Editorial Note
In telegram 949 to Paris, August 13, Acting Secretary Webb inquired about the current status of the Ruhr Conference and negotiations between the British and Germans over the scrap issue. He also asked if the French had renewed their efforts to get the British to withdraw their reservations about signing. In telegram 1262 from Paris, August 28, Ambassador Bruce replied that the French Foreign Ministry had instructed Ambassador Massigli in the United Kingdom to approach the British Foreign Office concerning signature of the Ruhr Conference documents. Massigli was to call British attention to the fact that all other delegates had now received full powers to sign, that the British Delegate had expressed no disagreement to the substance of the documents, and that the British reservation concerning German scrap shipments was unrelated to the Ruhr Authority issue and did not constitute a valid reason to postpone signature. On August 29, in telegram 1229, Acheson informed the Embassy in the United Kingdom that the Department of State agreed with Bruce that it was very important that the British Delegate to the Ruhr Conference be authorized to sign the agreed documents as soon as possible. Minister Holmes in London replied the following day in telegram 1156 that he had raised the point made in telegram 1229 with members of the Foreign Office who replied that, while their government was fully agreed on the need for prompt action on both the scrap and Ruhr Conference matters, the United Kingdom was bound by a ministerial decision that the scrap agreement with Germany must be reached before the Ruhr documents could be signed.
On September 11, Chargé Bonsal informed Acheson in telegram 1559 that the Embassy in France had been holding discussions with [Page 136] both British Embassy and French Foreign Ministry officials concerning a definitive English text of the agreement terminating the Ruhr agreement as well as other documents agreed to at the Ruhr Conference and that agreement had now been reached. The texts were sent to the Department of State in telegrams 1560 and 1561 of the same date and were agreed to by Acheson in priority telegram 1539 to Paris, September 12. Bonsal had added in telegram 1559 that the only substantive change lay in the desire of both the British and French to keep the documents confidential and to issue a communiqué at the time of signing describing their contents in broad terms. On September 20, in telegram 1450, Holmes in London reported that Foreign Office officials had informed him that the United Kingdom had withdrawn its reservations concerning termination of the Ruhr Authority and was issuing appropriate instructions to its Embassy in France to sign the protocol and related documents.
Another month elapsed, however, before the documents were signed, due largely to a sudden shift in British thinking toward full publication of the documents, while the French clung to an earlier Anglo-French agreement simply to issue a brief communiqué. (Telegrams 1942 and 2203 from Paris, September 30 and October 16, respectively) In telegram 2261, October 18, Bonsal reported from Paris that the French and British had reached a compromise in which the documents would not be released but would be summarized in a more detailed communiqué than the French had at first been willing to accept. Bonsal added that the French had suggested October 19 as the day of signature in order to permit Adenauer to announce fulfillment of the Schuman–Adenauer letter of April 18 on the dissolution of the Ruhr Authority before the CDU Congress scheduled to meet on that day. Bonsal urged the Department to “seize this opportunity to get documents signed” and stated that unless otherwise directed, Bruce would agree to sign the documents on the morning of October 19. All telegrams cited here are in Department of State file 862.19 Ruhr with the exception of telegram 1561 from Paris, September 11, a copy of which is in Bonn Mission files, lot 311, D(51)1360.
The “Communiqué and Agreements Relating to the Termination of the International Authority for the Ruhr,” signed at Paris on October 19, is printed in Ninth Quarterly Report on Germany (October 1–December 31, 1951), pages 101–109, issued by the Office of the United States High Commissioner for Germany. Copies of the documents signed at Paris on October 19 relating to the termination of the IAR are enclosures to a memorandum by Alexander R. Forest, Policy Reports Secretary in the Office of the United States High [Page 137] Commissioner for Germany, December 21, CFM files, lot M–88, box 136, IAR Termination.