840.6362/5–2147: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Douglas) to the Secretary of State

secret
urgent

2848. From Douglas. Yesterday Makins Foreign Office called on me and discussed French proposal relative the Saar and the UK application to ECO for coal. He informed me that the Foreign Office was considering replying to Quai d’Orsay in substance as follows (Deptel 2184 May 20):

1.
A recitation of the British understanding of the French proposal.
2.
That the statistical basis had not yet been established.
3.
That if the Foreign Office clearly understood the French proposal they saw no objection in principle and would be glad to consider the proposal provided the US Government agreed.
4.
That they could not, however, further discuss the matter until two questions had been determined: (a) The Saar frontiers and (b) the reparations value of the Saar.

I then informed Makins that the questions of the UK allocation for coal and the proposal relative the Saar were two separate and distinct ones and had no relation to each other. Also informed him that the question of the Saar was one which could be settled only on intergovernmental basis.

This morning Makins informs me that the cable referred to herein from the Foreign Office to the Quai d’Orsay had been sent and that prior to sending it the French had informed the Foreign Office that France would oppose a UK application for an allocation on the basis of US availabilities of 2,600,000 tons a month. Makins said, however, that if the US availabilities rose above 3,000,000 the French opposition might be much weaker and certainly would be argued on less firm grounds.

I repeated to Makins what I told him yesterday, that the question of the Saar and of the UK application were two separate issues and should not be confused and secondly that the question of the Saar could be settled only on an intergovernmental level. He understood our position clearly and replied that the effect of the cable that had been sent to the Quai d’Orsay was to divorce the question of the Saar from the question of the UK application for coal and that he understood thoroughly that the Saar problem could be resolved on the intergovernmental level.

Douglas