Editorial Note
The final plenary meeting of the London Conference on the Ruhr appears to have been held on the afternoon of December 19. At this meeting, for which no U.S. Delegation minutes were prepared, the conferees approved a Draft Agreement (document RC/21 Final, December 19), and Additional Agreed Minutes suggested by the U.S. Delegation (document RC/23, December 19). Neither RC/21 nor RC/23 [Page 577] is printed. Copies of document RC/21 were carried to Washington personally by Ben Brown of the U.S. Delegation. Copies of the Draft Communiqué and added agreed minutes were transmitted to Washington by telegram. Copies of these documents were also later transmitted to the Department as enclosures to despatch 53, January 12, 1949, from London, not printed (740.00119 Control (Germany)/1–1249). Following the December 19 plenary meeting, members of the various delegations began to depart from London. Meetings, however, continued among the remaining delegation members until December 24 to settle remaining points of difference concerning the Draft Agreement, the Agreed Minutes, and the Communiqué. These meetings included three six-power meetings (on December 20, 21, and 22) and two American-British meetings (on December 22 and 23–24). U.S. Delegation minutes of these meetings are included in CFM Files, Lot M–88, Box 126. Following the departure for the United States on December 22 of Ambassador Douglas and Alternate U.S. Representative Jackson, the United States was represented in the continuing conversations by Chargé Julius Holmes and First Secretary William Trimble. During the final negotiations in London, the American representatives and the Department of State maintained close contact in a series of trans-Atlantic telephone conversations. Copies of more than a score of these conversations covering the December 19–24 period are included in CFM Files, Lot M–88, Box 126, File—Misc Documents. These telephone conversations were at times supplemented by exchanges of telegrams. The final texts of the Draft Agreement on the Ruhr and the Communiqué were transmitted to the Department in telegrams 5371, Ruhrto 66, and 5371, Ruhrto 67, December 26, 1 p. m. from London, respectively, neither printed (740.00119 Control (Germany)/12–2648). The texts of the Communiqué and Draft Agreement as released to the press on December 28 are printed on the following pages together with the revised text of the Agreed Minutes, which was not made public.