740.00119 Council/6–1048: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

us urgent

3076. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly last night disapproved by 24 to 13 a motion submitted by M. de Chambrun (Communist) rejecting the London recommendations on Germany outright, and rejected also a second motion proposed by several Gaullist deputies denouncing the recommendations on Ruhr control and demilitarization and calling for the postponement of the creation of a western Germany until a peace conference, to be called immediately, should have attempted to agree on the text of treaties with Germany and Austria. The committee finally approved, by the narrow margin of one vote (21 to 20) a motion approving the submission of the London recommendations to the consideration of the National Assembly. 11 MRP, 7 Socialist, 2 Radical, and one Independent voted for this motion, while 13 Communists and 7 PRL and Gaullist-Independent voted against. There were two Radical-Socialist abstentions (Bonnefous, chairman of Foreign Affairs Commission and Paul Bastid).

The text of the motion follows: “The Foreign Affairs Committee, after having heard the statement of M. Georges Bidault on the recommendations resulting from the conversations at London on the subject of Germany:

I.
Notes that these conversations originated in proposals of the Allied powers which together with France occupy the three western zones of Germany and which the Govt of France has legitimately desired to discuss.
II.
Notes that in connection with certain important points, the London recommendations arrived at after negotiations correspond only to [Page 326] a certain extent with the views and requests constantly supported by France in the interests of her own security which coincides with that of world peace.
III.
Recognizes the efforts made by French diplomacy, not without result, to bring the Anglo-American projects closer to the French theses.
IV.
Considers that these (London) recommendations may be taken into consideration in such a manner that in the ensuing negotiations and in the placing in effect of the subsequent decisions:
(a)
all risk of the reconstitution of a unitary and centralized Reich shall be avoided by a political organization of Germany in conformity with federalist principles.
(b)
the effective participation of France in the control of the German industrial potential shall be assured with a view to bringing about in particular an international management of the industries of the Ruhr.
(c)
that the French demands for security, indispensable to the maintenance of peace, shall likewise be satisfied.
V.
Invites the Govt to express its reservations and to oppose its veto to anything which might run counter to these principles, and records the assurances given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in this regard.
VI.
Declares itself, under these conditions, in favor of the consideration by the National Assembly of the recommendations which will be submitted to it.”1

Repeated to London 514, Berlin 308.

Caffery
  1. For the French text of the resolution quoted here, see Carlyle, Documents on International Affairs, p. 566.