No. 53
Editorial Note

On March 22, Monnet handed Ambassador Bruce a memorandum requesting an unspecified amount of United States financial aid to the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community in order that that agency could begin functioning effectively at an early date. Monnet pointed out that eventually the High Authority would be self-supporting. It would derive funds from levies upon coal and steel production, it could borrow on the financial markets of the member states, and it would obtain revenue from the increased coal and steel production of the member states. At the moment of the High Authority’s inception, however, the United States, despite the heavy burden on its resources as a result of the rearmament program, was the only available source of capital in the quantities necessary to ensure the early success of the Schuman Plan. For the High Authority to obtain substantial assistance from the United States during its first months of operation would not only make a marked contribution to the efficiency of its operations, Monnet continued, but would also ensure it the highest degree of prestige and influence which it would require to carry out its mission. Monnet concluded with the observation that there was no question that an increase in European steel production, as promised by an early and efficient functioning of the Schuman Plan, would represent a major contribution to the entire Western rearmament program. (850.33/3–2251)

On March 26, in anticipation that French Foreign Minister Schuman might raise this subject during his visit to Washington with President Auriol, Raymond Vernon of the Commercial Policy Staff drafted a memorandum to be circulated to ITP, EUR, RA, and GER in which he recommended that Schuman be told “that the United [Page 108] States would give the most sympathetic consideration to any specific proposal for financial aid to the High Authority. A more precise reaction, however, would have to wait upon a specific proposal.” Vernon also suggested that Schuman be told that the ECA did have some funds in the current appropriation and would probably have funds in the next year’s appropriation which could be used to aid the High Authority should it become necessary. In a covering memorandum to Miriam Camp of RA, Vernon stated that his paper “is consistent with line ECA will take.” (850.33/3–2651)

The Schuman Plan was discussed only briefly and in very general terms during the single meeting between Presidents Truman and Auriol and their respective delegations on March 29. For the United States minutes of that meeting, see Document 158. On April 2, Ambassador Bruce, who had accompanied the French party to Washington, reported to Chargé Bohlen in Paris in telegram 5177 that in talking with ECA Director William Foster, “He said it was all right to tell Monnet that ECA wld study any concrete plan suggested this purpose with most sympathetic interest and wld give early reply”. (850.33/4–251) In a memorandum of April 5 to Bohlen, Stanley M. Cleveland, Second Secretary of the Embassy in France, reported that he had given the substance of telegram 5177 to Monnet who expressed pleasure and a desire to talk further with Bohlen on the matter. (Paris Embassy files, lot 58F53, 500 Coal & Steel Pool)