Editorial Note
On June 2, the newly-organized Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State completed its second paper, “Increase of European Coal Production”. In this study the Staff concluded that the deficient production of coal in Britain and in the Ruhr-Aachen fields of Germany constituted a decisive bottleneck in the rehabilitation of the war-shattered European economy. (The problem of European economic rehabilitation was the subject of the first Policy Planning Staff study.) To overcome this and to reduce the dollar exchange drain in Europe caused by the purchase of American coal, the Staff recommended that the Department of State take energetic steps to bring about measures outside the ECO to overcome the deficiency in European coal production. The Policy Planning Staff believed that it was absolutely necessary to obtain British cooperation at the outset.
As a result, there was some discussion in June and July 1947, at the initiative of the Department, between the United States and British Governments as to the possibility of holding conversations in Washington on the problem of European coal production. This discussion led to conversations in August in Washington between the two governments on German production problems in general. For documentation concerning these talks, see volume III, pages 946 ff.