740.00119 Control (Germany)/9–1648
The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Chief of the Division of Central European Affairs (Beam)
Dear Jake: We are concerned over a tendency of the Parliamentary Council at Bonn to expand its activities beyond the terms of its reference.1 The latest development is the resolution regarding the Berlin [Page 422] situation which was passed yesterday,2 The Council is also occupying itself with reparations matters.
Last evening Clay, incensed over the Berlin resolution, was all for some public denunciation on his part of their action. I believe I have dissuaded him, but I am not sure. While I share his feeling, my advice is that he and Robertson call old man Adenauer down here and possibly some of us would also have talks with Reuter and Kaisen, and Schmid, for the purpose of driving home to these gentlemen that they are doing their own cause damage by distorting the use of the Parliamentary Council to purposes for which it is not intended. As you know, there isn’t a great deal that we can teach these people about small-time party politics, and that particular form of indoor sport is developing too rapidly to suit my taste. There is an obvious tendency to play around with the Parliamentary Council for party political purposes, and there is, of course, a great deal of jockeying by individuals for place. A number of them see in the present circumstances a good opportunity to make capital over such issues as reparations and the Berlin situation, and there is a tendency to drag heels on the constitutional work for which the Council is designed.
Yesterday at the meeting we had with the German Bi-Zone officials at Frankfurt I also detected a certain discouragement on their part. Obviously, the impending formation of a West German Government, if it is impending, leaves the present Bi-Zonal group fairly well suspended in the air as far as their own individual futures are concerned. This is reflected in their approach to the job in hand. We had a long dissertation from several of them yesterday and I find a growing tendency on their part also to take for granted the U.S. financial contribution, and to regard what they are now getting as a minimum which is to be expanded on in the years to come. While they went through the form of telling us that they were grateful for the larger ECA allocation of $414,000,000, which as you know was obtained only after a terrific wrangle in Paris where it had been contemplated to give the Bi-Zonal area only $364,000,000 with an unfavorable differential of $90,000,000 on foreign trade account, I do not believe that the Germans realize how difficult it was to get this money. As [Page 423] they become more and more convinced that Western Germany is the key to European recovery I am sure that their demands will increase.
The Germans, of course, also are most eager to get rid of JEIA, and miss no opportunity to criticise that organization. Logan’s people, on the other hand, do freeze the Germans out it seems to me, and there is a lack of coordination. The JEIA people know that the Germans don’t like JEIA and, of course, some of the people in JEIA would like to keep those particular jobs.
Sincerely yours,
- After holding its opening session on September 1 (see telegram 2213, September 1, from Berlin, supra), the Parliamentary Council held further plenary sessions on September 8, 9, and 15. For excerpts from some of the speeches delivered at the September 8 and 9 sessions, see Documents on the Creation of a German Federal Constitution, pp. 77–86. Ten Committees concerned with the consideration of individual constitutional questions began meeting on September 15.↩
- In special session on September 15, the Parliamentary Council passed a resolution condemning, in the name of all West German political parties except the Communists, the repressive conduct of Soviet authorities in East Germany in connection with recent Berlin anti-Communist demonstrations. For the text of the declaration, see Documents on the Creation of a German Federal Constitution, p. 87. According to a draft telegram prepared by Ambassador Murphy but never sent, American and British authorities advised against the declaration as a matter extraneous to the Parliamentary Council’s prime function and because of the possibility that the Council’s final document could be attacked as being biased. General Clay considered issuing a strong press statement condemning the Council’s action, but was dissuaded by Ambassador Murphy. (740.00119 Control (Germany)/9–1848)↩