740.5/2–2652: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Office of the United States High Commissioner for Germany, at Bonn 1
niact
23. Following is draft quadripartite press communiqué to be issued simultaneously in Lisbon and Bonn:
[Page 262]The negotiations between the United States, the United Kingdom and the French Republic on the one hand and the German Federal Republic on the other, regarding the amount of the Federal Republic’s financial contribution to defense in 1952/53, have now resulted in agreement.
The Federal Government has declared that it will base its defense contribution in the NATO year 1952/53 on the figure recommended by the members of the Executive Bureau of the TCC. This means that, in addition to those expenditures for defense purposes in the regular public budget of the Federal Republic, there will be an average monthly defense contribution of 850 million deutschmarks following establishment of the European Defense Community. It is proposed that the amounts of future total German defense contributions will, of course, be established under the same principles as apply to all participating countries.
In the meantime, the three powers will exercise their best effort to maintain at the lowest possible figure their occupation costs for the period prior to the coming into effect of the treaty establishing the European Defense Community.