Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, Germany and Austria, Volume II

CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 121: File—Occupation Statute, Cables: Telegram

The United States Military Governor for Germany (Clay) to the Department of the Army

[Extract]

secret

[Berlin,] December 18, 1948.

CC–7108. To Dept of Army for CSCAD from CINCEUR signed Clay. The 6th meeting of the French, US, and UK Military Governors took place in Frankfurt on 16 Dec 1948.¹ It was a long 9 hour meeting interrupted in the middle by a conference with representatives from the Parliamentary Assembly concerning which I will advise you by separate cable.² The formal agenda was as follows:

1. Draft Occupation Statute

“In discussion of the current draft at this meeting it was very apparent that instead of it being possible for us to reduce our minor disagreements it seemed that we were introducing new points of interpretation upon which we did not completely agree. We therefore ceased discussion of the Occupation Statute and agreed to refer it to our governments in its present form for resolution of the outstanding differences. However, we did agree on a formal report to our governments delineating the outstanding disagreements and asking for a reconciliation of these disagreements.” This document has been cabled separately.³ The present draft Occupation Statute is being dispatched to you by courier.⁴

[The remainder of this message reported on the discussion of the trade agreement between France and Western Germany, the Military Security Board, the Ruhr, prohibited and limited industries, and civil aviation in Western Germany. For portions of this message dealing with the Ruhr, see page 572. For Ambassador Murphy’s notes of the portion of this meeting devoted to the Military Security Board, see page 667. For documentation regarding the question of limited and prohibited industries, see pages 668 ff.]

[ Clay ]

1. The American Delegation minutes of this two-part meeting, documents TRIB/USDel/M(48) 2 and 3, December 22 and December 16, respectively, are included in the CFM Files, Lot M–88, Box 121, File—Occupation Statute.
2. The cable under reference is not printed, but see Minutes of the meeting between the Military Governors and the Parliamentary Council Delegation, infra.
3. General Clay’s cable (7107) is not printed; the Report of the Military Governors is printed, p. 650.
4. The Draft Joint Text of the Occupation Statute (Appendix “B” to TRIB/P(48)14/1–TOS/P(48)1/6) is printed, p. 653.