862.5018/4–1146: Telegram
The Director of the Office of Military Government of the United States for Germany (Clay) to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Agriculture (Anderson)
urgent
CC 2931. Action to Sec State Wash DC for Byrnes and Anderson from Fitzgerald84 Political Affairs Div OMGUS from Clay sgd McNarney.85
Satisfied that it is of paramount importance to implement Potsdam Agreement regarding establishment of German Central Administrative Agencies for Finance, Transportation, Communication, Foreign Trade, and Industry. French have heretofore refused to concur. Recommend French be informed that unless they prepare to concur immediately in establishment such centralized administrative agencies, all shipments of wheat to French zone of Germany will be discontinued, and furthermore shipments wheat to France will also be discontinued if French still unwilling to agree.86
- Dennis A. Fitzgerald, U.S. Department of Agriculture.↩
- Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, Military Governor, U.S. Zone of Occupation in Germany; Commanding General, United States Forces, European Theater; U.S. member, Allied Control Council for Germany.↩
In regard to this telegram, Acting Secretary Acheson in a letter to Secretary of War Patterson dated April 24 stated his belief that it would be unwise to exert such direct pressure on the French Government in view of the fact that Germany was to be discussed at the Second Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers beginning on April 25 (862.5018/4–2446). For documentation on the meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers, see volume ii.
Previously, in a memorandum of April 17 to Assistant Secretary of War Peterson, H. Freeman Matthews, Director of the Office of European Affairs, had made the following comments relating to U.S. concern over French reluctance to see German central agencies established:
“Further pressure will be brought to bear on the French Government in the course of the present economic and financial negotiations. The French representatives will be informed that in connection with these negotiations, our attitude on economic assistance will be influenced by the French position on central agencies. In addition to the pressure we have been bringing on the French, as recapitulated above, the responsible officers of the Department continue in their day-to-day contacts with the French Embassy to impress upon the French authorities the grave concern which we feel in the continued delay in the establishment of central agencies. For example, it was made plain to the French Ambassador that the French request for additional grain for their zone in Germany and for more coal for France in the allocation of German coal were intimately linked with the problem of central German agencies and that the French intransigence had led to some of the very shortages of which they were complaining.” (740.00119 Control (Germany)/4–1746)
↩