by conceding such additional territory to the French at this time and that it is untimely to indicate to the Germans that we propose to relinquish any part of present US zone.
- Mr. Murphy and General Clay were in Washington November 1–9 for discussions with the State and War Departments on matters relating to Military Government and Control Council policy in Germany. No record of these discussions has been found in Department files.↩
- Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, Chief of Staff, United States Forces, European Theater.↩