Editorial Note
On August 13 the British suggested that representatives of the three Western Powers should meet in Washington for preliminary discussions on Germany before the Foreign Ministers met. This suggestion was accepted and the preliminary meetings began on September 6 and continued until September 11 with Byroade and Reinstein representing the United States, Allen representing the United Kingdom, and Seydoux and Sauvagnargues representing France. Apparently no [Page 1196] formal United States minutes of the discussions were kept, and the only records of the meetings found in the Department of State files are a handwritten set of notes taken by Reinstein and the summary of the sessions given to the Belgian, Netherlands, and Luxembourg representatives by Byroade on September 11. Reinstein’s notes are in the CFM files, lot M–88, box 158, notes on WFM; regarding Byroade’s summary, see memorandum of conversation, September 11, page 1214.
The preliminary meetings succeeded in narrowing the differences on various issues and eliminating a number of disagreed points from the High Commissioners’ report. The resulting document WFM T–5a, dated September 10, was transmitted to the Foreign Ministers for resolution of the remaining differences. For a copy of the High Commissioners’ report, see page 1501; the text of WFM T–5a is printed infra.
In preparation for the Foreign Ministers meetings the Department of State drafted three sets of papers covering the topics to be discussed with the British, the French, and tripartitely. All documents and their subsequent revisions were drafted in the responsible offices and cleared within the Department of State and by the Department of Defense before being approved for use by the United States Delegation. Some of the documents were approved personally by Secretary Acheson.
The first set of papers, designated WFM B, was prepared for talks with the British and dealt with the following topics: European integration, the Middle East, Egypt, Iran, Kashmir, India, East-West trade and economic assistance to the United Kingdom. The second set of papers designated WFM F, was prepared for discussion with the French and consisted of papers on Indochina, Morocco, and economic assistance to France. The third set of papers was designated WFM T. Prepared for the tripartite talks, these papers considered the following topics: containment of the Soviet Union, Chinese aggression in Asia, NATO and related questions, the European Defense Force, Germany, the Italian Peace Treaty, Austria, Spain, Korea, Eastern Europe, the United Nations and related subjects, the Singapore Conference, Formosa, trade with Czechoslovakia, the Saar, and defense costs sharing.
Sets of these papers and additional materials relating to the Foreign Ministers meetings, including administrative memoranda, minutes, records of decisions, and documents, are in the CFM files, lot M–88, boxes 158–159.