Editorial Note
On August 29, Chancellor Adenauer sent to the Allied High Commission a memorandum concerning the reshaping of the relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and the occupying powers, with the request that it be submitted to the Western Foreign Ministers at their meeting in September. Since the situation had changed to a large extent since the negotiation of the Occupation Statute in April 1949, the Federal Government requested the Foreign Ministers to issue a declaration stating that the state of war would be terminated, that future occupation would be for protection against external dangers, and that relations between the Federal Republic and the occupying powers would be progressively replaced by contractual agreements. In order to reshape the existing legal state of affairs, the Chancellor proposed the creation of a commission composed of Allied and German experts to review the situation. For the full text of the memorandum, see Konrad Adenauer, Memoirs, 1945–1953 (Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, 1966), pages 280–281. A copy of the memorandum designated IGG(50)120, is in file 762A.0221/9–250.